Guacamelee! - A Gaming Diary

Review

Guacamelee! is a solid Metroidvania.  It doesn't reinvent the wheel in any way, but it's admittedly not trying to.  It wears its inspirations on its sleeve, a lot of the humor in the game is derived from making references to the games and properties that inspired Guacamelee.  A fun beat 'em up style combat system and a reality shifting mechanic do make this game just a little bit more than "your average Metroidvania".  The atmosphere is excellent as well, as is the music.  That being said, the story is kind of basic and fairly lacking and I feel like it fails to stick the landing, the final bits border on being kind of dull at times.  8.1/10

Diary

5/31/25

So I meant to actually start this last night but I got very busy and, on top of that, I was both still emotionally drained from Mother 3 and was also kind of mentally drained from my failed playthrough of Dead Rising.  Game sucks, don't get me started.  I also was just a touch disappointed when I tried booting it up last night because there was a bit of a controller mishap that turned out to just be me being dumb.  I initially was like "oh, Metroidvania, I'll use the Super Nintendo controller" because I take any opportunity to use the Super Nintendo controller, it's my favorite, but then I read through the controls and I missed that dodge was mapped to both right stick AND Left Trigger.  I only saw that it was mapped to right stick.  So I was like "guess I gotta use another controller" but my main PC controller wasn't charged so I did not play Guacamelee last night for no reason.  RIP me, lol.

Guacamelee sure is a Metroidvania!  This is not me being dismissive, mind, I adore that it is what it is.  I'm a big Metroidvania fan, it's a genre that's been unusually absent this year, normally I've done like four of the things already.  Guacamelee respectably makes no pretense about what it is.  It wears its inspiration on its sleeve, making sometimes overly direct references to Metroid in a way that I'm surprised Nintendo is cool with?  Like they literally have Chozo statues as a way for our protagonist to get his upgraded abilities, called "Choozo Statues" instead.  It's a very tongue-in-cheek game, which I guess isn't surprising because the indie market is full of tongue-in-cheek games.

The most charming thing about this game so far though is its love of Mexican culture.  The whole setup of this poor agave farmer being killed by an undead bandit only to be brought back to life as a heroic luchador to save the innocent is such a distinctly Mexican story.  Using the Olmec heads as fast travel points is a great touch, the abundance of luchadors with increasingly outlandish gimmicks as if they're superheroes is just amazing.  And like, I love Day of the Dead theming, it's just such a beautiful and interesting holiday and has such unique and gorgeous art surrounding it and I love the presence its gained in pop culture.  It's just so nice how much this game breathes Mexico.

6/1/25

I never expected something in this game of all games to get to me, but here we are.  Like I guess that's on me, this game is literally about death, you switch between the worlds of the living and the dead and see people on both sides.  But I don't know, I guess the very light hearted tone made me be like "this will just be a silly adventure" and then you have a sidequest about a grieving mother keeping her child's possessions safe away from the world and then you go into the land of the dead and that child is unliving in a version of the house that exists on the other side and asks you to bring her the things her mother has been keeping on the other side.  It's a cute, sad little sidequest that's a good intro to our new reality shifting mechanic.

We get to become a chicken!!!  I was wondering what our equivalent of the Morph Ball would be, we've seen a lot of "Morph Ball Corridors" so far and I was like "how does this one work" and it turns out, it's a chicken!!!  Turning people into chickens is, strangely, like the main power that our villain has displayed thus far, and like.  I get it, chickens are both a whole common thing in this game and a common sight in Mexico, you will wander a city and there will just be chickens out and about.  But so far the only things we've established about the main antagonist are he has a demon hand that can kill you and he can turn people into chickens.  Luckily we gain the ability to control this power of chicken transformation by a purple rooster who is definitely not up to something.  I don't know if this is actually the case, but it feels like the chicken zooms too so it's just fun to vibe as the chicken for a while.  It's almost exactly like the Morph Ball in that respect, the Morph Ball probably isn't faster but it FEELS faster so until I get the speed booster I just roll around at the speed of sound.

