*And now: Spanish!* Mi review de el juego Guacamelee!
User Rating: 9 | Guacamelee! PS3
I always loved Drinkbox Studios. Even though they only made two games, which were both entries in their popular casual franchise Tales From Outer Space (you know, the game with the blob thingy), those were two awesome games, even though they were really simple. But I think that was always Drinkbox' charm: it never required that much effort to get the hang of their games, so you could just jump right in and enjoy what you were playing. And that's something that their newest, and last game also does exceedingly well, if not significantly better: Guacamelee! is an addicting rollercoaster, chock-full of references and laugh out loud jokes. It's the kind of game you'd go drink a beer with if it were a real person. So, about the story: you are Juan, a simple farmer of the agave fields. You're nothing out of the ordinary, but everyone in the village where you come from, Pueblucho, thinks you're a nice guy, and Juan and the rest of the people live in peace without any real problems. Until Carlos Calaca and his army of the dead rise from the grave and terorrise Pueblucho and the rest of Mexico - if not the rest of the world. In the beginning of the game, you don't stand a chance against Calaca, so when you try to save the president's daughter, who's also the one you seem to be in love with, Calaca instantly kills you, leaving you confused about paying 20 dollars for a game that takes 5 minutes to complete. But then! It doesn't really seem to be game over, because when you arrive in the land of the dead, in an alternative version of Pueblucho, you encounter a... Goat... Person... Thingy? Anyways, whatever this man really is, he'll be accompanying you during certain parts of the game, whenever you break one of his statues which learns you a new move (which, by the way, results in hilarious conversations: "We can be bro's!"). Those special moves are required to gain access to new areas, but can also be used to do sick combo's on your enemies. Anyways, it'll be necessary to go to the land of the dead sometimes, and in the first half of the game, this is only possible by going through so-called "dead portals". Anyways, when you defeat X'tabay (long story), you'll be granted the ability to shift through the lands of the living and the dead, which also makes for spectacular and satisfying platform sections, and plays a role in increasing the difficulty curve in combat (some enemies are only vulnerable in the land of the living and the other way around). The boss fights are just right in difficulty, although strangely enough, the first boss is also the hardest one. The ending is what you'd expect, although I'm not going to spoil anything. The game takes about 6 hours to complete if you're not all too shabby at it, and some say that that's a bad thing. But my opinion is, that if this game were to take longer, it'd simply just get boring, because when you think about it, a lot of things get repeated. But don't worry: none of it is boring in its current state because the game takes just long enough to keep you excited. Plus, if you really can't get enough, there are some exciting side quests that always result in a hilarious situation, and the incredibly rare orbs, which are scattered throughout the game. Overall, Guacamelee! is a roaring masterpiece and a cocktail of action, humor and enchilada's. Drinkbox couldn't have wished for a better way to shut things down: this is easily their best game yet.
