Oh, Spelunky, you absolute jerk. You're tough as nails, you have a penchant for punishing mild mistakes with immediate death, you're prone to RNG beyond belief, and yet somehow, we always keep crawling back to you. Dare we ask, why? ...It's because of all those things we just mentioned. We've gone on record to call some hard games "Looney Tunes games", and Spelunky is FULL of Looney Tunes moments, let us tell ya.
Something about Spelunky just works where most other games would falter. We think the big thing is that, in Spelunky, sure, shit happens--but it's built into the core gameflow. Sometimes, you just blunder. It'll happen, and you'll know to look out for it next time. Sometimes, the game just pulls slapstick on you, and the only thing you can do is groan, before realizing just how long it's taking, and by the time you've actually died, you're chucking to yourself all over. Spelunky has a surprisingly high amount of respect for the player given how often it beats the shit out of you.
That being said, we do hesitate to give it a 4.5, just because its sequel kinda Cooler Daniels it a bit. But don't let that give you the impression Spelunky HD is "obsolete" in any way--it's just lower stakes. And some times, that's exactly what you want. (Also, Spelunky HD has a more interesting competitive scoring/speedrunning scene than 2 in our opinion thanks to all its weird engine quirks and bugs HD has that 2 doesn't, even if 2 has the best co-op, THERE WE SAID IT).
Also, @ Mossmouth, please hound Fangamer to reprint those Spelunky minifigures, the little desk caveman we have is getting lonely...
Something about Spelunky just works where most other games would falter. We think the big thing is that, in Spelunky, sure, shit happens--but it's built into the core gameflow. Sometimes, you just blunder. It'll happen, and you'll know to look out for it next time. Sometimes, the game just pulls slapstick on you, and the only thing you can do is groan, before realizing just how long it's taking, and by the time you've actually died, you're chucking to yourself all over. Spelunky has a surprisingly high amount of respect for the player given how often it beats the shit out of you.
That being said, we do hesitate to give it a 4.5, just because its sequel kinda Cooler Daniels it a bit. But don't let that give you the impression Spelunky HD is "obsolete" in any way--it's just lower stakes. And some times, that's exactly what you want. (Also, Spelunky HD has a more interesting competitive scoring/speedrunning scene than 2 in our opinion thanks to all its weird engine quirks and bugs HD has that 2 doesn't, even if 2 has the best co-op, THERE WE SAID IT).
Also, @ Mossmouth, please hound Fangamer to reprint those Spelunky minifigures, the little desk caveman we have is getting lonely...