Here’s a nice one. At Christmas I found the time to play through a whole game in co-op with my bro, on his PC. And what a good choice for it! Short and sweet.

Guacamelee is basically a Lucha/Latin-themed Metroidvania-style affair, with great progression, really cool areas and art design, a physical combat focus but still really well done exploration, funny and deep characters, challenging platforming, fun secrets and upgrades, and yep it’s good. There’s so much to love.

Stay away from the keyboard though! Poor bro was forced to use it because I claimed the USB controller, and had a hell of a time. Like Super Meat Boy, the gamepad is the way to go.

Having fun in co-op gameplay can excuse a lot of flaws in a game, so I can’t say with certainty what faults this game may have. Some parts may have dragged and there may have been more frustration with the challenging parts in solo, but it’s more bearable with two. We didn’t use alternate skins very much because their benefits weren’t obvious, but in the extra challenge bits at the end we used their specialised properties at times. Also the music got annoying but we did play it in marathon essentially, it was good for a while.

I’ve heard complaints about the overuse of meme humour and references, but this is just in posters in the towns, it’s no big deal. It’s smooth and fast-paced, with plenty of techniques for traversal to keep it engaging, as well as pretty deep combat for when that comes up. It evokes old-school charm while also being modern and slick. It’s just such a polished experience, made with so much love. It’s a perfect example of an indie hit. I think I can leave it at that, because I don’t know what I can say—like many great indie games, I wasn’t convinced about it until I played it. And like many great co-op games, the real draw is the shared experience with loved ones, but this is an excellent game to have those experiences with.