One lesson that I wish more modern video game developers would learn (especially those who design "retro" styled games) is the value of efficiency of game design. By that, I mean containing only as much as you need to get your point across as well as you can. These games tend to look back and emulate the good of what came before, while also finding elements of the present to amplify those things. A few games that come to mind that fit this description include Shovel Knight, Undertale, Random Access Memories, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Dark Souls. To that same list, we can now add Guacamelee, and what an entry it is.
Guacamelee puts us in the shoes of a burly farmer named Juan Aguacate who grows agave in his small, Mexican village. His humble life is torn asunder with both the return, and subsequent kidnapping, of the daughter of the president by the undead charro skeleton Carlos Calaca. To make things worse, Calaca then kills Juan, which sends him to the underworld. It's there that he meets an undead, female luchador, Tostada, that gifts him with a mask that changes him into a powerful luchador and sends him back to the land of the living. This places Juan in the position of being the only person powerful enough to take on Calaca before he sacrifices the president's daughter in an ancient ritual in order to ascend to godhood.
DrinkBox Studios was gracious enough to give Juan a wide array of abilities to achieve this task, and all of them arranged around dealing out as much pain as possible to the hordes of undead minions Calaca puts in his path. Combat is most similar to what one would find in beat-em-ups like God of War, or even Double Dragon. A series of combos can be done in succession, leading to a throw that sends enemies in whichever direction you choose. These throws, a few other moves, and a variety of upgrades to Juan's stats can be purchased from the myriad checkpoints (in the shape of ofrendas, no less) dotting the world. As far as navigation is concerned, Juan can leap with the best of them, lending to comparisons to the joyful jumps of the Mario Bros. franchise.
Let's talk about the luchador-loving world of Guacamelee for a moment, shall we? DrinkBox Studios crafted a world exploding with personality that is at once gorgeous, yet adorable. There are a number of opportunities for exploration of the various jungles, temples, fishing villages, and deserts. Even more, these opportunities often reward you, resulting in next to no moments of disappointment from going off the beaten path. A big part of this world are actually the people living in it, as speaking to them can yield new opportunities for exploration and upgrades, as well as subtle ways of fleshing out background bits of the narrative.
The majority of the game is based around the Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. as everything Juan does is related to it in some way. His entire quest is to keep Carlos Calaca from causing disharmony between the lands of the living and dead, and requires him to pay heed to both groups. In essence, this game makes literal the symbolism of Dia de Muertos. The player, along with Juan, goes through the act of actively working with the living and dead, sometimes going in-between the two worlds in order to bring closure to people in both.
At its core, Guacamelee is a distillation of the various cultural influences present in Mexico, whether in the ancient, Aztec-like temples that lay in the jungles (many of which contain Super Metroid-like upgrades in "Choozo" statues shaped vaguely like ancient deities), or the villages with a variety of churches, restaurants, and gyms for luchador training. Even the monsters are seemingly inspired by the art of native Mexican peoples, and not once does it seem to be mindlessly appropriating any of the iconography. In essence, it's outstandingly competent on all accounts, and that just at the least.
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