Spel-binding sequel is a gold mine
AGLEAMING diamond in the all-too-often indie rough of the time, 2009’s Spelunky fast became a bona fide cult classic. Like its predecessor, the follow-up by creator Derek Yu has cavernous charm and a mother lode of mayhem.
While 1980s kids will instantly be transported back to the heyday of the 2D platformer – with the dynamitefilled, similarly subterranean Rick Dangerous top of the nostalgia hit list – don’t let the lovingly chunky 16-bit art style, squishy critters and loveable crew of explorers fool you. There’s much more here than a rappel into yesteryear’s cave of wonders.
Spelunky 2 is known as a ‘roguelike’ platformer (read: tough). Put it this way, if the floaty, fuzzy platformers of the Commodore Amiga era are hopscotch, then Spelunky 2 is running across hot coals. When the intrepid Ana, seeking out her missing parents on the moon, shuffles off this mortal coil, she teleports back to base camp, losing all progress and items in the process. She’s then spat out again into a completely different, procedurally generated cave network with a new set of randomised encounters, dangers and pathways. In Spelunky, there are no saves.
It’s merciless and manic. Every brick of every level is destructible, while death (grinning with slapstick hilarity) waits around every twist in the tunnel. This is a school of hard-learned lessons – scorpions lurk in treasure chests, skewering spike traps kill in one go – and that eerie-looking amphora? Do you really want to mess with the great beyond? The trick, then, is to work out what will kill you and what you can kill. Purple bats? Sure. Roly-poly lizards? Leave ’em be.
But Spelunky 2 is also a game of endless opportunities, a living, breathing universe where curiosity is answered in the most weird and wonderful ways. Do you hitch a ride on a turkey to float over traps or eat it for a health point? Why not throw its carcass on to a bloodied altar and see if you’ve thrilled the gods? If you freeze the shopkeeper, can you steal all his goodies? Will he hunt you down when he thaws? And that dazedlooking caveman – can you lob him to trigger traps? Who cares? It’s always fun to throw a caveman.
Every run in Spelunky 2 plays out like a fusion of Stop That Pigeon and Indiana Jones. Yet for all the chaos, this is a game of neat precision. Bats float towards Ana at the perfect trajectory to strike with the crack of her whip. Spring-trap arrows bounce off walls and cause double damage. Everything has a purpose, resulting in a majestic attention to detail fused with a mechanically poetic experience.
That said, this being a roguelike platformer, it won’t be for everyone. Aside from short cuts available in base camp after you encounter a particular character, progression is really non-existent. And unlike other challenging roguelike platformers, that sinking feeling of ‘perma death’ isn’t softened with a new weapon or a learned path. In a traditional progression sense, you’re always treading water.
In Spelunky, death means starting over and over – and over. But, as with life, it’s the ride that counts. And when that ride is on a fire-breathing rock hound, well, how could we say no?
THE VERDICT
A madcap, gorgeous game with a steep learning curve and a gameplay loop that’s as weird as it is masterful