I honestly didn’t think I could love Spelunky any more than I already did, but to see it translated so perfectly to a console that feels made for it is the icing on the cake. Spelunky is now available to pretty much everyone, and if I can teach you one thing from this review, it’s that you need to go and play it. It’s a modern masterpiece that you’ll never unlearn.
Spelunky
Derek Yu · Dec 21, 2008
About
Spelunky is a unique platformer with randomized levels that offer a challenging new experience each time you play. Journey deep underground and explore fantastic places filled with all manner of monsters, traps, and treasure. You'll have complete freedom while you navigate the fully-destructible environments and master their many secrets. To stay or flee, to kill or rescue, to shop or steal... in Spelunky, the choice is yours and so are the consequences!
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- Some aspects related to Spelunky‘s gameplay loop and the quality of its RNG features have aged poorly when compared to more modern and feature-rich roguelikes. Yet considering this was basically the progenitor of half of the indie games in the market, I have to commend it for still being visually appealing and tons of fun after all these years. I am more than sure that its 2020 successor, Spelunky 2, is a lot more robust, but if you want to take a deep dive into the history of modern indie gaming, Spelunky is a pretty good starting point.
- 8.0Nearly a decade on, Spelunky still has all the fundamentals in place and remains a great entry in the roguelike genre. Solid gameplay, plenty of secrets, and an addictive gameplay loop make for an easy game to recommend, though we’d say you should come into this one prepared to die a lot before you really ‘get it’. Whatever your tolerance for difficulty may be, Spelunky proves to be a nice fit for the Switch; it’s certainly worth your time if you never tried it before.
- Spelunky feels dated. Since its initial release, roguelikes and lites have evolved a great deal. That evolution, of course, is due in part to Spelunky. A daily challenge seed with a leaderboard is something I first heard about in Spelunky.
- 9.6Spelunky's moving parts are simple – the free version was built using the entry-level game development tool, Game Maker – but they click together in ways smart enough that they've kept me joyfully exploring its depths for years, without ever reaching the bottom. You don't need to be careful about this. Just buy it.
- Overall Spelunky is an addictive platformer which, despite it being so easy to die, has great playability and clever game mechanics. If you are willing to break through its initial sheer desire to kill you quickly then you will discover a game that is filled with great charm and replayability.
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