Damn you, shopkeeper!

December 31, 2008 11:21 AM

Spelunky is a (Windows-only) game that blends roguelike elements with a platform game reminiscent of La Mulana or the original Spelunker. Add this to the pile of fantastic indie platformers, I guess. [via]
posted by sonic meat machine (8 comments total)

I'll give it a try, I guess.
posted by m0nm0n at 12:01 PM on December 31, 2008

I gave it a try. It didn't scratch my roguelike itch.

er... yeah
posted by aubilenon at 12:04 PM on December 31, 2008

Gave it a quick try, it's cute. The controls are very fiddly and literal: jumping is hard, aiming is hard, climbing ladders and ropes is full of peril. Like an old school platformer, not exactly a failure but I find I have little patience for that anymore. Some of the complexity seems useful though. For instance looting a chest requires you press up, then X, then crouch, then X to grab the item. Which seems like a lot of steps until you realize you can press down and then X to lift the chest itself. That may come in handy later.
posted by Nelson at 12:18 PM on December 31, 2008

In the spirit of Nethack and Crawl, there are a lot of interactions that aren't exactly obvious at first: using a damsel in distress to set off an arrow trap; purposefully setting off an idol trap in order to kill some difficult enemies; getting shot by an arrow trap so that you fly backwards, bounce off another monster's head, and fall into a pit of snakes, where you die.
posted by sonic meat machine at 12:24 PM on December 31, 2008 [2 favorites]

I have been playing this game pretty much constantly for the past few days. It is hard. It is merciless. I even resorted to hardcore cheating because I just wanted to see the end of the game, and still it was nearly impossible to not die. This game is maddenly, mouth-frothingly difficult. And yet, it is one of the most addictive games I have played in a long while.
posted by Nedroid at 2:18 PM on December 31, 2008

So it's like a Unix game, only hard to use?
posted by DU at 2:45 PM on December 31, 2008 [4 favorites]

It's quite a cool game, with a number of special little things randomly included among the levels, although I've gotten blown up by a bomb I didn't mean to use more than once.
posted by JHarris at 7:16 PM on December 31, 2008

Brilliant stuff. Definitely worth taking the time out to play.
posted by pancreas at 12:39 AM on January 1, 2009