Guacamelee! 2

This year feels like a crazy year when it comes to metroidvania releases, even more specifically this August, which saw the release of a lot of big profile Kickstarter projects and other indie metroidvanias. And yet, as much originality was poured into these projects, Guacamelee 2 stood high above them, because it showed that sometimes you just want a more polished and refined version of an already great title. The other games couldnt boost the level design and gameplay polish of this one, not by a long shot.

So as far as story goes, Guacamelee 2 keeps it pretty simple, but adds a nice twist of making you coming out of retirement, and making the acquiring of familiar abilities feel logic within the games universe. What i love the most about the writing though is how funny it is. Gone are the meme-y jokes of the first title, instead G2 features a very light, sarcastic, 4 wall breaking brand of humour. The sort that is suitable for the whole family, but doesnt feel its for children. Plenty of laugh out loud moments, and its hard for me to name games capable of doing the same.

The games atmosphere is very upbeat and whimsical, and matches its brand of humour to a tee. The music suits the style, without being amazing.
I like the game stylistic graphics, and use of colours.

The gameplay is very much an ability gated metroidvania. But it does feel a bit more linear than other titles, with dungeons effectively being build like very long linear corridors, with a few branching sections for treasure and shortcuts to open once you get the dungeons ability. As far as the exploration side of metroidvania, it may actually be the weakest element of the game, as the backtracking feels a bit too boring because of the sparsity of travel locations.
The controls on the other hand are extremely tight, with one minor flaw. The game is proficient at throwing the player a lot of varied combat and platforming challenges, and often a combination of the two. There seems to always be a new ideia around the corner of what to do with your abilities. That said, i feel like there are simply way too many buttons being used, so much so that it is easy to get confused about where is where in the heat of the moment. The time shifitng and chicken form being on opposite triggers did make mixing them way more often than it should.
But thats the one minor flaw in what is otherwise an extremely well designed combat system.

Overal G2 is excellent, and i will be remembering its vibrant humour for a long time to come. It surpassed the original in my eyes.