It’s been quite some time since Luchador Juan Aguacate saved the Mexiverse, and things have since settled down. Our former hero is now a family man with wife and kids where his biggest challenge is watching his waistline and going to the market for some fresh avocados. But even a simple trip to the nearby village quickly turns into the sequel adventure of a lifetime as Juan is tasked with once again, saving the Mexiverse; this time from the evil Salvador in Guacamelee! 2. Admittedly, the story is equal parts amusing and disposable. You don’t really need a proper motivation for the next 10+ hours of platforming; the sheer joy of playing the game will handle that, but there are some LOL moments when the game introduces multiple timelines, and we get to see Juan interact with numerous NPC’s in an alternate universe.
When you aren’t chuckling at the half-baked story you will be dazzled with some of the most gorgeous imagery I’ve seen on my PS4 this year. This is no God of War, but for sheer artistry and best use of colors and lighting I can’t come up with a single worthy comparative reference. The Disney movie Coco is the only thing that comes close, both in art design, thematic detail, and even the use of dual planes of existence. The animation is hilariously simplistic with basic sprite characters jumping and fighting, using the fewest frames possible, yet somehow, it’s perfect for this game and the combat and platforming is surprisingly fun and playable.
Being a Metroidvania-style game you are going to see lots of “stuff” you can’t do on your initial run through levels, which can be frustrating for OCD players like me who like to complete everything before moving on, but Guacamelee! 2 does an expert job of dispensing its varied arsenal of skills at just the right moment; not only for the challenge at hand, but also in equipping you for frequent return trips through previous levels. Armed with fresh abilities, backtracking is anything but frustrating, as you now have the tools to unlock new areas with fresh gameplay content.
For example, you are given the Rooster Uppercut ability just before you need it to smash your way upward through stone blocks and just before you encounter shielded enemies where you must use this new tactic to break their shield. Later on you will gain wall jumping to enhance your verticality and even a hook shot that allows you to “swing” through levels using grapple points, but nothing prepared me for being able to transform into a chicken, allowing me access to tiny spaces, new combat moves, and a diagonal version of the Rooster Uppercut.
Guacamelee! 2 continually builds upon itself every 15-30 minutes with new abilities that directly tie into the increasing difficulty of the environmental puzzles as well as the combat. The combat controls are intuitive with a basic attack that can be combined with special abilities, often resulting in stunning the enemy allowing you to grab and throw them, hopefully into other enemies. You’ll face off against numerous delightfully designed enemies during the natural exploration of the levels, but every few minutes you will get locked into a challenge room and go up against 2-3 waves of increasingly formidable foes; some filling much of the screen space. Beat them and you get to smash a piñata for your rewards. There are other chests and barrels scattered about that offer pieces to power-up items like the heart and mask as well as coins you can spend on numerous RPG-style unlockables to help you advance in the game.
For the most part Guacamelee! 2 has a smooth progression of difficulty, but there can be a few odd choke points, usually just after acquiring a new skill as you try to master it during a boss fight, but a few hours in the dual planes of life and death start to intertwine in mischievous ways and the game takes a distinct detour into the dark side. Not since Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver have I seen such masterful use of multiplane gameplay whereby you can play the same levels (or parts of levels) in either the land of the living or the underworld. Platforms, objects, and even enemies exist in one or the other causing you to creatively jump between the two to progress. At first this happens by walking into a door and changing the entire level to the other plane, but later there are wormholes you jump through to swap planes, sometimes in mid-jump to a ledge that won’t exist until you pass through the portal. But things get super-crazy when alternate bands of life and death start rippling through the environment. Parts of the world shift in and out of existence while enemies cycle between real ones you can hit and ghostly shadows you cannot.
For better or worse, Guacamelee! 2 supports local co-op play for up to four players, which might help you in combat but will probably sabotage your game in nearly every other way. Keep in mind that this game requires near-perfect timing on most of the platforming challenges, which is often hard enough to do on your own but imagine three other players (or even just one) having to mirror your precision with no room for error. Even the character sprites need to be overlapping in most instances. Aside from justifying the large assortment of alternate characters and costumes you can swap out at any of the checkpoint chests, I found the multiplayer a bit tacked on and unnecessary.
I play a lot of platformers and Guacamelee! 2 has quickly risen to the top of the list for 2018 with its charming Mexican flavor, gorgeous use of colors and thematic level design, and some of the best and most challenging platforming exploration and combat I’ve experienced this year. It’s loaded with humor and enough originality and fresh game design to keep me coming back for more, despite those rare moments of frustration on what is justifiably a difficult game to master, but so much fun to play.
