Órale! Juan Aguacate and Tostada are back thanks to Drinkbox Studios, this time they are super turbo charged…championship? This Metroidvania-style platformer is packed with all the DLC and a few new things. New currency to buy constumes, new enemies and new maps to discover! Did I mention you will be facing one of the coolest characters in the game? Watchout because El Trio de la Muerte is here to do more than sing to you. Fight against tougher enemies with the new Intenso mode!

The game takes place in Mexico, where an evil skeleton Carlos Calaca and his squad of evil guys try to merge the world of the living and the world of the dead. You play as Juan Aguacate, a normal farmer who from his childhood has always wanted to be more, to become a famous luchador. Suddenly, when he discovers that La Hija del Presidente (the girl from his childhood) is being kidnapped by Calaca as the main ingredient for the ritual, Juan goes into action to save her at the presiden’ts mansion, in a simple manner, Calaca sends Juan to the world of the dead. Further into the story, Juan discovers a statue with a luchador mask, out of nowhere a female luchador shows up, Tostada, who then tells Juan to put on the mask. His dreams come true as the mask gives him incredible fightning powers, together they follow Calaca’s tracks to save La Hija del Presidente, but will they be strong enough to save everyone?

You can play this game with a partner locally, unlock achievements, buy different cool costumes and much more. Inside the cities you can talk to npcs with unique dialogues, some will even offer you side-quests which are basically you collecting those items from other npcs or getting inside their homes and launch their pet crabs back to their cages. There are special NPCs like the chicken master of the dojo, as you unlock new abilities he will teach you new combos that you can practice on his co-worker punching bag Poncho, if you succeed he will award you with coins.

Level design is pretty spot on, as you explore through corridors with enemies you will encounter many obstacles that will make you loop back through levels but unlocking new paths thanks to new skills or whatever changes you do to the environment. Most of the levels are very intuitive, making the flow of gameplay very non-stop action and platform, if you find yourself lost you can check you map and check the undiscovered areas. Of course like most of these types of games, you can discover secret paths that require certain moves and find upgrades for your health, stamina or coins.

Combat mechanics are detailed, combos can be performed if timed correctly and even so destroy any opponents, before mentioning the classic moves, the Super Turbo Championship Edition adds the Intenso mode, which is basically a bar below your health that you can fill and then tap it to turn into a super luchador with increased speed and strength but a limited time. You unlock new special moves as you destroy the Goat master’s statues; he will get annoyed at you but will teach you how to perform the new ability. These can be used to improve and maximize your combos against enemies or unlock new paths in levels, each allowing you to destroy a specific colored block. Some (if not all) of the blocks have colors that don’t match the button mapped to the ability, but for some reason you get used to it fairly quick, then of course you can re-map these. Be careful! These special moves spend your stamina blocks and will tire your character if spammed, forcing you to wait for them to replenishing back. Also be wary that the further you progress, the tougher the enemies, some will start popping up shields that will only get destroyed with the corresponding color of your special movies. As you reach battle rooms, you can go crazy and perform as many combos as you like until there are no more enemies left, rewarding you with a piñata that will burst into coins and silver. During your progress, you will find these sanctuaries with a talking skull that serve as checkpoints, healing you and selling you upgrades for your abilities, health, stamina and more! You can also purchase new costumes for Silver. Overall prices might be a bit high at first, so make sure to unlock what best suits you in the current situation, also, the longer the combos you land the more coins you receive. For tighter spots, you can polymorph into a chicken, while your attacks are much weaker, you move faster and can travel through tight tunnels to unlock new paths or discover upgrades, oh, and of course use the Intenso mode with the chicken!

Probably the most interesting gameplay ability you have is the power to phase in-between the world of the living and the dead. The whole area you are in will change accordingly, changing water to lava, appearing platforms, changes in environmental hazards and movements, these all make part on how a level is designed. Some enemies will only be damaged in specific worlds but they can still hurt you so watch out. Regular enemies have unique attack patterns that can easily be learned, but when you have a room filled with different ones you could get a hard time managing, sometimes you will even get to fight without a proper ground to land on while having to watch for exploding flying balls and being launched projectiles. Fortunately the game is fair enough to give you the appropriate tools to handle these encounters, such as very forgiving checkpoints.

The graphics in the game are quite appealing, simple yet detailed illustrations in this 2D platformer are truly eye candy. The art proposal is very cartoonish, yet it resembles many elements of the popular Mexican folklore. Color palettes are chosen wisely for each area, ranging from outdoor sunlight, dark-green caverns, and the the new area from the STCE: El Infierno, fully packed with challenges that will test your skill. As for character design, Juan is the typical luchador with a mask as well as her companion; the characters that truly stand out visually are the main bosses, each having a small yet interesting backstory, having unique abilities and each having an evil vibe, also, even without voice actors you can easily imagine their voices (yes I know, some have laughing sounds). Not to mention, the animations on all characters are very fluid and smooth, allowing for even more appealing visuals.

The soundtrack in the game is very well balanced in the stereo range. It includes classic Mexican instrumentation equalized enough make you feel like you have mariachis playing for you in the background. Music transitions properly in-between different dimensions, allowing you to not only visually know where you are but also trusting your listening. Ambience truly resembles the level you are in, whether light, dark, energetic, adventurous or evil.

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition offers many incredible features that should have been before, but now that they are in, the game feels much more complete. I highly suggest picking this version up, and if you have the Gold Edition on Steam you can purchase this one for a great discount.