Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition
Overview -
After a successful bout on the PS3 and PS Vita, DrinkBox Studios is taking it's wacked out metroidvania-style brawler onto every platform it can, and with more than a few tweaks. 'Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition' throws in all of the game's DLC, two completely new game areas, one with its own boss, new enemies and a brawler-classic – a power-up mode called Intenso! activated after filling up a bar. DrinkBox has two objectives – convince fans to come back for one more go in the shoes of Juan the Undead Luchador, and find new players on platforms thus far ungraced by the wonders of 'Guacamelee!'
Video Review
'Guacamelee!' has a lot of strong suits. None of them compare to the wholly unique motif. Much like Link would wake up to a normal day, Juan the hopeful luchador awakens to a joyous ceremony. Much like many a video game character might be thrust into an adventure after some catastrophe interrupts everyday life, so must Juan battle the lord of the Undead. For every similarity, though, there is the twist of Juan's circumstances, culture and his surrounding environments, all rendered in a sort of wild papercraft look that's both uniform and consistently surprising.
Rather than visiting Hell, you visit El Infierno, El Diablo's humble undead headquarters. Instead of morphing into a ball as Samus might, Juan valiantly transforms into a chicken that pops out explosive eggs.
Only on the off occasion do environments appear a little vacant, but mostly you're too wrapped up in the current challenge to notice. The result is a pragmatic, but undeniably creative take in just two dimensions.
Audio Review
The mechanics at play benefit largely from the game's quick pacing. Once you're in the groove of things, you're zipping along and cracking skulls about as fast as you can muster, and it's those grooves in the background that encourage this the most. Zippy, athletic tunes fill this role very well, and like the visuals it's the somewhat exotic cultural roots that make the music more interesting than it usually is in a game of this nature. That said, the music remains more exotic than extravagant throughout the experience.
Final Thoughts
DrinkBox wants in on the very prestigious indie-darling club, and now players on a mess of platforms, including the Xbox One, are the benificaries. References strewn about the game are a calling card to DrinkBox's favorite developers in that club, like 'Journey' and 'Castle Crashers.' The game itself exists in adoration of Metroidvania classics. The thing is, DrinkBox only ever needed to create exactly this game for entry, because 'Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition' is its own insane, wild, extravagant, explosive, brilliant beast. It might draw from 'Metroid' and other games in a similar vein, but the pure and creative execution of those ideas, wrapped up in some Mexican glory, bow-tied with delicious melee action, makes 'Guacamelee!' a generation-crossing, 'Super Turbo Championship' classic.