Spelunky is a Roguelike

Spelunky is a Roguelike (SiaR) is a modified Spelunky game made by halibabica, a man who CLEARLY loves Spelunky, because this game is his FOURTH Spelunky modification. This original game, Spelunky, is made by Derek Yu, and since Derek lets anyone have the source code to his game, halibabica made plenty of work around this game. Since SiaR was not the original idea by the author, this review will not focus on the game mechanics, and will instead examine how the game changes with it's new format.

The premise for the original Spelunky is to explore randomized maps, encounter randomized monsters and treasures, and if you die, you must start at the beginning with all of your belongings are lost. SiaR uses a graphical style called ASCII, which was a standard format when the first roguelikes were developed. ACSII consists of characters on a keyboard to represent every object and character in the game.


"Now those red "m"'s are monkeys, and they are swinging on vines. That line with the "x" on top is a tree, and those "b"'s are bats. I hope you are getting this."

Gameplay: Since halibabica felt that ASCII would be too tough to identify at first, he used color to identify different groups of characters: Blue is for humans, red is for danger, white is for walls, yellow is treasure, gray is just a background in some instances, and purple is for interactive objects. This was a wonderful and simple idea to assist players in traversing the game. In the original roguelikes, there were either no color codes (Like Rogue) or letters there were colored, but the did not represent danger or help very easily. (Nethack.) Those roguelikes are wonderful games, but SiaR has a more comfortable learning curve, so this game is more approachable.

The biggest downfall of this game is the absence of an instruction manual to assist players in it's unique situation: The ASCII letter meanings. Since there is no instruction manual, you must reference the original Spelunky game, or remember the behaviors of each letter to know the effects of everything. Playing this game without first playing Spelunky will make the the game's progression very frustrating. For example, there are two "M" enemies: A capital "M" which is the man eating plant, and a lowercase "m" which is a monkey. The plant can eat you in one gulp, and the monkey steals your crap, so mixing the two up, can mean life or death. The original rouguelikes had help files that can be referenced anytime to help player to identify any unknown letters, and this game would benefit with a help file as well. As a result, SiaR is even more of a "trial and error" game than the original Spelunky.

At first, this game version looks harder than the original Spelunky, but in some instances SiaR is easier than the original game. There is less environment to look at, so you are less distracted. Since everything is color coded, hazards are much easier to see. In Spelunky, some hazards are camouflaged well, such as the stone faced arrow trap, but in SiaR, it is a bright red horizontal arrow in a black and white map. SiaR uses simple pattern and color recognition so by playing the game more, you start recognizing which letters are which.


"Those lowercase "i"'s are ice tiles and that backwards lowercase "y" is a yeti. They are very dangerous. Ignore its punctuation; he should be avoided."

Graphics and Music: The graphics only relies of the ASCII lettering and the its color (with some accompanying text.) All of the movements are as crisp as the original game, but sometimes when some characters overlap, one character will hide the other character. This happens because some letters have black box backgrounds. It makes a few deaths unfair. For example, you will find a monster that will cover a spike trap. If you jump on the monster, you will die because you hit the hidden spike trap. SiaR uses music from the NES game Faxanadu rather than the original Spelunky soundtrack. That was an nice idea. Using a retro soundtrack that is upbeat makes these letters cute and it changes the emotion of the original game.

Closing: Spelunky is a Roguelike is not for everyone. There is a great learning curve with getting used to a game with no animated graphics. There are two reasons to play Spelunky is a Roguelike. The first is to play a rouguelike style game in a way that makes you immersed in the 1980's rouguelike feel. The other reason is the desire to perform in an experiment in playing an undressed game: play a game with without its graphical style and see if Spelunky still is a good game. The game is almost seamless in its ASCII transition and is a wonderful experience for those who want to play Spelunky in an old style.


"You are now in a shop that is a casino. It sounds wierd, I know. You have played craps before, so you should be fine."