Guacamelee

[SecretAsianMan]

I did manage to get all the combos in the chicken training house and I actually did like some of the platforming challenges but that disappearing platforms one is driving me crazy.  I might try it a couple more times but I'm pretty sure my frustration will get the better of me and I'll just quit like a baby.

[melmer]

if you time it right you can double jump on the same block to get a breather, but actually i don't remember that helping... i think you just have to do it over and over until you lose your mind, and in that beautiful moment when reality shatters all around you the sequence shall be revealed

[feelthedarkness]

for the jumping puzzle i would jump, then uppercut, and reserve the double jump for re-positioning. also, an air headbutt is good for a 1-2 second stall to pick your landing zone. it was a good hard. it's worth it for the picture of el presidente's daughter trying to fight the chicken ref for giver her a red card. 

[sclpls]

I think it's more that people jump to the easy solution than it is anything else.

 

I've certainly never thought of Seattle as easy cyberpunk, though. Is that a common thing? Granted, I don't consume much cyberpunk.

 

I think Seattle is only really considered definitive cyberpunk for people really into Shadowrun. I don't think people that read, say, William Gibson novels, would associate Seattle as a particularly cyberpunk locale.

[sclpls]

Anyway, I made my way to Hell, and am looking forward to doing a bunch of those challenges to unlock new costumes.

[SecretAsianMan]

I went back and gave that disappearing platforms one another shot.  Got it on the first try.  I still think it was annoying as fuck, but I guess it was one of those cases where you leave after being frustrated and come back to find it's way easier than you thought.  After that, getting the rest of the items was easy.  I haven't done the Infierno stuff yet, might try that next.

[eot]

I got the wall-jump and went for the chest behind the Super Meat Boy-esque jumping puzzles. Conclusion: the platforming mechanics in this game are garbage. Or at the very least are they poorly suited to jumping puzzles like that. The combat is alright but I'm not a huge fan of the dimension swapping just to hit certain enemies. With the amount of enemies they throw at you it also gets hard to avoid taking damage and you don't have that much health.

[eot]

I believe I'm in the final temple of the game now and I have warmed up to it. You guys are right about the difficulty spikes though. They stand out even more because most of the encounters are almost trivial when you get a handle on the combat. I think part of the problem comes from how bloated the mechanics are. Five different colours of enemy shields in addition to dimension swapping? The encounters where they combine all that don't play well at all. It also bothers me how inelegant it is.

 

I feel like I'm a little harsh on this game, but I can't help it because it invites such direct comparisons with Super Metroid, which is one of the most elegantly designed games I've played. It doesn't just reference Super Metroid, it wants to be Super Metroid, but pointing out every way in which it's worse doesn't seem very fair. I do think though that the design of this game is an expression of a misunderstanding of why SM is great.

 

Taken entirely on their own the traversal mechanics do get interesting eventually, but the possibility space feels small given how many mechanics the need to span it. I guess it doesn't help that I played Mark of the Ninja right before this, which is a super slick game in every way that Guacamelee is not. However, even though I think it's more flawed I still enjoy Guacamelee more, and I guess that counts for something.

[tayopi]

I have Guacamelee Gold Edition already and I loved it. I'm considering getting the new Super Turbo Champion Edition, but I'm just wondering if it's worth it. Thoughts?