Spelunky

It's fun and relaxing game to play in some spare time.

i tried to play it twice. the first time, it crashed during the character selection page and the screen froze. i restarted my computer and tried again, and the second time i managed to select a character and start a game, and the very first item i picked up was a book, and the game crashed again when i tried to read the book. sorry, i'm not trying to play it a third time.

After 322 deaths I think I'm finally ready to review this game. Even though I've been nibbled to death, blown up, dissolved, pierced, pushed, stung, swallowed, and psychically brain-melted (to name a few causes of death) I'm still excited to get back in again and give it another try, and that's what makes this game worth playing. The Good: Rather than make a big bulleted list of all the things I appreciated about this game I want to focus on its most important feature. This game is one of the most well designed games I have ever played. And that thoughtfulness and polish touches every area of the game, from the graphics to the controls. The difficulty ramped up with each world I dropped in to, and by the middle of the game it sometimes felt tremendously hard, but even though I died in some spectacular ways the entire experience never felt unfair. That is quite a big feat since each level is randomly generated. In most other games with random levels there is at least some sense that bad luck in the level generation can make the game unbeatable. In Spelunky though whenever I died I knew it was my fault. I misjudged a jump or ran too fast into an unknown area. I made a mistake, not the game algorithms. The Bad: Like many other rougelikes, I died allot. Sometimes I died in ways that were so complex it took me a moment to process just exactly where it all went wrong (such as when an enemy boomerang pushed me into range of a monkey who pulled a bomb out of my backpack which blew me face-first into a tiki-trap). Those complex deaths though are simply a by-product of the sheer number of ways it is possible to die in this game, whether it is a simple as falling damage or as surreal as one of my bombs getting stuck to an enemy scorpion who proceeded to chase me around until we both exploded. Whether this is a bad thing though really depends on what you want from this game. This game reward perseverance with goodies, secrets, and a real feeling of accomplishment that you actually managed to navigate that nasty little maze. But casual gamers will be quickly frustrated along those same lines, since this game demands a commitment from the player before it gives up any of its rewards. This game is out to get you, and if you are a "lazy gamer" or you have low frustration tolerance this may not be the best game for you to play. The Verdict: For anyone who likes rougelike games, you need to have this title in your library. It is a modern classic in every sense. If you like platforming games like Super Mario, but you are looking for more of a challenge (and the ability to actually shoot enemies with a shotgun), this game is also worth the price. This game rewards the thoughtful player who examines each trap and setup to find a creative way through the level, but it can also reward the twitch-gamers who rely on skill and reflex. Most of all though this game rewards you for your personal investment. There was this golden moment for me where the overall difficulty of the game felt like it just melted away and I knew I could go anywhere and do anything in that game. My practice paid off! Then I died when I accidentally dropped a bomb in a shop and the shop-keeper lost his mind and blasted me. Oh well. Time to work on death number 323!

I'm not impressed by spelunky. If you live for side scrolling jumping platform games you will probably love spelunky, but I think these games are overrated in general (entire genre is a bit old and tired) and spelunky is insanely hard, it's just not rewarding. They should add difficulty settings in my opinion. If I really want to play a jump around platformer I'd rather play something really unique like Fez. Spelunky is kind of generic- jump on enemies to kill them, they touch you and you lose health, jump off and climb walls to progress through the level. Occasionally buy items. That's it. Also it's touted as a rouge-like adventure but it's really just a side scroller with perma death and random levels. That might technically make it rogue-like, but it lacks character progression. I was expecting a bit more rpg elements. There are items you can buy but there isn't really loot and no skills or abilities. It's more akin to a mario bros game than binding of issac, FTL or bionic dues, better executed rogue-like games imo.

Lots of 5 stars thrown around on GOG, as I often say and lament. But ladies and gentlemen, Mossmouth knows its - Controls - Jumping with skill - Challenge and Reward - How to have a skill ceiling - How to let you have your own style - How to delight you ever time you play I've played 60 hours or more on XBLA and I want people to love and attack the challenge that is Spelunky. Games like this only come around once in a generation, if that. Pick it up if you want a platforming skill-based challenge that will last you for months.