Day 31: Guacamelee 2!

You know what I noticed about most Metroidvanias that aren't…well…a part of the Metroid or Castlevania series? Most of the famous and well known ones are indie games. I've already talked about games like Shantae and the Pirate's Curse earlier in the marathon, but beyond that we have games like Hollow Knight, Dust and Elysian Tale, Ori and the Blind Forest, Cave Story, and even more beyond that. But for my favorite Metroidvania of the bunch, we need to take a trip into the Mexiverse where we'll find Guacamelee 2!

I have played the first Guacamelee game on the Wii U back in 2014, and I remember liking it just fine. So when I heard that a sequel was announced, I bought it for my Switch, played it, and absolutely loved it.

Guacamelee 2 takes place after the events of the first game, with Juan settling down with Lupita and starting a family. Everything seems to be going fine until black clouds start to appear, and Uay Chivo appears to inform Juan that the Mexiverse is in danger of being destroyed by this game's villain, Salvador. So Uay Chivo takes Juan to an alternate timeline where Salvador was the one to defeat Calaca, the villain from the last game, and now it's a race against time to stop Salvador from collecting three sacred relics and entering El Otromundo to obtain unlimited power...from a bowl of guacamole.

And on that note I think this is a good time to talk about this game's humor. Much like the last game, this game relies on memes and video game Easter eggs to bring on the chuckles. These come in the form of background posters scattered throughout each level, and the timelines Juan visits. There's a timeline based on Limbo, a timeline based on Street Fighter II, a timeline based on old school RPGs, there's even a timeline based on micro-transactions and…they actually make it kind of funny. There's also a timeline made up of nothing but satires of old memes and the inhabitants are quick to criticize them. Now that's funny.

When the game isn't making you laugh that way, it's giving you some very quirkly and loveable characters like every version of Uay Chivo, Salvador's minions El Muneco, Uay Pek, and Zope and Cactuardo, and all of the coaches like Dona Chamoya, the returning Flame Face, Coscorrona, Rooster Ramirez, and Uay Coco. This is easily a strong contender for the funniest game I've ever played.

Speaking of the coaches let's talk about them for a bit, because Guacamelee 2 introduces a skill tree system which can give Juan more moves, power up said moves, and allow him to power up his combo meter.

Since this game is a Metroidvania, it offers tons of levels to explore, puzzles to solve, and enemy gauntlets to overcome in order to gain treasure and items to increase your overall health and stamina. This game also introduces something similar to the mask parts in the form of the Key Pieces and the Chicken Illuminati. To get each key piece, you must overcome a ball breakingly hard, but fun, challenge that test our your skills in platforming, combat, and sometimes both, all leading up to a challenge called 'The Crucible,' and it's easily the hardest thing I've ever had to do in any video game, I still don't have the patience to beat this. I'll take the game's bad ending any day, at least Juan makes it home to his family in that ending too…it just takes longer that's all.

Juan gets the abilities that he learned in the last game to help him such as dimension swapping, pollo transformation, and his special moves to help him break certain barriers and take on enemies with a specific shield (on that note why the hell did they change the name of the Dashing Derp-Derp to just, Dash Punch).

But, he also gets new abilities to help him out like the Eagle Boost which he can use to jump higher or cross large chasms, and they made the pollo form more awesome. In the last game, you only really needed the pollo form to go through narrow passages, but Guacamelee 2 goes the extra mile to give it its own moveset in the form of the Pollo Shot, Pollo Slide, Pollo Glide, Pollo Fans, and laying eggs…okay.

Add in some fun boss battles, colorful graphics and presentation, and some challenging DLC in the form of The Proving Grounds, and you have a Metroidvania that is an absolute must play for fans of the genre.