Indie gaming is completely in love with Metroidvanias, video games that characteristic sprawling maps, exploration enhanced by weapon and energy upgrades, and a spooky environment. The builders of Guacamelee mentioned, “What if we took all of that, and then made the combat and the story fun, too?” If you haven’t performed it already, Guacamelee and its sequel are each free for the following week on the Epic Games Store.

And you completely ought to play it. I’m actually not an enormous fan of Metroidvanias — I get simply annoyed if there’s one tiny spot on the map I would like to search out to progress, and one extraordinarily particular factor I must do to unlock it, and there aren’t any apparent connections between the 2. But Guacamelee solves that downside in essentially the most direct approach attainable: by letting you beat the crap out of just about all the pieces together with your naked palms, in a fight system that takes direct inspiration from basic side-scrolling beat-em-ups like Streets of Rage and Double Dragon.

You’re Juan, a farmer who will get killed on Dia de los Muertos whereas your girlfriend will get kidnapped and stashed in one other fortress within the land of the lifeless. But fortunately a ghostly gal pal offers you a magic luchador masks, which turns you right into a muscle-bound wrestler who can swap between the worlds of the dwelling and the living-impaired. You’ll must traverse each to beat up the unhealthy man and his military of henchmen, rescue your girlfriend, save your village, and usually do the hero factor.

Guacamelee mixes fast-paced 2D fight with a concentrate on throws and combos, with some eye-popping traversal strikes that may have you ever bouncing and capturing across the stage like a wrestling-themed rocket. It additionally has a splendidly distinctive 2D artwork type impressed by Mexican people artwork, and the sport is full of humor and nods to different indie titles. If you’re as bored with drab pixel artwork as I’m, you’ll discover it’s a breath of recent air. The upgraded Super Turbo Championship Edition contains 4-player co-op and additional costumes.

Guacamelee 2 builds on the unique with a fair larger world, extra powers and motion skills, additional problem ranges, much-improved graphics, and a better co-op focus. Both of them are free this week on Epic, and as ordinary, when you declare them and affiliate them together with your account they keep playable endlessly.