4/5 ★ – Spelix's review of Guacamelee! 2.

Playtime: 10 h 42 min Platform: Nintendo Switch Completion: Main Game, optional challenge dungeons and true ending (no 100% completion or DLC) After playing a few longer AAA games as of late, it's really a breath of fresh air to finally play a 10 hour Indie game that is just pure fun and joy. I have strong feelings about the first Guacamelee!, even all these years since I beat it. So I was really looking forward to play the sequel and get to return to this world and combat. And it's really great, like really really great. The gameplay is great as always, movement and combat feel amazing, this game went even harder on the platforming and I really really liked that. Combat is similar to the first game, but I liked the expanded move set for the pollo form. I also think that the writing is slightly sharper in this game and made me laugh out loud more than a few times. The music, just like the first game, is also fantastic. I also really enjoyed the now Pollo dungeons and the extra content to get the true ending, really fun to have these extra hard optional challenges. But it's not a perfect game, I can't shake the feeling that it's just very similar to the original game. Most of the mechanics are the same (I don't think Juan actually gets anything new in this game), the story is kinda weak and the villain a step down from the previous one. I was kind of disappointed that the true ending was barely any different from the regular one (although the road to get it was really enjoyable). Feels like this game will have a hard time sticking out from its predecessor, even though it technically might be better than it. But that is all well and good, both Guacamelee! games are amazing games in my opinion and 2 just stumbles at greatness. Recommended to all fans of metroidvanias, platformers, beat em ups or just fans of great games in general, the Guacamelee! franchise is a must play for almost everyone. 8/10