![]() Spelunky’s charming music and colorful art is a ruse - it will punish the faint of heart and emotionally unstable. It doesn’t want you to proceed to the next cave, and you can go hours without making an inch of progress. Spelunky can feel like a complete waste of time. Awkward (although customizable) keyboard controls make it even more dangerous. Darkness makes each step a risky guessing game. Snakes spit on that easily agitated shopkeeper. Wasps corner you when you slow down on their honey. Harmless bones turn into harmful skeletons. Arrow traps just happen to propel you, stunned, into (you guessed it) spikes. Long drops are as likely to land you in safe water as they are to impale you in a spike pit. Each cave - there are four in each themed 2D world - is randomly generated, but is clearly built with some semblance of creator consciousness. Your actions aren’t the common denominator when it comes to death. What would I miss if I left? Why would I quit when I was so close last time? How would I tell somebody another incredible story about hunting treasures? Walking away from Spelunky won’t make sense in your mind. Yet, for a while, it’s hard not to focus on the failure you’re destined to keep repeating, the progression you won’t make, and the impossible skills you aren’t developing. Items in shops are there to sell weapons for self defense or replenish stuff you've used, but the skills necessary to succeed are there from your first try. You - and up to three local friends, if you please - have bombs to blow up the world, rope to save you from falls from the start, and that’s all you’ll ever need. ![]() Failure is a pervasive theme in Spelunky, but it isn’t the end of your adventure - it signals the start of your next story. I’m not sure I'll make it out of here alive. Eventually, I find him at the cave’s only exit. ![]() “Terrorist!” he screams to nobody, firing his shotgun wildly somewhere I can’t see. I steal the scattered wares from his ruined store, and he’s on a rampage. The shopkeeper I’d just ignored gets it the worst. I grab the treasure, jump onto the arachnid, and launch myself over the rock carving a new tunnel to my exit. The cave quakes, and a boulder comes chasing after me. My whip attack misses as the spider leaps over my head, cracking into a golden idol.
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