Xbox One

Guacamelee! 2

Guacamelee! 2 is a Metroidvania platform video game developed and published by DrinkBox Studios.

FightingPlatformHack and slash/Beat 'em upAdventureIndie

Time to beat: about 9 hours

Overview

Guacamelee! 2 is a Metroidvania platform video game developed and published by DrinkBox Studios. A sequel to Guacamelee!, the game was released for PlayStation 4 and Windows in August 2018 while the Nintendo Switch version was released on December 10. The Xbox One version was released on January 18, 2019. The game received generally positive reviews upon release.

Guacamelee! 2 is a Metroidvania platform game. The player controls Juan Aguacate, a luchador who fights with punches, kicks, and wrestling grapples. Over the course of the game, Juan re-acquires many of his powers from the previous game, many of which have both combat and movement applications, for example the Rooster Uppercut, which grants vertical mobility while also attacking enemies overhead and breaking like-coloured obstacles. Each special move is associated with a color, which surrounds Juan whenever he uses them.

The game begins with a simplified version of the first game's final confrontation with the world-rending Calaca, leading into the true ending where the luchador Juan successfully saves the life of El Presidente's Daughter, Lupita. Seven years later, the two are married and live with two children, with Juan having grown out of shape. Black clouds begin to appear in the village, followed by Juan's mentor Uay Chivo appearing to tell him the entire "Mexiverse" is in danger. He brings Juan through a portal to "The Darkest Timeline", where the source of the trouble is. In this timeline, Juan and Lupita were killed by Calaca, who was defeated by another luchador called Salvador.

The game was developed by DrinkBox Studios. Unlike its predecessor, the game was not released for the PlayStation Vita as DrinkBox opted to use the PlayStation 4 as the base platform to utilize its new rendering engine. The team prototyped different moves for Juan. However, they decided to retain all the moves from the original as they felt that they were more intuitive than the new ones created. With Guacamelee!

The game received generally favourable reviews on review aggregator website Metacritic.