Guacamelee! is just too much fun. The combat is fluid and fun with tight controls. Platforming is kept fresh throughout the game with steady introductions of new techniques. Its story is well written with a good sense of humor and enjoyable Mexican setting. Quite simply, it's everything I'd want in a Metroidvania style game.
Combos, special moves (one of which is hilariously named Dashing Derpderp), double jumps, dodges, throws and grapples kept me engaged with the combat the entire way through. New moves are unlocked at such a pace that I never felt overwhelmed with too many options, nor bored with too few. Many of the new abilities also double as platforming tools. So just as you gain a wider range of battle skills, the platforming sections also evolve to require their use. There is a lot of great level design featured in Guacamelee! complete with plenty of enticing hidden treasures.
Even as a backseat element, the story shines with likeable characters and heavy doses of comedy. In particular, I enjoyed seeing some of the villains fleshed out enough to know a little of their backstory and how they came to follow Calaca (the primary antagonist). Guacamelee!'s soundtrack does a fair job of matching the setting and action but never hooked me enough to look into buying it. There is a nice atmospheric shift in the music as you swap between the world of the living and the dead. I think a person with very little familiarity with Mexican culture and the Spanish language will have no problems having a blast with this game. That being said, this is one case where I'm glad I took 2 years of Spanish in High School as I think it helped me understand or see the humor in a few situations.
I only have a few complaints with the game. The first is its native controller support, or lack thereof. From what I can tell only Xbox controllers will work automatically. I use a PS2 controller hooked up with a USB adaptor. This is the first game I've ever played where I had to use the external program x360ce (found online) to emulate an Xbox360 controller. Most games either work automatically or I can simply go to the in-game control options and set it up that way. Neither of those worked with Guacamelee! which is really unfortunate for a game that was designed for a controller.
Secondly, while I hesitate to call this a complaint, the platforming can be really hard at times. Whether that bothers you or not is entirely subjective. By and large I found the challenge to be gratifying except for just a couple of frustrating sections.
And finally, in a lot of ways calling a game too short can be both a critique and a compliment. For me Guacamelee! clocked in at 12 hours to achieve 100% completion on a normal difficulty playthrough. For an inexpensive indie game that's actually pretty good but as this review's title said: I still want more!