El Gancho [Xbox]

Developed by SidralGames and EastAsiaSoft, El Gancho is a randomised platformer set in the same universe as Task Force Kampas. After the invasion of the Cocodu planet by the Pogovon empire, Cocos have been captured and taken to an intergalactic zoo so that the Pogovons can experiment, as they have been hunting out unlimited power, and discovered the Cocos have unlimited happiness. You play as a Coco who manages to escape, wielding an experimental laser-hook, and it’s up to you to save the rest of the captured Cocos.

Each level has a number of Cocos waiting to be rescued, as well as various food items for you to collect as you explore to gain health and increase your score. Finding all of the available Cocos triggers the end of the level, allowing you to progress to the next - so picking up all the food first is key, otherwise you’ll move on without it. Within the main menu, as well as the main gameplay mode, there are six Challenges available, with bronze, silver and gold trophies to earn. There’s also a section for stats, allowing you to see your total wins, hi-score, fav coco, food and how many of each enemy you have destroyed. There are ten Cocos for you to play as, with only the yellow ‘Original Coco’ being unlocked to begin with, and new costumed Cocos being gained as you progress - each with their own set of skills to help you on your quest, such as ones with the ability to double jump, leave a damaging trail and more.

Each level consists of a randomly generated layout, and along the way you’ll face off against various Bosses. Between every few levels, you can select from different upgrades to help you during your run - giving the game a roguelite vibe that we weren’t expecting at first. These can range from things such as infinite ammo, or having the collectible food items being drawn to you, and they can make a big difference to the overall gameplay, making taking on certain bosses feel a bit more manageable.

Controls are a tad confusing, with LB being to jump, RB to grapple, and RT to shoot. It feels quite awkward to move around as getting used to these controls initially feels counter-intuitive, but after a while you start to get the hang of things a little. Once you’ve kinda got your bearings with it all the physics feel decent, and getting a good swing to reach areas feels great; though it is missing the fluidity that it is aiming for, which is a shame.

The visuals are quite simple, with a pixel art style and levels consisting of various platforms, and areas having certain colour themes. The playable characters all having a base yellow form, with some slight variations depending on hat/ability, and they all do a twirl when they jump and swing, which is an adorable little bit of added flair. Boss designs are interesting, although there are only a few of these to speak of - so a wider selection would have been good, considering the randomised nature of the gameplay. The soundtrack is minimal, with only a few tracks that tend to repeat - however the funky arcade beat is fun to listen to and really keeps the pace flowing.

You’ve got Challenges to keep you busy, and these definitely can be pretty challenging to complete. These range from activities such as ‘hookless’ where you must complete the level just with making use of the jump button, as well as ‘Disc Room’ which is filled with spinning death discs, much like the game it is clearly referencing.

Priced at £5.79 on the Xbox Store, El Gancho is a fun game once you get the hang of it, and with all achievements able to be collected fairly easily within around an hour or so, it’s a decent title for achievement hunters. The randomised nature helps to keep things fresh, allowing for you to get plenty of replayability - and the challenges put up enough of a fight to cause it to make you have to continually improve before you’ll manage them all.

In the end, we decided to give El Gancho the Collecting Asylum rating of 6.5/10.

Are you interested in El Gancho? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to EastAsiaSoft for the El Gancho Xbox review code!