Sights & Sounds
- It's hard to find a good place to start when every aspect of the presentation is so good
- The style of the both characters and environments is fantastic. I particularly like the villains
- The music is so good. Almost every song is a banger
Story & Vibes
- The story is your basic "save the princess" archetype, but it's effective here because of all the level design. Going through the diverse towns and environments with NPCs directing you and cheering you on gives you a sense of progression
- With all the humor and bright colors, the game is very inviting. Those aspects make you want to keep playing it, if that makes sense
- The humor deserves special attention. There's some clever writing in here (i.e., Fray Ayayay)
- All of these factors contribute to what feels like a cohesive, well-crafted world to play around in
Playability & Replayability
- The attention paid to the other aspects of the game should clue you in to how good the gameplay is. It's outstanding
- This is much better on a controller. I found myself naturally fighting with the d-pad and platforming with the analog stick
- The fighting mechanics are quite good. By the time you pick up all the skills and abilities, fighting feels like you're playing Smash Brothers with additional platforming options
- Being a 2D platformer in the Metroid vein, a lot of those skills you pick will also help you solve platforming challenges and reach previously inaccessible areas
- Some of those puzzles are really quite challenging, and fit in well with the excellent level design
- I absolutely want to pick this one back up for a 100% run someday. It's all good enough to reexperience
Overall Impressions & Performance
- This game is just pure fun. I had such a great time playing it
- Everything ran beautifully and bug-free
Final Verdict
- 10/10. In the 2D platforming genre (including so-called "metroidvanias"), this stands at the top with games like Super Mario Bros. It's a masterpiece. I'd recommend it without reservation
- It's hard to find a good place to start when every aspect of the presentation is so good
- The style of the both characters and environments is fantastic. I particularly like the villains
- The music is so good. Almost every song is a banger
Story & Vibes
- The story is your basic "save the princess" archetype, but it's effective here because of all the level design. Going through the diverse towns and environments with NPCs directing you and cheering you on gives you a sense of progression
- With all the humor and bright colors, the game is very inviting. Those aspects make you want to keep playing it, if that makes sense
- The humor deserves special attention. There's some clever writing in here (i.e., Fray Ayayay)
- All of these factors contribute to what feels like a cohesive, well-crafted world to play around in
Playability & Replayability
- The attention paid to the other aspects of the game should clue you in to how good the gameplay is. It's outstanding
- This is much better on a controller. I found myself naturally fighting with the d-pad and platforming with the analog stick
- The fighting mechanics are quite good. By the time you pick up all the skills and abilities, fighting feels like you're playing Smash Brothers with additional platforming options
- Being a 2D platformer in the Metroid vein, a lot of those skills you pick will also help you solve platforming challenges and reach previously inaccessible areas
- Some of those puzzles are really quite challenging, and fit in well with the excellent level design
- I absolutely want to pick this one back up for a 100% run someday. It's all good enough to reexperience
Overall Impressions & Performance
- This game is just pure fun. I had such a great time playing it
- Everything ran beautifully and bug-free
Final Verdict
- 10/10. In the 2D platforming genre (including so-called "metroidvanias"), this stands at the top with games like Super Mario Bros. It's a masterpiece. I'd recommend it without reservation
3 Comments
@DoubleGunz_on_YT: Absolutely! It's just such a confluence of positive qualities. I loved the visual design, soundtrack, and just overall joyful vibe of the game. The movement feels exceptional, and I remember almost feeling giddy with the free flow between combat and platforming. I know "game feel" is a fuzzy descriptor, but there's very few platformers I've touched that come close to how good Guacamelee feels to play
@duhnuhnuh It's wild that you wrote "game feel" in quotations there. I am actually in the middle of filming a video I just wrote that's called "Why I love video games". In the script I wrote out "game feel" exactly the same way LOL cause it's the number one thing I care about but it's so difficult to describe. Guacamelee nails it, you're right. Few games are able to execute on both fighting and traversal equally as well.
DoubleGunz_on_YT
29 days ago
This game never gets the praise it deserves. Guac 2 as well.
Love it.