The combo system in this game is so much fun.  I really love how it encourages chaining combos together by inserting your array of specials into the three hit combo to start another hit chain.  Three punch into uppercut into three punch into headbutt has put in so much work for me, you don't even know.  And once they introduced the Super meter it's like, all over man.  I'm not going to say I'm good at the combat, that would be lying, I'm not good at any game.  But this game makes you feel so good at the combat even if you're not, and I really appreciate it.  Though I'm still kinda learning when is the best time to throw and when is the best time to slam.  I feel like I should be throwing more often, especially in crowd control scenarios but like.  Slamming is usually an instakill, how can I say no!?

Unfortunately, I can't play with my Super Nintendo controller after all.  A bit disappointing but like, it's fine.  To activate the super mode that you build up by doing combos you HAVE to click in both control sticks, which is the only input really you have to use the sticks specifically for.  It's something I probably could remap if I wanted to as some buttons on the controller are redundant but uh.  It's already enough of a pain trying to get the SNES controller to work on Steam, spent an entire day trying once only to break my button mapping like three times after supposedly getting it working.  PC gaming is an absolute nightmare, I will inevitably say this every PC game I cover.  So we push on with the Pro Controller.

There's a lot I have been enjoying about this game so far, gameplay is amazing, atmosphere is great, it's a pretty game, music is good.  I feel like the story is a little lacking, though?  It doesn't feel like a lot of moments are allowed to sit and breathe before we're just past them.  I went through a town in this section of game I played that had once lived in the desert until a volcano ravaged the town.  Luckily, almost the entire town was saved by a heroic young woman who the town now kind of deifies, and said young woman is our spirit guide Tostada, who initially didn't want to come back to this town because of her memories of her own life that have been wrapped up in it.  And like, it's a very good moment when she finds out that the town still remembers and loves her, that despite her own reservations that this is the place she died, she's their hero.  But it is just a moment, it goes as quickly as it comes.  It might also just be the typically jokey nature of this game causing them to not want to linger on serious moments, admittedly.  Either way, though, I've felt like the story is just the least good element of this so far.

Also shoutouts to X'tabay, she owns.  Total certified bad bitch, we stan.  Love that this woman just tries so hard for a guy who is using her for his own ambitions and spends a lot of time getting jealous over it and then is just like "wait, hold up, he's the asshole here".  She's the first proper "boss" in the game, surprisingly the first boss fight happens at what I'm sure is the halfway point, and afterwards she's just like "this is stupid, I'm fighting hard for a guy who doesn't like me, I need to work on myself" and starts helping us!  And her hair is always flowing like water, it's such a good effect, love X'tabay, easily my favorite character in the game.

6/2/25

I'm like way more impressed with this game now than I was previously.  The reality swapping mechanic that I got near the end of the last section became the focus of the temple I did in this section, and it's like amazing how much more interesting platforming is now that we have the swap mechanic.  I especially love doing wall jumps between things that exist in different realities, that always owns.  For a minute I was like "this is a good but otherwise pretty standard Metroidvania that sets itself kind of apart with its combat system and like.  I still don't think this is a superb game, it's very good but I still think it's pretty standard, the stuff it does with the reality shifting platforming does really add a lot to it, I'm digging it.

It feels like, though, just as the game is really starting to be fleshed out with mechanics, it also feels like it's almost over?  Like we've already taken out two of the generals and most of the map is filled out.  It feels like things are just schmoovin too fast, tbh, like I not only want there to be more it feels like there SHOULD be more?  Like it just actually feels like we just started fighting the villains' forces proper and now we're on our way to the final temple, it's insane!  I guess more reason to keep an eye on Guacamelee 2, at least!

I really enjoy the visual storytelling they do with the realm swapping mechanic a whole lot.  Like for starters, various things are extremely different between the two realms.  The towns are technically the same but certain structures are either missing or different entirely.  In the starting town there's a house that's abandoned and empty and sealed off in the world of the living but it's where X'tabay lives in the world of the dead.  And indeed, the villagers in the world of the living talk about a witch who used to live in that house but seemingly died a long time ago.  Neat little stuff like that.  But when you get to the Temple of War, they do a lot of really cool stuff with the environmental storytelling.  The temple, which exists in both realms, has this recurring motif in the background, this story about two dragons who attack mankind and the human who defeats them.  

