Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition

TAKING its cue from the Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival, this surreal take on Mexican culture is fantastic.

Guacamelee sees you play as Juan Aguacate, a luchador who can travel between the worlds of the living and the dead.

The 2D gameplay is somewhere between Street Fighter and Metroid with frantic combat with tongue-in-cheek skeletal foes wearing Mexican shawls and sombreros.

You rely on agility as much as brawn but there is a lot of fun to be had with the likes of grappling attacks, upper cuts and working on your combos.

But the game’s creators at Drinkbox Studios also pay homage to the Metroid series where you need to power up your abilities and learn new skills to progress.

Upgrades like ‘frog slam’ and ‘rooster uppercut’ only add to Guacamelee’s celebration of the bizarre as does the game’s vivid, almost flourescent, colour palette.

The game itself is quite short but it rewards further exploration and backtracking to utilise abilities that you did not have first time around.

Fans will also appreciate Guacamelee’s in-jokes and references to tonnes of iconic games and indie favourites.

A labour of love from a tiny studio in Toronto, this action adventure with a unique visual style is well worth your time.

The brilliantly named ‘super turbo championship’ edition also comes bundled with extra levels and bosses.

* Guacamelee is free to download on Xbox One until the end of the month