Guacamelee 2

As someone who 100-percented the map on a single normal playthrough, I guess I have to mark this game as "recommended" but with some serious caveats. If you liked the first one, this is just more of the exact same. Like barely any new abilities, hardly any changes to the formula at all, recycled jokes where they ramped up the cheesiness but not necessarily the actual level of humor. I guess that can be good or bad depending on how you see it.
This game is also NOT a Metroidvania in the traditional sense. All of the progression is tightly locked behind "break a colored brick that is blocking your path." There's no sense of wonder or discovery when you get new powers. The "locked" areas are marked on your map, so you never have to figure out where to go, it just becomes a checklist of going back to those places that are CLEARLY marked on your map. It definitely has elements of Metroidvania's map style, but the progression just doesn't feel the same.
A lot of the screens are just filler with mindless platforming to burn time and make you feel like you are doing something, when in reality it is just artificial gating to slow you down. There are also a bunch of screens with ambiguous ways to exit where you can technically go off the top or side of the screen, but it just "kills" you and puts you back at the start of the screen. They don't even damage you or punish you in any way, almost like the devs just throwing in the towel and saying "yeah, we know it looks like there's more to explore, but we didn't actually design anything to put there.
I would say that the harder platforming sections are the best part of this game, especially some of the optional challenges. Figuring out the patterns to get through some of the screens are really the most satisfying part that kept me playing. One annoying quirk is that there isn't a uniform scale/zoom for the camera. Some screens zoom WAY in on you and put you in a cramped little space. Other screens it zooms WAY out to show you the overall picture of a bigger screen. Maybe some people won't mind it, but I found it jarring. The zoomed-in screens are mostly just filler to make you run further when going between two locations. Content, sure, but not good or interesting content.
In some ways, I finished the game out of spite. I paid for it, so I'm gonna finish it type of situation. The game frequently just EATS your inputs if you don't get thumbstick angles absolutely PERFECT. The controls are not forgiving and will make you angry just as often as they do what you expect.
The combat is repetitive, and there's very little room for your own creativity or skill due to the way the shield system works. The designers pretty much telegraph what moves you have to use against which enemy, and from there it's mostly just a button-mash till things die. There's very little real challenge to the combat sans maybe 1 optional area of the game. But they shoe-horn in SO MUCH forced combat that it starts to becoming annoying by the end. The number of bosses is staggeringly low, so hopefully you like beating up the same regular enemies over and over.
The progression system is.....(sighhhh) fine. It does make you more powerful, but by the time I finished I had enough gold to unlock everything in the progression system a full 2nd time. And there's nothing else to spend your money on, so you just rack up stack on stacks on stacks of absolutely useless currency. The economy they designed is basically imbalanced in your favor, they just hand you every possible thing by the end, there's no real choice or variety, you'll earn it all before you even get to the end and then there's nothing else to work towards.
If you liked the first one, you will probably like this one (I was lukewarm on the first one too, but got this one for dirt cheap on a Steam sale.) If you like challenging platforming, you might like this one. If you're looking for a deep and rewarding combat system and true Metroidvania style exploration, this probably isn't the game for you.

Now played both back to back - to completion. 28 / 100 have done so. Pitiful.. This game is superb. You get lost in the combat, the writing, the platforming. Music is STELLAR! Deserves all the praise that heaped upon it. I hope they made ALL THE MONEYS.

Great game. Very fun combat and puzzles. F**k jade temple egg challange tho.

Very epic game, took me a year to get all achievements but it was awesome. very cool very rewarding, would recommend

I played the first guac when it first arrived on steam but didn't actually get around to finishing it until 2025 and then found this on sale for under $10. Whilst it's very similar, the writing is pretty good. Please, save the Mexiverse.

I'm not a huge fan of metroidvanias, this is an exception. The fighting is flawless, with balanced enemies and fun abilities. The story is not a masterpiece, but it is not meant to be, it is a comedy. There are goat people, the main heroes are wrestlers, and the most powerful object is chips and guacamole. Also, you do not have to play the first game first, you can start with this one. It explains most of the story as you go on.

If you liked the first one, you will like this one as well. Movement is fluid, combat is fun and the combo system is pretty satisfying. Platforming is tight, some challenges are way harder than others, but the main way is not that hard, only the side content is very hard. Very good game, tight controls, no bugs, good music! Recommended for metroidvania fans!