This story pops up on various reliefs across the dungeon, but if you pay close attention, you begin to notice the minor but present storytelling differences in the two worlds.  In the realm of the living, the reliefs tell a story of these two dragons who ravaged the countryside, attack the innocent and destroying their homes and their crops.  Until one day, a heroic Luchador arrives, battling the dragons with fury until, eventually, they both lay defeated, the Luchador standing in triumph over them as the hero who saved Mexico.  In the land of the dead, though, the story goes; two dragons were wandering across the countryside searching for food when they happen to come across a village.  After eating their fill, they are assaulted by a luchador who bullies them into submission.  Two different perspectives on the same myth, empathizing with the opposite parties.  It's real neat.  I like it a lot.

I'm absolutely going to finish the game by the next time I update this one.  This was nice, I loved playing through Mother 3 but both how much time that game took to talk about and play, I was exhausted.  I was SURE like "nobody is going to read this one, it's like over an hour long" when I finished it, and thankfully that wasn't the case, but like.  I'm glad to get a short one out, y'know.  It feels nice.  Next one will probably be a short one too!  Maybe I might even get a third short one after that, who knows!?  I really hope I don't roll an RPG and this momentum changes, lol.

6/3/25

So I didn't beat the game yet, got a little distracted last night, it's fine you know.  I did make some progress though, made it through the skeleton factory, faced off with general #3, the Skeletal Trio.  It was a nice time, the Volcano area was kind of a banger, frfr.  I continue to really dig the reality shifting mechanic especially.  Like a really cool thing about going through the volcano area is that when you shift to the Land of the Dead, the lava turns to stone because it too has "died", which is such a cool concept.  And they do a lot with it, there's a great area where lava pillars move up and down and you have to switch at just the right time to traverse them.  This game gets cooler and cooler the more I play it I swear.

I haven't been super impressed by the bosses in this game before this point, but the skeletal trio is an absolute win.  Their design is great, for starters, this skeletal mariachi group that died all at once and was reborn as a singular entity with three heads, always searching for their missing fourth band member who walked into the light long ago.  It's killer.  But then the actual boss fights rules.  It almost feels like it should be the final boss of the game as it uses every skill you've learned so far to great effect.  The first phase is kind of a straight forward brawl where you have to time your dodges perfectly as the trio launches giant musical notes that DVD logo about the battle arena.  After they get out of this phase, they move up to the top of the arena and, in this form, are invincible until we throw an enemy at them, making the player use their knowledge of how enemy throwing works.  Finally the three of them form a giant sized tower in the middle where two parts will attack at a time, often making the player take advantage of their knowledge of how to remain in the air.  It's a really fun boss fight, I like it a whole lot!

I'm surprised at how much Guacamelee manages to get away with.  Like, knowing how litigious Nintendo tends to be, I'm amazed that they didn't come down hard on this.  I'm grateful they didn't but like, man, they got close to that line.  Playing with fire.  Like, as previously stated, the game has literal Chozo statues, the design is very blatantly the same thing.  And there are a ton of references to other properties and, specifically, Nintendo properties, they have billboards for a Mario and Luigi tag team of Luchadors, they reference Zelda constantly including literally having a character that is identical to Error from Zelda II, also named Error, stuff like that.  And also just literally Crocomire makes an appearance, like, the Crocomire skeleton from Super Metroid is fossilized in a wall at one point.  All this stuff is great to see, mind, I love all the little easter eggs, it's just.  Man.  How'd they get away with this?

