This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

Do you ever have those games that you avoid but don’t have a good reason to avoid? I’m not talking about avoiding buggy or broken games upon release, or even avoiding games that aren’t genres that you normally play (because those are potentially legitimate reasons). I can’t really explain why I avoided Guacamelee! for so long because I like the whole elevator pitch. In a vacuum there isn’t that should scare me away, but for some reason I wrote the game off early and didn’t get around to playing it until just now. It wasn’t a console war issue because it came out everywhere, it was on sale plenty of times, and it had a sense of humor about it that seemed more genuinely funny then other games that try to sell itself as being “funny.”

All that doesn’t matter now, as we are here now and need to move forward. Guac-a-Melee is a Metroid-vania game that takes a lot of inspiration from lucha libre wrestling and Mexican culture. To rush through the plot here, you go from being a simple man to a hero with the help of a Lucha mask in an attempt to save the woman you love from an evil skeleton that is looking to merge the worlds of the living and the dead. We can talk about that plot a little more later, but you navigate a big world through the normal faire of jumping and fighting enemies, but as you progress in the game you will unlock moves that allow you to either double jump (that’s an easy one) or moves that can break down barriers between maps allowing you to traverse to new areas. For the most part Guacamelee!, actually color codes these sections, which is a surprisingly nice touch. This allows you to get a new ability (let’s say the red one) and then if you are so inclined, to look through the map for any red barriers that you can now break.

As I mentioned earlier, and what you can tell from the box art of this game. Lucha Libres are a huge inspiration for this game, so when you fight enemies on the screen your move set includes a lot of wrestling moves and some fantastical wrestling moves. You can grab stunned enemies and throw them, or suplex them, or even piledrive them into the ground. You unlock headbutts, a falling splash, uppercuts and more but these aren’t all just to break barriers to help navigate the world or find secrets, but because a big emphasis of this game is on fighting. Like in games of similar ilk there are enemies on every screen, but Guacamelee! has sections on some screens where you are locked into fighting waves of enemies before you can proceed. Here the game might even feel like you are playing a fighting game, because you can make your own combos outside of just single punches or kicks. Obviously as the game moves on, you have to worry about enemies with color coded shields and boss characters that can recover from combos quickly, but ultimately you will need to develop a few go-to combos that can keep the regular enemies at bay and finish them off quickly in order to advance.

Around the midpoint of the game, you actually earn a new ability that allows you to switch between the world of the living and the world of the dead. This is a fairly neat feature (and probably cost effective) because it takes the maps that you already know and are able to traverse them differently. For instance a cliff that seemed impenetrable in the world of the living, might have platforms across it in the world of the dead that allow you to cross. Switching between the worlds is as simple as pushing a button with no load between them, so if you were looking to 100% this game you could essentially switch between the worlds on every screen to make sure you are not missing anything. I like finding secrets with this technique but I loathe fighting with this technique. See, for some of the combat encounters have enemies attacking you from both worlds simultaneously, however you can only hit enemies that are in the current world you reside in, so not only are you trying to pull off combos or break color coded shields, but now you are adding in another element to each fight. This is by no means a dealbreaker for combat (something I actually enjoyed), but it can get frustrating and tough quick when adding another variable in. You won’t notice it that much when you are fighting 1 or 2 enemies between worlds, but when you are in a cramped challenge room and there are 10 enemies in various worlds it can be tough simply to keep track of what you and they are all doing.

I didn’t really talk about it, but there is a fairly small amount of enemy variety in this game. Most of the game will have you fighting against the same 3 different skeleton types (regular, ranged, fast). Once you get a little farther they start to peel back a few more layers, but outside of bosses we are probably only talking about a max of 10 varieties of enemies. The bosses themselves are few and far between (5 total) but are worthy challenges for a combat system you should be very familiar with before tackling the first one. Knowing how to dodge and unleash your best combos at precisely the right time is how you will survive, because even with a few upgrades bosses can whittle through your health bar fairly quickly.

Speaking of upgrades, at shrines, you can pay money to upgrade some abilities (health, energy, etc.) or buy new abilities (not traversal ones, but like a stronger piledriver). You use Gold to purchase these upgrades which you can get from fighting regular enemies or completing side quests (yes there are those). The better you are at fighting (long combos, not getting hit) can add a multiplier to your coinage that allows you to upgrade quicker. By the time I reached the end of the game (did not 100% it) I purchased all the abilities I wanted and never had to grind for cash. You get a special reward for those challenge areas, that can be redeemed for costume changes which have unique abilities tied to them as well. The costumes have both positive and negative traits associated with them (More money from fights, less overall health.. etc.), so I ended up playing the whole game without a costume change, but was still able to afford all but 1 costume.

Final notes… There is co-op (at least on PC) where you can Metroid-vania together if you would like, and plenty of things to unlock if you wanted to 100% this game. There are 3 different equivalent to the heart pieces in Zelda (one for health, mana, and Stamina). There are bonus orbs that if you find all of them you unlock the true ending of the game and probably a plethora of other things that I didn’t look for. I had a good time with Guac which I am glad I did, but I think I finished at or around 60% which tells me there was so much other stuff I missed. I think, especially now, that Guacamelee! is a very competent and probably on sale Metroid-vania that you can pick up for cheap now and have a good time playing. Some of the challenge areas can be tricky and I imagine that in not 100% the game that I saved myself some serious headaches at probably the more grueling aspects of the game. There isn’t anything that Guacamelee does poorly, its colorful has good controls, deeper than average combat, and some compelling characters. Are there some minor improvements I would like (the map can be very busy per section, more enemy variety, etc.) I don’t think there is anything category that I would give a failing grade to. Instead I would just give everything a C+ or B to… I had fun, glad I finally played, would recommend, but it also isn’t the greatest game of the world and no single thing it does is amaze-balls that needs to be seen or experienced.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: Sorry, no

Where does it rank: Guacamelee! is a fun game, and I enjoyed it every time I played it. However, if I went a full 24 or 48 hours without playing it, it would never enter my mind, so despite it being a good game it is also just a solid B game. Its a good Metroid-vania, it has some humor and unique moves, and while the combat is good and the platforming is solid, I don't know if I would actively try to recruit friends to play this game over other games. I have it ranked as the 70th Greatest Game of All Time. It sits between Captain Toad (69th) and Blazing Dragons (71st), this is out of 159 total games, so it is a little bit above the top half of the games. Maybe the draw to this game is a full 2p campaign, which I sadly didn't get to play, but as I played single player I had fun, but just not CRAZY fun.

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion).Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for listening

Future games coming up 1) Layton's Mystery Journey (Switch) 2) Rain on your Parade 3) Sparkle 2