LogFAQs > #950818873

#18. Spelunky (PC, 2013)
This is quite possibly the most addicting game on my list, and this time, a true roguelike, and the best there is. The appeal of this game to me is all about the STRATEGY. Its a platformer dungeon crawler sure. But you really need to think about what youre going to do with your limited resources and time. Does spending time in the level digging for more gems make sense? You might need that money to buy something good in the shop, like a jetpack or pickaxe, but then you might wind up using most/all of your bombs or ropes, you might run out of time in the level and have to deal with the ghost, you might run into an annoying enemy on your way and take some damage to your much-needed health. These are the kinds of decisions I find my self wrestling with in a Spelunky run, in an attempt to make my life progressing through these levels as simple as possible, as going start to finish winds up being really damn difficult because near-perfection is required. Sure, you start with 4 health, but you have no i-frames at all so any one thing that hits you can bounce you around the level, sending you into more enemies, arrow traps, spikes, off the edge, any number of ridiculous things. And I gotta say, running on an intense 45-minute run through the game, all loaded up with great items, shitloads of bombs, and a ton of health, getting tapped by a random spider you dont see drop from the ceiling, to knock you immediately into an Abominable Snowman who grabs you and throws you off the edge man it really sucks but you cant help but laugh at the ridiculousness of how you can die sometimes.

As mentioned, this is a procedurally generated Roguelike dungeon crawler. The goal is to get to the end of each level! Theres lots of split paths and alternate ways to go, which provide a ton of other exploration and how you want to play the game options. You start with 4 health, 4 bombs, 4 ropes. The bombs blow up walls which can lead you to areas that have items or gems/money. The ropes allow you to climb to higher areas. Theres just an endless amount of fun stuff to try too in this game and a ton of mechanics. For example, you can try attacking the shopkeepers to take all their stuff, but youll enrage them and theyll go after your ass hard for THE REST OF THE GAME. But its worth it if you can kill them for their stuff and the shotgun they will try to kill you with. Theres altars to Kali, which if you sacrifice enough bodies (dead or otherwise, allies or enemies) youll be rewarded with various goodies. The jetpack is awesome and the best item in the game. Theres a whole myriad of stuff like this to explore with, and a ton of items which a lot of them may seem like they suck, but they all have their situations in which they may prove useful. As I mentioned the decision making earlier, maybe that gun that makes Spider Webs, normally useless, can be really helpful if youre out of ropes and need a controlled way to ascend. There are rocks everywhere. You ALWAYS want to have one on you (or anything to carry) because not only can you use it as a throwing weapon, but you can use it to set off arrow traps that shoot when they detect movement, or hit a bat at a tricky angle (since your default whip has a sad short hitbox), or Im sure you can find some other use

I mentioned the Ghost earlier too-I should clarify on that. You cant just dilly dally in each level, eventually the ticking clock of the Ghost will emerge after 2 minutes on each level. The Ghost can go through walls obviously, and slowly hones in on you. He is pretty difficult to avoid and if he touches you, its instant death. The Ghost can be useful too if you are crafty because he turns gold dust (normally worth small amounts of money, and found in most walls after you blow them up) into valuable diamonds!

I know that when other people have seen me play this game they comment on how I have such a different playstyle, but I think this game really lends itself well to playing however you want- Fast and brisk, Slow and methodical, spending all your gold right away on whatever you see in the shop, trying to save it for the more expensive items you may or may not find later, or not minding hanging around in the level long after the Ghost invades- if youre good at evading it, or have good means to evade it (like the jetpack!). This ticking clock mechanic per level is much like Crypt of the Necrodancers music.



When you die, and you will die a LOT, you can instantly get right back into the game, and youll be energized to get going again. This is the kind of game where each time you play, youll get better and understand more tricks to get farther. I cant say youll get further each time, because theres always some random thing waiting to one hit kill you, like when you miss the whip on a bat and it hits you as result before who knows what happens, but youll definitely at least do better each time.

So yeah-for me this game is all about the variety- the different ways you can approach a level, the strategic thinking of item conservation, and when to spend stuff, the ridiculous amount of hidden areas (and how you access them), and the fantastic difficulty level. Ill leave off with how you can get to the fabled City of Gold.

Its very simple. You need to find the key somewhere in 1-2, 1-3, or 1-4, then use that key on the chest hidden in the same level (often at the bottom of a snake pit) to get the Eye of Udjat, which allows you to see where gems are buried in the ground but also somewhere in World 2 Jungle it will start flashing when you get close to the secret entrance to the Black Market, so you need to bomb the ground to open it up, then in there buy the Ankh for $50K, which allows you to come back to life once if you were to die, except in World 3 Ice Caves where if you die on the stage with the Moai statue, you will come back to life inside the Moai statue where you can get the Hedjet which is one of the 2 keys to the city of gold; the other key is the Scepter which you get by killing Anubis in 4-1, and hopefully you have the glue and a bunch of bombs cuz the easiest way to kill him is to stick bombs to him while avoiding his black hole attack, but if you kill him you get his Scepter and can use the powerful Black Hole attack which is great except it can also fuck you over cuz youll probably accidentally attack a shopkeeper or gravitate a stray arrow into you or something but ultimately it doesnt matter because you need to find the City of Gold entrance in 4-2 and give up the Hedjet and Scepter in order to gain access and then youve discovered the City of Gold!!!!!

Or you dont have to do that. But you can!



Also, I'll just add that while I have been enjoying Spelunky 2, I think on the whole it's a bit more frustrating/not as good. They altered it so you can't jump as high which I still haven't really gotten used to -it drastically changes how the whole platforming feels- movement was much better in 1. There's also more "traps"you can get stuck in and need to use a bomb/rope. Spelunky 1 had very smart procedural generation, where you would NEVER find yourself in a situation where you NEEDED a bomb or rope to FINISH a level unless you used one in the first place to get yourself into a mess like that; ie a pit with no ledges to climb back up might generate in 2 but not 1. I also think the difficulty curve is off- World 1 is too hard and World 2 (at least the fire one) is too easy. Still great game though.

Next up: A game with a divisive ending.

---

~Wigs~ 3-Time Consecutive Fantasy B8 Baseball Champion
2015 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPION NEW YORK METS