6/4/25

Okay, so like.  I love Metroidvanias, right?  It's one of my favorite genres which is wild to me now because for a long time I really hated them.  Story time, when I was a wee little Ed, a tiny little guy, I got a GameCube for Christmas because a brand new Pokémon game was releasing for it and Pokémon was my hyperfixation for many years, to the point where I didn't play anything else, and my GameCube came with Metroid Prime.  Which was also my first ever T game, wild.  Anyways, I couldn't figure out where to go in Metroid Prime and so got frustrated and quit and hated it for many years and, by extension, hated Metroid.  There are some OLD YouTube comments I posted where I talked about how much Metroid sucks.  I digress.  I don't know if anyone else experiences this but like, I will spend an infinite amount of time going over a map in a Metroidvania and trying to hit every secret possible every single time I get an upgrade, but then like.  When it's time to fight the final boss I just go "I wanna beat this" and fast track the end of the game.  It's probably just me.  I will tell this exact same story the next time I cover a Metroidvania.

I feel like Guacamelee kind of falters in the end game.  Like, it has so many cool ideas throughout and creates a lot of interesting platforming puzzles with the various powers you get but then the final parts of the game just feel like an enemy gauntlet.  It's just a bit disappointing.  As much as I do really like the combat in this game, I was kind of hoping for more, you know?  And also it's not a particularly interesting enemy gauntlet on top of that.  Like not only are they just throwing rooms of enemies at you constantly, sometimes with enemies piling on top of each other, but they also have a save point basically every other room so there's very little real danger to be had.  It was, however, insane how they basically just shadow drop an entire new enemy type on you like it's nothing, the electric boys are something!

As I reached the end of the journey, I really started to hate the "undodgeable attack" mechanic.  Like, I understand it in concept and for much of the game I did find it inoffensive.  They don't want you to just respond, they want you to really learn the enemy attacks and be more proactive about your strategies.  Outside of a certain enemy who can kind of stun lock you by chaining undodgeable attacks, it was mostly an interesting ripple in that context.  But in the final enemy gauntlet, it just got really annoying.  There were so many rooms where I felt like I was getting ping-ponged around because there were two to four enemies with undodgeable attacks all going at the same time, was not a fan.

The final boss was underwhelming too.  I feel bad because I do really like this game but this entire section has just been complaining about it, it really feels like it doesn't stick the landing.  Calaca has a pretty basic pattern, in his first phase he literally only has like two attacks, one of them he only uses as a counter to being hit.  The only thing he has going for him is that he has a constantly replenishing shield that can only be destroyed by a specific attack, and what attack it needs changes after every attack.  The only reason it's even kind of a problem is his counter attack is undodgeable and is a large AOE.  His second phase is much the same, except now he is a non-moving target.  He's a giant kaiju monster with an ever changing, constantly replenishing shield and now all but one of his attacks is undodgeable.  The latter would be an issue, but his attacks are also very choreographed and very slow in this phase, it all works out to the final boss paradoxically being the easiest boss in the game.

I understand that there is a "good" ending, where Juan's love interest survives all this and the two of them get married, but I actually really enjoy the "bad" ending.  Like there's something very beautiful and very thematically appropriate in it.  A large part of this game is about how the dead should stay dead, Calaca is attempting to ruin the natural order and possibly destroy the world by fusing the living and dead worlds to gain unlimited power for himself and this must be stopped.  So having an ending where El Presidente's daughter dies and stays dead feels very right to me?  And I think there's something very poignant about showing Juan's life, him returning to the simple life of an agave farmer, living his years out with the friends he made across the journey, before eventually dying himself and embracing that death with open arms, knowing he will finally be reunited with his beloved in the afterlife.  It's kind of beautiful to me.

For as much as I don't feel like Guacamelee sticks the landing, I really liked it.  Like, I don't know if it's "required reading" or anything, there is no shortage of great Metroidvanias and no shortage of better ones than this.  It's not a game I would recommend to someone who doesn't already love this genre, that's for sure.  But it is really fun, just a really solid Metroidvania with a somewhat unique approach to combat inspired by beat 'em ups.  It wears its inspirations on its sleeve and makes no pretense about what it is.  It's also a nice, breezy experience.  I finished it in just under 7 hours and the average 100% run takes about 13 hours?  It's a very approachable game in that way, not too long and not too difficult.  Glad I played it, 8.1/10.  It's currently the tenth best game I played this year, I don't know if that'll hold but like, an accomplishment nonetheless!