This game, if you haven’t played it, is a bitch.
It’s one of those fiendishly complicated games that organically sprouts from vintage classics like Rick Dangerous and Jet Set Willy; put simply, it’s a level based platformer in which you carefully maneuvre from the top of the level to the bottom about twelve times, and then fight one, final, titanic boss.What complicates this is the chaotic arsenal of weaponry, powerups, random encounters, environments and treasures that will litter your stochatically-generated path into the abyss. On a moderately successful playthrough you might collect half a dozen of these, and although each item bestows a simple and easily mastered (albeit never explicity explained) power, the meticulously crafted abilities interact in such a way that you don’t simply work out how to play Spelunky. You develop a style. The way that you play when you’ve found a cape and a climbing glove will land you dead in a hole if you try it with a shotgun and a bagful of ropes, even though the shotgun is arguably the most powerful weapon in the game. Continue reading
