Guacamelee Pins Down PS3, Vita Launch In April

Fans of fancy masks and stretchy pants have something to celebrate today as DrinkBox Studios announces the April 9 release of luchador-infused action platformer, Guacamelee, for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStaiton Vita.

In Guacamelle, players will take on the role of Juan Aguacate as he fights through the land of the living (and the dead) in order to save El Presidente’s daughter from the skeletal nuisance known as Carlos Calaca. In order to do this, Juan will need to harness the ability to shift between the two worlds at will, as well as master various other abilities like wall jumping, body slams and even turning into a chicken in order to crawl through tight spaces. There’s even a co-op option, allowing a lady luchador to join Juan’s cause and fight for justice.

An action platformer, Guacamelee features metroidvania gameplay with a lot of jumping around, discovering new paths, unlocking alternate routes with new abilities and taking on larger-than-life bosses throughout.

DrinkBox COO Graham Smith dropped by the PlayStation Blog to announce the game’s April 9 release date for Sony’s home and portable consoles, as well as discuss the evolution of the game.

“We began working on Guacamelee in February of 2011. For the first two months, the game existed solely as a PowerPoint presentation and some concept art,” Smith said. Eventually, the team put together a target gameplay video in Flash to show off to potential publishers. “This video was shown to publishers at E3 in 2011, and was also used as part of the materials that helped us get the Canada Media Fund award and actually have the funding necessary to make the game.”

And now that all of that is done, we can all look forward to playing it on April 9 for $14.99. a Cross-Buy game, purchasing Guacamelee for either the PS3 or Vita will make it available on both consoles at no additional charge.