Use Your Vita as a Control Pad in Guacamelee

An upcoming PS3/Vita platformer is trying to steal the Wii U’s thunder.

The imaginatively titled Guacamelee is an upcoming platformer/brawler from About a Blob developer, Drinkbox Studios. It’s a culturally sensitive depiction of Mexico’s ongoing struggle with the drug trade and gang violence. Wait. No. It’s actually about a lucha libre wrestler trying to save “El Presidente’s daughter” from an army of sombrero-wearing skeletons, and it looks great.

While it doesn’t’ seem to be the most up-to-date representation of Mexican culture, Guacamelee appears to have some pretty neat ideas. It sports a simple dark/light world mechanic, lets you turn into a chicken and, thanks to its PS3/Vita exclusivity, lets you use your Vita as a control pad for the PS3 version.

“We’re integrating the Vita as a PS3 controller for Guacamelee, utilizing the Vita screen for a mini-map, and hopefully more,” Drinkbox’s Chris McQuinn told Joystiq. “Does this sound like a next-gen console you’ve heard of perhaps? As far as we know, we’re the first game doing this.”

The first game of this generation, perhaps, but certainly not the first game overall; I’m pretty sure Nintendo beat Drinkbox to the punch with those Gamecube games that let you use the GBA as a controller.

Guacamelee is being partially funded by Sony’s Pub Fund initiative, which offers to match the development costs of a project in exchange for a year of exclusivity. Sony is currently trying to use the program to encourage more developers to work on Vita titles. Despite the Vita’s impressive hardware, Sony admits it’s having a “difficult time” attracting third party support for the handheld.

Source: Joystiq