Drinkbox Studios returns with its greatest effort to date.
Since this is a Metroidvania (side-scrolling exploration, with hidden items galore) style of game, you'll find plenty of items throughout your journey, which help power your character up. Once you do, you'll find many challenging combat scenarios, some of which require you to switch between dimensions in order to effectively bring down opponents. This adds a degree of strategy that wasn't present in the prior Tales From Space games, making Guacamelee! all the more special as a result. But it's never to the point of frustration, because if you manage to lose a life, you don't have to start a level all the way over. The checkpoint system is quite balanced, giving you a shot to learn from your mistakes and fight on. Thank goodness.
In addition, as I mentioned above, some segments will require some deeper strategy, such as transforming into a chicken (to access smaller areas) and avoid trouble, since all you can do is peck through harm's way. It's interesting, and a bit challenging, but also humorous, especially when a goat-like friend introduces you to new combat abilities and techniques. In fact, the game as a whole retains such a sense of humor that you might come back through it, just to see what you missed.
The gameplay is perfectly fine tuned, just like the Tales games, with a fine sense of control. You'll pull off moves like a pro, while developing combos that can really put the hurt on someone. And the fact you get two versions for the price of one – the PS Vita and PS3 versions are included for the same $14.99 investment – certainly doesn't hurt. You can also cross-save across the cloud, continuing where you left off across both platforms with ease. Another huge plus, if we do say so ourselves.
