Okay, so we established last week that I love platformers. It’s also a fact that I love Nethack, possibly the finest procedurally generated Roguelike dungeon crawler out there.  So when I learned through one of the BoingBoing.net of a game that was described as a combination of La-Mulana (which I wasn’t familiar with) and Nethack (which I was intimately familiar with), exactly half of my attention was earned. And when I downloaded Spelunky, and gave it a try, I immediately saw why this game was being called a contender for the best freeware title of the year…in January. The many reasons why (and a link to get it) after the jump.

This minigame sums up almost every deathtrap in Spelunky in one go.

The Quick and Dirty

- The original forum thread for Spelunky, with download link, at TIG Forums.
- Fan-created Wiki also available, continuing the fine Roguelike tradition of spoilers.
- Freeware platformer with procedurally generated levels and rock-solid original gameplay.
- Loads of enemies, items, and traps over four cave areas.
- Snag golden idols for loot! Snag women for extra health! Use women as weapons for your own amusement!
- Very fun, a great challenge, lots of secrets and unlockable minigames to keep you hooked.

Spelunky is the brainchild of Derek Yu, a freeware, freelance game designer and developer who’s best known for either Eternal Daughter, a platform adventure game, or I’m O.K., a self-branded “murder simulator” created in response to a challenge by infamous anti-video game crusader Jack Thompson. Yu released the first public build of Spelunky in January, and has been updating it incrementally since, working on bug fixes as he presses on towards 1.0!

Spelunky‘s basic gameplay is somewhere between Lode Runner and Super Mario Bros., or more precisely like Spelunker (NES), though I’m hesitant to mention that one simply because of name confusion. You run, you jump, you collect loot and hopefully make it all the way through the four cave areas to fight a mysterious final boss, itself a callback to a famous Mario boss fight. The only resources at your disposal are your trusty whip (of course!) and your lightning fast reflexes. Well, and some ropes, for climbing when you can’t pass an area or need to jet out of a jam. Oh, and some bombs too, that can kill particularly durable enemies, or blow a hole through the universally-destructible levels, or end your game (if you’re not careful).

The similarities between Spelunky and Roguelikes are several, starting with the level creation. Levels are procedurally–that is, randomly within an algorithm–constructed from a variety of square sub-areas of a certain size. You’ll see the same level features emerge if you play enough, with similar traps and pitfalls, but the “dungeon” is fresh every time. It keeps you on your toes–doubly so considering Spelunky also shares the Roguelike tradition of being unable to save your game and come back. If you lose your four points of health, you’re dead, and you go back to square one. Extend your life while you can by rescuing the stranded dames who sometimes appear, who will bestow a kiss for another point of health (and while you’re at it, make liberal use of them as thrown weapons–they’re surprisingly durable!). Sadly, there’s no suspended game feature yet, but Spelunky’s in active development, so perhaps there’s one around the corner.

Because of the one-life-one-shot model, Spelunky‘s difficulty curve is steep. It’s softened a little with the appearance of the Shortcut Man, who for a nominal fee will build shortcuts from the level-select area to areas 2, 3 and 4, but novice spelunkers should expect to die. Lots. The traps are the stuff of pulp fiction, including the traditional Indiana Jones-style rolling boulder trap, the when-idol-is-removed-you’re-dropped-into-water/lava/spikes trap, and sundry arrow shooters, spear towers, spring platforms and flying blocks of doom. Some of the more elaborate traps will yield golden idols, which are worth a pretty penny of loot if you can bring them to the door at the end of the level. The most deadly and rare trap holds the crystal skull, worth several times a mere gold figurine, but which releases a slow yet unstoppable ghost, whose mere touch kills. Creepy.

The levels aren’t just trap-packed, there’s also a wide range of harmful flora and fauna ready to kill you, from lowly spiders and snakes to fearsome yetis and mummy lords. Eventually, your whip becomes insufficient to deal with most foes, and your bombs too imprecise, so you need to upgrade your arsenal. You can scour the levels for valuable crates, which typically hold ropes or bombs, but more rarely will contain a variety of items to round out your spelunking arsenal. Who knows what you can find? Jetpacks? Teleporters? The remarkably worthless parachute?

Sometimes crates are few and far between. If you’ve got a lot of cash on hand, a shopkeeper will be your best friend…sort of. Shopkeepers charge a mint for their wares, which range from (still more) bombs and ropes to the “kissing booth,” where a lady of negotiable effection will trade greenbacks for smooches (and the points of health that come with them). Most prized is the weapon shop, which may carry the powerful handgun or the even-deadlier shotgun, arguably the best weapon in the game. You’ll quickly learn, however, that shopkeepers are armed for bear and have a trigger finger that could really use some cortizone. Any aggressive action against them, their shop, or attempts to walk out without paying will end up with you on the business end of a shotgun blast. Robbing shopkeepers is a dangerous art, and killing them is an even riskier acquired skill, but looting even one or two shops can swing the game into easy mode (at least, until you die yet another stupid death on the next level).

Ah, shopkeeper, we meet again. What a nice shotgun. May I borrow it...to kill you?

Make no mistake: Spelunky is hard. Really hard. It took a little over 1000 lives for me to set high enough scores to unlock two of the minigames, and in that time, I died a lot just because of terrible luck. You’ll have blind falls onto spikes, giant spiders will hunt you down across entire levels, angered shopkeepers will send their unions after you until you’re punished for your transgressions. But Yu understands why a Roguelike is great, and translated it into a platformer amazingly well. When you finally make it to a new area for the first time, the feeling is one of elation; when you stumble upon a shopkeeper ready for the slaying, the adrenaline starts to pump. Yu’s taken a well-established but not widely-known subgenre and has made it instantly accessible to the masses, albeit incarnated as a platformer. Go forth, Yu prophets, and preach the word: Spelunky’s a dive worth taking.

Next week for You Might Like It, I think I may tackle something other than a free video game for once. Those of you with comprehensive knowledge of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may be familiar with this one…one of the longest running comics written, illustrated and even lettered by a single author, you might like Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo.

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