When Guacamelee came out earlier this year, we were blown away by just how good it was. With just the right mix of combat and tough platforming, it’s easily one of the best indie titles we’ve played in a long time. Now it’s back with some punishingly hard DLC called El Diablo’s Domain. More Guacamelee must be a good thing…right?

Well, mostly right. The DLC comes in the form of a series of 15 challenge rooms, each harder than the last. Each room focusses on a particular aspect of the game’s mechanics: sometimes it’s platforming, sometimes it’s brawling and other times it’s all about using your special powers. There are bronze, silver and gold medals available for completing the challenge with various levels of competence, and your ultimate aim is to get all 15 gold medals.

But don’t expect that to be easy. El Diablo’s Domain is difficult: insanely so. You need to be seriously good at games to get 15 bronze medals, let alone gold ones. The restrictions that the game imposes on you are, at times, ridiculous. Enemies that kill you instantly? Gaps to traverse that take up the whole screen and then some? Whilst difficulty is appreciated in games (the main game was perfect, difficulty-wise), El Diablo’s Domain strays into challenging territory way too often, to the point where it stops being fun. It’s a terrible shame, as the challenges would be a lot more fun if they were just slightly less…challenging. The rewards for your hours of effort also seem quite understated: you’ll unlock some costumes that modify the game’s balance slightly, by giving you extra stamina but reduced health, for example. These don’t really seem worth the effort you’ll put in to unlock them.

Nevertheless, El Diablo’s Domain is a worthy addition to Guacamelee, even if it is a little too hard. The challenges will still provide you with some entertainment, and the game’s trademark brand of humor is still present everywhere you turn (some “EA is the devil” jokes were particularly great). There’s also the fact that Guacamelee‘s main gameplay is, for all intents and purposes, fun. The way in which some of the challenges exploit this is genius, and unique riffs on familiar mechanics are certainly enjoyable. For the very low price of £2, it’s well worth picking up. Just make sure to insure your TV for when a PS3 controller ends up embedded in it after a particularly challenging level.

SCORE

El Diablo’s Domain is available as DLC for Guacamelee now, on both PS3 and PS Vita (reviewed on both platforms).

Review code kindly provided by Lunch PR