Guacamelee! Series Review: Cultural Appreciation in Video Games - “I Made Guacamelee to create a Mexican Hero”

guacamelee by drinkbox studios

Any Juan can Wear the Mask

Guacamelee! 2 is a metroidvania action platformer developed and published by Drinkbox Studios in 2018. A follow-up to one of their most popular games, Guacamelee! A Mexican-inspired luchador adventure released in 2013. Besides the Guacamelee! series, Drinkbox has worked on a few other games before exploring the Mexi-verse, including — their first game Tales From Space: About a Blob, Severed, and their next game, Nobody Saves the World.

Drinkbox Studios Developing Guacamelee!

Drinkbox began internally brainstorming ideas for their next game after finishing development on Tales From Space. The team included less than 10 people at the time with each person pitching their own idea on a single page. They narrowed down their next project to a luchador side-scrolling platformer proposed by their concept lead, Augusto Quijano.

Quijano grew up in Mexico but moved to Canada for college. He relocated in order to pursue his studies in animation before joining Drinkbox as an animator for Tales From Space. Quijano felt nostalgic for Mexico as he had spent quite some time away from home which pushed him to pitch a Mexican-inspired beat-em-up game.