Four months after Guacamelee debuted on the PlayStation Network, the widely praised Metroidvania-style action adventure from Drinkbox Studios is making the jump to a whole new platform, with Guacamelee! Gold Edition delivering both the base game and the Guacamelee El Diablo's Domain DLC into one fifteen dollar package.
Guacamelee puts players in the role of Juan Aguacate, an agave farmer turned luchador who inhabits a world where the masters of lucha libre double as protectors of the universe, in his quest to free the love of his life from a former-superstar now hellbent on merging the worlds of the living and the dead. All of the action in Guacamelee unfolds in 2D, many players tend to use the Metroidvania label when describing the game play in Guacamelee! Gold Edition, and Guacamelee also features a combat system that could rival many brawlers.
Guacamelee! Gold Edition doesn't attempt to hide its classic gaming inspirations either, with Drinkbox Studios even going so far as to use an easily recognizable parody of Metroid's iconic Chozo statues in tandem with a transforming goat-man to introduce the various techniques learned by Aquacate during his journey.
The Metroid franchise is hardly the only series to leave a noticeable mark on Guacamelee though, as made evident both in the myriad jokes which spotlight some of the top games of the last few decades and more direct design decisions like the three-temples-plus-a-boss formula found in many Legend of Zelda titles.
It won't take long for most players to get past the Internet humor and pun-ny dialogue to see the real meat of Guacamelee though, which is a surprisingly robust combat system that takes a bit longer than you might expect to truly master. The game also throws in an alternate dimension mechanic that adds an extra layer of depth to the combat, along with an extra tool for the platforming portions of Guacamelee! Gold Edition. Unfortunately, just when you start to feel like you're really getting a complete grasp of the combat mechanics in Guacamelee, many players will have already reached the end of the game's 6(ish)-hour campaign.
Fortunately, a variety of optional challenges give players a few extra hours of extra content which can be experienced prior to tackling Guacamelee's final boss battle, and players can easily reset their game progress from Guacamelee's options menu if they'd like to start the campaign again from scratch. That second option will be particularly popular with the speedrunning community, whose members are sometimes forced to handle the alteration/erasure of games saves via their file explorer of choice.
My biggest complaint about Guacamelee undoubtedly has to be the lack of consistency in the game's difficulty. More than half of the game provided no real challenge whatsoever, either in combat against groups of enemies or in solving the various puzzles spread throughout the world of Guacamelee, but you will occasionally reach portions of the game that seem to have been created by someone who draws their very life force from the remains of smashed keyboards and controllers. In fact, there are few games in recent memory that seemed to jump from tedious to patience-testing and back again as quickly as Guacamelee! Gold Edition did in some areas.
I wasn't a particularly big fan of the game's final boss encounter either. While Guacamelee certainly handles the final battle better than some games, like those that dispatch their big baddie(s) via cutscene or quicktime sequence, bosses like the one found in Guacamelee simply aren't fun. At best, I feel like I'm playing an extra long round of the pattern-memorization game Simon (side note: Simon is f-king boring). At worst, it left me ready to smash my Xbox 360 controller with a sledgehammer. That said, one wholly unpleasant final boss doesn't negate the rest of Guacamelee's otherwise enjoyable content.
Guacamelee! Gold Edition also features all the standard functionality that many gamers expect from any/all new Steam releases, including Big Picture Mode, Steam Achievements, and the recently introduced Steam Trading Cards. Those who prefer multiplayer functionality in their video games will be happy to hear that Guacamelee's entire campaign can be completed with a friend, and added Steam Workshop support offers players an ever-growing selection of costumes for Juan Aguacate and his sidekick, Tostada.
Guacamelee! Gold Edition Review - Final Verdict
Guacamelee is a fun and engaging take on the "Metroidvania" genre of games that continues to provide truly enjoyable game play long after players have grown tired of pointing and laughing at the hundreds of Internet jokes, meme references and other subtle jokes spread generously across the world. While frustratingly difficult at times, Guacamelee! Gold Edition provides more than enough content for most players to justify the game's fifteen dollar price tag.
Those who look for the most difficult games they can find will revel in some of Guacamelee's more sadistic segments, particularly a few of the non-required challenges that appear late in the game, though I do not doubt that many players will ultimately find the upper-echelon of Guacamelee's optional tasks far too off-putting to achieve 100 percent game completion.
Whether you're new to the genre, or a longtime fan of Metroidvania-style games, Guacamelee! Gold Edition is an easy recommendation for any PC gamer looking to get away from the shooters, MMORPGs and strategy titles that fill the bulk of most years' PC release schedules.
Score - 4/5
Have you already had a chance to play Guacamelee! Gold Edition for yourself? Had your fingers crossed for a PC port of Guacamelee ever since the game debuted on PSN back in April? Have an idea for a Juan Aguacate or Tostada costume(s) that you're planning to build with Guacamelee! Gold Edition's Steam Workshop tools?
Let us know in the comments section!
