As part of PlayStation Paris Games Week, indie developer Drinkbox Studios announced Guacamelee 2, the follow-up to the 2013 cult “Metroidvania” hit Guacamelee. The title is currently announced for the PS4 only and slated for a 2018 release (or, according to the announcement trailer, “Coming Soon-ish”), but expect that to change within the coming months.
DrinkBox, the Toronto-based studio founded in 2008, has shown more interest in other consoles besides the PlayStation lately. Chief among these is the Nintendo Switch, which the company publicly revealed a desire to work with almost exactly a year ago. Since then, DrinkBox brought Severed, their curious first-person touchscreen-centric title, to the hardware, and dropped hints toward more collaboration. In a Reddit interview following the Switch release of Severed, game designer George Degenkamp noted, “I think we’ll most likely be looking at the Switch as a platform for releases of our future titles.”
Pick up that luchador mask: Guacamelee 2 is coming "soon-ish" to PS4, with enhanced chicken mechanics. #PlayStationPGW pic.twitter.com/izX52RVq4X
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) October 30, 2017
A multiplatform release for Guacamelee 2 would make sense, considering the wide reach of its predecessor. Guacamelee began life on the PlayStation 3 and Vita only, but quickly expanded to PC, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One. It was both a critical and commercial success, followed up with two enhanced versions, Gold Edition and Super Turbo Championship Edition. Thanks to its frantic pace, jolly sense of humor, and satisfying close-quarters combat, the game maintained a strong identity within the vast “MetroidVania” genre and is fondly remembered as one of the best.
Though we’ve only seen about a minute and a half of Guacamelee 2, there are a couple of new features on display already. Aside from the new environments and enemies, there appears to be a new grappling hook mechanic, as well as full four-player cooperative, a big step up from the limited two-player co-op in the original.
It’s anybody’s guess as to when “Soon-ish” is for DrinkBox Studios, but since Guacamelee is their flagship franchise as of now, expect plenty of info between now and its eventual release on—if nothing else—the PS4.