Guacamelee! 2 is one of the best action-platformers out there, with some of the most creative encounter design & platforming in the genre. I was lukewarm on the first Guacamelee!, but Drinkbox Studios really dialled up the variety, pacing and combat.
The movement feels very smooth, and they do a great job with the control mapping, though sometimes it can feel like you're doing finger gymnastics with how much of the controller is being used at once. Every combat encounter had a unique concept to it, rather than combat for combat's sake. I love how they can layer in dimension swapping, form swapping and move-specific shields, but the game does such a good job of teaching you mechanics, that you never feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to manage. Every enemy is smartly designed and synergizes well with the other enemies to create unique situations that force players out of their comfort zone, rather than combat for combat's sake. The difficulty is well-tuned on either Normal or Hard and has a very smooth difficulty curve throughout, though a small handful of combat rooms went too far with the enemy spam on Hard. The abundant meta-humour has definitely gotten old at this point, but it's not enough to kill the experience overall. What really elevates Guacamelee! 2 among its contemporaries is its electric pacing. The rate at which it introduces new abilities, new moves and new enemies creates an addicting "one more room" mentality that permeates the entire experience. The game takes roughly 8 hours to beat, and that time absolutely evaporates.
Overall, the Guacamelee! 2 reminds me more of Celeste more than Metroid.
The movement feels very smooth, and they do a great job with the control mapping, though sometimes it can feel like you're doing finger gymnastics with how much of the controller is being used at once. Every combat encounter had a unique concept to it, rather than combat for combat's sake. I love how they can layer in dimension swapping, form swapping and move-specific shields, but the game does such a good job of teaching you mechanics, that you never feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to manage. Every enemy is smartly designed and synergizes well with the other enemies to create unique situations that force players out of their comfort zone, rather than combat for combat's sake. The difficulty is well-tuned on either Normal or Hard and has a very smooth difficulty curve throughout, though a small handful of combat rooms went too far with the enemy spam on Hard. The abundant meta-humour has definitely gotten old at this point, but it's not enough to kill the experience overall. What really elevates Guacamelee! 2 among its contemporaries is its electric pacing. The rate at which it introduces new abilities, new moves and new enemies creates an addicting "one more room" mentality that permeates the entire experience. The game takes roughly 8 hours to beat, and that time absolutely evaporates.
Overall, the Guacamelee! 2 reminds me more of Celeste more than Metroid.