The return of the luchador with a whole new set of bad guys!
It's been seven years since the fall of Carlos Calaca by the hands of Juan Aguacate, a retired farmer turned luchador. Now Juan is living the family life married to El Presidente's daughter, who was thought to be dead when rescued from Calaca, with children of his own. Everything in the Mexiverse has been peaceful.
But wait, what have we here? A band of skeletons have shown up to let people know there is a new threat in town. Apparently this new guy named Salvador has arrived from an alternate reality and threatens the very fabric of space and time of the Mexiverse. Our hero Juan is the only one who can stop him, so he must come out of retirement in order to save the world.
Simply put, Gaucamelee 2 is a side scrolling platformer and beat 'em up metroidvania with a heavy Mexican theme. With its unique style and addictive gameplay, the experience is very fulfilling. You will find yourself gripping your controller hard, but laughing and enjoying the ride.
Guacamelee 2 Release Date
The release of this sequel was announced last year at the Playstation Paris Games Week Conference and since has become highly anticipated by fans of the first game. In July of 2018 it was announced officially that Guacamelee 2 would be released on PC and PS4 on August 21, 2018.
Guacamelee 2 Gameplay
Guacamelee 2 is a metroidvania style beat ‘em up game that has plenty of side scrolling platforming along side its wrestling influenced combat system. Controls are easy to learn and very responsive.
Players will jump around and attack with simple punches until the enemy is weakened until they can be grabbed and thrown using various wrestling style moves. After grabbing them you can perform slams and throws, depending on the direction you are aiming. When throwing, you can damage other enemies in the path of the poor sucker you just sent flying. Crowd control never felt so good! Dodging is also necessary as it prevents damage from enemies as well as allowing passage through many obstacles when jumping from place to place.
Along side the basics Jaun has special unlockable abilities that allow him to get to hard to reach places as well as damage his foes. One of the new, very important features is the “Eagle Hook”, which allows you to grab little glowing eagle shaped objects placed throughout the game and slingshot yourself in different directions. Skills are unlocked by breaking stone statues and meeting NPCs, while other abilities are purchased through a skill tree when you’ve collected enough money from beating the pants off every undead you come across. If you combine different attacks together, you can chain them into combos.
The skill tree allows you to control how you make Juan stronger.
Another staple mechanic brought back from the original is the ability to switch between the world of the living and the dead. This presents a lot more platforming challenges as there are certain platforms and enemies that can only be reached by being in it’s respective world. Sometimes you’ll be fighting a room full of skeletons and you’ll have to switch back and forth between dimensions to beat everything that’s attacking you. Other situations will have you combining all of the skills you’ve gained with dimension swapping to get past otherwise impassable gaps and unreachable heights.
In case all of that wasn’t enough, there is also the return of the chicken! Unlike the first Guacamelee where turning into a chicken was mainly used to get into small places, now players have many more abilities while in the form of our favorite feathered friend. Now you can attack as the chicken and get special “chicken only” abilities to open up secret areas and damage enemies just like Juan. You can even grab a feather and transform into a giant rooster that’s able to clear an entire room full of baddies quickly.
When the screen reads “LUCHA”, you know it’s time for a brawl!
Multiplayer hasn’t changed since the first game. There is still no online multiplayer, but up to three more friends are able to drop in and out on the fly just by pressing a button on other connected controllers. As great as it is playing with others, it provides its own set of complications as sometimes it’s easy to lose track of what’s going on when there’s a lot of fighting on the screen. Other times all players have to coordinate perfectly to get past areas that require dimension swapping.
The good news is that if you’re playing co-op, if one player bites the dust, there is a timer that counts down until they revive again as long as there is still one player alive. This way it doesn’t drag down the rest of the party if someone makes a mistake. It also has the potential to make certain areas easier to deal with if the fight is difficult.
Juan (left) vs. Calaca (right). Juan doesn’t look intimidated… like… at all.
Guacamelee 2 Trailers
Guacamelee 2 platforming gameplay is only rivaled by its sense of humor and terrific use of Mexican theme.
A graphical upgrade with a load of new features shows off improvements over the original game in many ways. The world is more detailed, the players have more abilities and the enemies are diverse and plentiful.
Guacamelee 2 Developer
After 2013’s huge success that was Guacamelee, Drinkbox Studios went on to other projects and released Severed, another successful game that was focused more on mobile touch screen game platforms like the Playstation Vita, Nintendo 3DS and iOS, WiiU and later the Nintendo Switch. It was during the time that Severed was finishing development when ideas for a new Guacamelee game came together.
According to Drinkbox producer Graham Smith, when they decided to begin designing Guacamelee 2, they looked back at the original and made decisions on what could be improved. It was during this design phase that they decided to make the chicken have many of Juan’s attack moves. I don’t know about you, but when I played the first Guacamelee, I know I was wishing the chicken did more. Who doesn’t love a bad ass chicken?
The original Guacamelee didn’t have too many complaints. Some players found parts of it difficult, while others wished it was longer. Drinkbox heard their fans loud and clear. While the sequel is noted to be hard at times, the hardest parts of the game are claimed to be optional areas so more casual players don’t feel pressured into the challenge. As far as the game’s length, according to Drinkbox, the original game was claimed to be about 6 hours long while the sequel is supposedly around 10 hours. Your mileage may vary.
Drinkbox Studios currently has 16 employees. The company has certainly done well since their founding in 2008. They might not have a AAA budget, but their projects are labors of love and the quality shows.
Guacamelee 2 News
It was certainly nice of Drinkbox Studios to let us have the pre-order pricing even after the release. The game full price is still only $19.99, so you definitely get your money’s worth.
Since release Guacamelee 2 has done very well. A patch has already been released to clear up a handful of minor bugs.
It’s too early to tell if anything will be added to the game at this point. If the success of the first game is any indication, hopefully we’ll see some DLC for extra areas, enemies and moves. The game is already packed with platforming beat ‘em up goodness.
Since their beginning Drinkbox Studios has consistently made unique games that are highly rated among critics and fans alike. They listen to their fans and turn it into something constructive. Personally, I’m excited to see what they come up with next!
You may also be interested in:
The Top 25 Best Platform Games To Play Today
31 Best Side Scrolling Games To Play
