Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition is an expanded version of the action metroidvania from Canadian studio DrinkBox Studios, and on PlayStation 4 it brought new areas, bosses, and abilities compared to the original release. The hero is Juan Aguacate, a simple farmer who, after encountering a magical mask, transforms into a luchador and sets out to rescue the mayor's kidnapped daughter from the clutches of a skeletal villain. The whole world draws on Mexican folklore, on Day of the Dead celebrations, on lucha libre, and on folk art traditions, lending the game a vividness you won't find elsewhere in the genre.

Gameplay is built around fistfighting combat that's unusually rich. You launch enemies into the air, juggle them, interweave strikes with throws and special moves unlocked progressively over time. Crucially, those same moves also serve as a means of movement across the world, since you use them to smash color-coded blocks, break through walls, and reach platforms otherwise out of reach. The second key mechanic is switching between the world of the living and the world of the dead, where platforms and enemies appear or vanish depending on which plane you're currently in. In later sections you need to switch mid-jump, which makes the game one of the most demanding platforming challenges of its time.

Graphically it's a hand-drawn two-dimensional game with rich colors and sharp outlines that look great on PS4 and run completely smoothly. The music blends Latin American motifs with electronica and actively drives the pace of the fights. The game earned a reputation for its humor, which pokes fun at gaming culture and internet jokes alike, though that same trait struck part of the audience as excessive. Co-op play for up to four players on one screen made it a favorite title for playing together, and it still ranks among the best-playing metroidvanias on the console today. Credit for that also goes to the pace, since a playthrough fits into roughly ten hours and the game never lingers on pointless wandering. DrinkBox's success opened the door to a sequel and at the same time proved that in a crowded genre it's possible to stand out through a distinctive artistic signature.