Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition review

INTENSOOOOO!

Review written by
Melissa Vach

July 27th, 2014

Toronto-based developer Drinkbox Studios originally released Guacamelee! on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita last year, with the Guacamelee! Gold Edition hitting Steam shortly after. Now the game is back again in the wonderfully wordy Super Turbo Championship Edition on Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, with new levels and features making the purchase worth it even if you've already played a previous version of the game.

For those unfamiliar with Guacamelee!, it's a metroidvania platformer that's not meant to be taken seriously. At all. You'll find comic references to other games on posters spread throughout cities, the characters speak in a self-conscious mix of English and Spanish, and the the player character Juan can turn into a chicken.

Guacamelee! centers around the Mexican Day of the Dead, which sets up the premise of the game: Juan, an agave farmer turned luchador, is trying to rescue El Presidente's Daughter from the clutches of Carlos Calaca, a skeleton Carlos Calaca who's merging the living and dead realms together. Juan has special masks he can use that offer him different abilities, ranging from gaining more experience to dealing more damage, but plot-wise they are what allows him to return to the land of the living and fight after having been killed by Calaca at the very start of the game.

The gameplay mechanics of Guacamelee! are solid and easy to use, with each controller button assigned to very specific move combos. These moves are good for combat or to reach different areas of a level, ranging from thrusting uppercuts to headbutts to destroy colored-blocks. New abilities are unlocked by destroying Choozo statues, and with each destroyed Choozo statue, Juan acquires new powers to destroy the blocks obstructing his path or allowing him to show off his physical prowess by jumping off of walls.

What separates Super Turbo Championship Edition from previous versions of Guacamelee! are the new Intenso meter, skills, and levels - but mostly the Intenso meter. The Intenso skill pretty much lets Juan go into overdrive mode; he becomes a bona fide superhero fighter for as long as his Intenso meter lasts. It lets Juan do far more damage to enemies, letting him take on huge waves of enemies at a time - that includes trios of giant skeletons pounding their fists at him. You can retain Intenso strength by recharging the Intenso meter, which happens through attacking more enemies and defeating them or destroying barrels filled with Intenso power. Once the Intenso meter drains all the way, though, then you'll have to wait until the bar's been refilled a good three-quarters before Juan can use it again.

And yes. You can use Intenso while Juan's a chicken.

Intenso is a fun addition to the game, and fortunately enemies have been stepped up to its challenge. For one thing, you'll run into far more enemies than previous versions of Guacamelee!, which is nice, and it's not beyond the game to lock you in a screen and send hordes of enemies your way at a time. Enemies are also quite a bit smarter. Some still won't pose much of a challenge, but newer additions definitely will. When just starting the game, the Intenso skill almost makes it too easy, especially if you've already played through Guacamelee!. But, as you progress, the difficulty becomes far more challenging and requires coordination and familiarity with the attack moves. Button mashing will get you only so far. Guacamelee! has a decent difficulty level, and if it seems like the Intenso power will make things too easy in the beginning, it actually just allows the game to get harder later on.

Juan acquires the Intenso skill the same way any of his other skills are earned: by thoughtlessly destroying all of Uachivo the goat-man's Choozo statues. Guacamelee! veterans may recall that unlocking new powers led to a screen with epilepsy-inducing bright flashing lights, but those screens have been changed to instead just be bright. Which is nice, even if it reduces some of the game's in-your-face cheesiness. The reason for the change is because the game will release in Japan and they have rules against rapidly flashing lights.

Beyond Intenso mode, some of the scenarios in the game have been redesigned in order to introduce new levels. For example, in previous versions of Guacamelee! Juan makes a straight trip to the desert to hunt down Flame Face. In Super Turbo Championship Edition, Juan is redirected to go through a canal before he's able to enter the desert. The canal itself is fairly straightforward and easy to get through, but it at least provides a new location to hunt for hidden secrets in.

Also introduced is a dimensional swap ability. Some enemies will have dark auras around them, meaning they can teleport themselves to a different part of the screen at will. They're not a huge hassle, but you'll have to keep pummeling them to prevent them teleporting too much.

All-in-all, Super Turbo Championship Edition is worth picking up on Wii U even if you've already played previous iterations of the game. Its graphics are still as beautiful and colorful as ever, with a well-done soundtrack that will either annoy you or put you in the mood for some humorous adventuring. The game does have a fluctuating difficulty, so if you're looking for something to challenge and entertain you, Guacamelee! is the perfect choice. And, if you're the sort who appreciates side quests and extra loot, there's plenty to do if you want a break to just explore and discover hidden treasures.