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A small but appealing modification to the source game.

  • Gibmaker
  • 06/04/2010 09:14 PM
  • 2507 views
Note from the reviewer: Most of this review has been proven false.

This game is a mod of Spelunky (http://www.spelunkyworld.com/), a side-scrolling platform dungeon-crawler with randomly generated levels. True to halibabica's confession, credit for practically everything about it should go to Derek Yu, the original designer. This includes good things like the large variety of interesting objects and the ingenious level generator, and the bad things like the hatefully unfair one-life-only rule.

What? One life only? Surely that doesn't mean you have to start over from the very first stage after dying once! Yes, actually. Which isn't necessarily bad, considering the levels are generated anew each time you play, but there are a few other things about the game that make it frustrating. First of all, levels come in a few different themes (cave, jungle, ice, etc) and to see the more advanced themes you first have to play through several levels of the early themes. I've only had a few tantalizing glimpses of the ice levels, but in trying over and over to reach them I've grown utterly sick of the caves and jungles. The random level generation mixes it up at least, but it really spoils the early levels to think that I have to play them over and over just to see the part I'm curious about. There's one more theme after the ice levels, but I've just given up hope on that one.

Not to mention the game is full of diverse traps and enemies whose behaviour must be discovered by experimentation. How was I supposed to know, until finding out by accident, that UFOs fall to the ground and explode when you kill them? If this had happened on level 1 I could laugh it off. But no, you don't meet UFOs until level 9. RESTART. ARGH.

Also, the mechanic of one-hit-kill does not marry well with one-life-only. Imagine spending ten minutes playing carefully from the beginning, approaching every turn cautiously, managing your resources and saving up health, only to have it all wiped out by a single flubbed jump over some spikes. You don't have to imagine this. It will happen a lot.

The lowdown is that, whenever I saw something new and interesting, my impulse was to just stay the hell away from it, lest it kill me in some unexpected way and ruin all the progress I'd made. Not a good atmosphere to create in a game where you're supposed to enjoy the unpredictably.

The Shortcut Digger is the game's answer to having to start over from the beginning, of course. Every four levels you meet him on the intermission screen where he asks for money (or 'calories', to use the conceit of this mod). After you pay him you will have the choice of starting new games from that level instead of level 1. But, well, the amount he asks for is usually over ten times as much as you have. I don't know how the game calculates this number. One time I had enough to buy a shortcut to level 5 (the amount he asked for was less than 6 digits, by some fluke) but that's as much as I've ever managed.

So now that that complaint's out of my system ...

After downloading the original Spelunky for some comparison, I found that halibabica didn't modify all that much. He replaced the player sprite and made changes to the appearance and behaviour of some objects to support the conceit of playing as a mantrap, but still, most of the experience of playing this game still comes from Derek Yu. I mention this because, if this review is supposed to focus on hali's efforts instead of Derek's, there isn't much to say. (Disclaimer: Apparently there are a lot of new features and bug fixes that I didn't notice?) That's too bad since, aside than the head-banging one-life-only rule, there are a lot of positive things that could be said. It's a fun, open-ended game with lots of choice, and the level generator manages to combine different elements into some truly puzzling situations.

What I CAN say is that the mantrap is phenomenally cute as he ambles into the cave for another hard day's work of dodging traps and rappelling down vines to stuff himself with cavemen and those annoying damsels. (After dealing with them in the original Spelunky, you'll be happy for the chance to just eat them on the spot.) It's almost a parody of your intentions in the original game, as you face terrible dangers and overcome epic challenges, just to gobble up humans as a brainless eating machine. Maybe I just have a soft spot for killer plants, but the fact is, the Tastes Like Spelunky mantrap has earned more of my affection than any other video game protagonist. (Except for Faith Connors, who I'm going to marry btw.)

One of the most mood-setting changes to the game is that you're now forced to pillage shops in order to get the loot, which was always an option in the original Spelunky, but now the shopkeepers shoot you on sight anyway. So really the only thing your accumulated calories are good for is paying the Shortcut Digger. (Which is fine; once I figured out what he does, that's the only thing I wanted to use them for.)

To diffuse my complaint about the difficulty a little, I also noticed that health is easier to get in this mod than in the original. You gain a heart instantly upon eating a human, as opposed to in the original where you had to carry the damsels to the exit first, and even then you don't gain the health until you exit the level yourself. The multitude of cavemen and other humanoids are also opportunities for healing in this mod. Yes, your "bites" resource limits the amount of times that you can heal in this way, but rarely have I run out of bites before dying anyway.

I also much prefer halibabica's new soundtrack over the original, especially in the initial cave levels. It's exciting and crazy, perfect to pump you up for some serious chowing.

At the time of writing this review I haven't seen the fourth and final level theme yet, and I suspect I never will. I also haven't concerned myself with the merits of the level editor, since, like so much about this game, it's not within the scope of halibabica's contribution. But for what it's worth, this mod made me smile and dream happy dreams about roaming the underground on a bundle of vines, consuming everything that moves.

My rating: 3 / 5
Best new animation: Flailing vines at the edge of a cliff.
Most hated enemy: Frogs
Most hated environment hazard: Totem pole spear traps
Most common death, according to the game stats: Spikes.
Most common death from an enemy: Shopkeeper.
Most hated terrain build scheme: Vines over spike floors. Seriously. I don't even try to do those any more.
Most common reason I died from falls: To flip hang over a cliff, you have to press down while STATIONARY, and THEN walk over the side. Pressing down while you're all ready moving will make you SPRINT OVER THE EDGE.
If this game were a flavour of pie, it would be: MEAT.

Posts

Pages: 1
Actually, Hali changed quite a bit more of the game than you give him credit for! Such things as new minigames, mantrap shops, item combos, bug fixes for bugs in the original spelunky, and additions to what can be done with custom levels off the top of my head. Counts as a major remake in my book anyway.
Gibmaker
I hate RPG Maker because of what it has done to me
9274
comment=33103
Actually, Hali changed quite a bit more of the game than you give him credit for! Such things as new minigames, mantrap shops, item combos, bug fixes for bugs in the original spelunky, and additions to what can be done with custom levels off the top of my head. Counts as a major remake in my book anyway.


Really? I guess I failed to notice. :\
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
The amount you pay the Shortcut Man accumulates between games. The amount you had to spend to open a shortcut to level 5 was lower because it was counting all the previous times you paid him as well. (As far as I could tell, this was the only thing that carried over between games.)
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
Yeah, basically what GOG and Soli said. Also, the level editor is WELL within my contribution to the game, as I enabled the use of TONS and TONS of stuff in it that the original Spelunky doesn't. These things have to be unlocked, though, which is done through buying shortcuts.

Thanks for taking the time to review it! The game is indeed mercilessly hard, but you can use the shortcuts to practice with tougher areas further in, and eventually reach the end. It took me over a thousand tries to beat the game once back in the original...
Gibmaker
I hate RPG Maker because of what it has done to me
9274
comment=33186
The amount you pay the Shortcut Man accumulates between games. The amount you had to spend to open a shortcut to level 5 was lower because it was counting all the previous times you paid him as well. (As far as I could tell, this was the only thing that carried over between games.)

THE SECRET REVEALED!!!?! Suddenly it makes so much sense. And yeah, that's definitely a better incentive to keep trying over and over.

comment=33195
Also, the level editor is WELL within my contribution to the game, as I enabled the use of TONS and TONS of stuff in it that the original Spelunky doesn't. These things have to be unlocked, though, which is done through buying shortcuts.

Well shut me up and paint me pink!
Pages: 1