Guacamelee 2
Brawling has never been more beautiful! The long-awaited sequel to the smash hit action-platformer is here: Guacamelee! 2 brings luchador Juan Aguacate out of retirement for a stunning new Metroidvania-style adventure. Explore a huge, hand-crafted world inspired by Mexican culture and folklore, filled with sassy new villains and weirdos (and a few old friends!). Learn a deep repertoire of bone-crunching moves to fend off the skeletal hordes and overcome a multitude of platforming challenges. …and who said anything about a Chicken Illuminati? Certainly not us! Key Features: New moves like Eagle Boost, Pollo Shot and more add to Juan’s arsenal of combat and platforming abilities. New powers for Juan’s chicken form! Ridiculous chicken-based platforming, combat and exploration. More chicken than you’ll be able to handle (probably).
Steam User 25
Juan Aguacate was the only luchador who could beat Thanos.
This game really makes you FEEL like a Luchador.
Guacamelee 2 is one of my favourite platformers. The main character and his struggles remind me to the days I would wrestle my wife’s boyfriend for the right to spend a night with my wife. I never won a match, but the memories we made were unforgettable.
Guac 2 has a toned down exploration but stellar, creative platforming throughout with much better pacing than the first. The chicken ability has its own subset of abilities, both in and out combat. The bosses were pretty good though short. The combat also benefits from having a few more moves and much greater enemy variety.
I think it's better overall than the first, but lacks the inherent freshness of the original. The art and music are a bit richer. The gameplay evolves faster and there's a couple new bells and whistles. It's a couple hours longer. And the camera is pulled back a bit more which makes 4-player co-op feel less crowded/cluttered. The broad strokes of the story is a little weaker than the original, but still charming.
It's kind of a retread of the first game. It has a few quirks I don't like (e.g. being unable to turn around mid-combo) and the improvements aren't very significant (I don't remember a single new song). I think it's better than the first, but kind of like how a remake is better than the original.
Definitely worth picking up, specially on a sale.
8/10
Steam User 7
I am still playing the game, and just wanted to share my thoughts on the game so far. This will be updated down the road.
The pros:
A Fun new gang of villains.
The combat still is quite solid, simple, fun and responsive.
The visuals are great, if a little busy at times.
The music is spetacular and very unique as far as games are concerned.
Boss fights are crazy fun and creative (I am particularly a big fan of the Muñeco fight).
Cons:
The worst thing about this game is the instant kill nonsense. It is everywhere. The first game was challenging, and this one tries to be even harder, but in the most obnoxious ways possible. I love me some platforming, challenging platforming, but the challenge here often feels like playing the "True Ending" route of Cave Story, but that section of Cave Story was added later in the development of a game developed by one person. Guacamelee 2 lacks that excuse.
Now, Guacamelee doesn't send you back to the beginning of a level/dungeon when you die, thankfully. It is a little bit like Celeste - you die and quickly respawn, only less refined, because the real insta-death hazards sometimes send you back a few screens away, and some of the challenging sections are VERY obnoxious. I feel like Guacamelee does a fun job at mixing up good platforming, beat em up combat and some fun bullet dodging sections, but sometimes platforming, melee combat AND bullet hell all at the same time is too much.
Imagine you are playing Celeste, trying to grab that pesky strawberry, and every time you die, the game sends you back two, three screens. At first it doesn't bother you, but after five, ten times? It gets old. I think if they removed the insta-kill nonsense, the game would suddenly go up a few degrees in quality.
Other than that, the humour still heavily relies on references and memes. It wasn't particular interesting the first time, and it falls even flatter to me this time around. I suppose this is merely a matter of taste, however.
Also, you still have the option to play as Tostada, and other characters, but just like in Guacamelee, the story doesn't really reflect that in any way or shape. It is still is Juan's story, and that is perfectly fine, it just feels like playing as other characters is a feature just because that is the norm for beat em ups.
So, other than a few very annoying annoyances, it is a solid game so far. I wonder if my thoughts will change after I finish it. For reference, the original Guacamelee was one of the few games I ever 100% (in terms of achievements), so I am pretty big fan of the game.
Steam User 3
More dead, More wrestling and more chickens
Steam User 4
Duration: 10 hours
I was enjoying my time with Guacamelee! 2, but it eventually began to get too hard for me. Eventually I quit at one of those time-bomb combats where you had to fight three enemies, in different dimensions, when they kept summoning bombs in the other dimension. 5 seconds to notice, switch and defeat just was too hard for me. Also, near my end, I was beginning to pass all the challenge rooms as after ding 1-3 times I realised these were beyond me. Even making normal progress was becoming increasingly difficult. This fight, after trying it about 10 times, I finally decided that the fun turned into frustration and it was time for me to stop. I can still recommend the game, as it was fun while it lasted and worth playing.
Steam User 5
chicken is good
Steam User 3
One of the best metroidvanias i have played. it has 10/10 visuals, 10/10 audio, 11/10 jokes, and 10/10 gameplay. youre missing out if you dont play this
Steam User 2
Humor fantastico, Level design divertente e impegnativo.
Migliore sotto ogni punto di vista rispetto al predecessore.
Un MUST per ogni amante di Metroidvania, da gustare rigorosamente con Nachos e Tacos a portata di mano.