Sombre

Spelunky!

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I can already picture the Saturday Morning cartoon version of Clyde preparing fiendish traps for me, only to have a snake accidentally creep up behind him and trigger the whole thing right before I glide right by, completely oblivious.

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That happened to me about a month ago. Someone on my Steam friends list who used to play Spelunky all the time but stopped earlier this year was suddenly playing it again. Turned out it was actually his girlfriend playing it.

In my defense (because I believe SAM is referring to me here) this game was one of the few things actually installed on the SO's computer and I was just super curious to play it. So far I've only made it to the Ice Caves, but I find this game so rewarding to play. Maybe one day I'll have enough confidence to play a Daily.

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At that point I guess you can start more aggressively ghosting gems to pump up your score. Kinda boring though...

 

Very. I got to the point where the only things left to do were ghost to score highly, or beat hell. I'm not good enough to do the latter yet, and find ghosting gems super dull. I only take an opportunity to do that when a vault presents itself with along with some good ghost escape routes.

 

I've only been playing it on vita recently.

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My girlfriend is addicted to Spelunky at the moment. I find it as exciting watching her play as playing myself, because of the vicarious thrill I get when she discovers something new, or gets further than she has before. I hope I'm there when she beats Olmec for the first time.

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In my defense (because I believe SAM is referring to me here) this game was one of the few things actually installed on the SO's computer and I was just super curious to play it. So far I've only made it to the Ice Caves, but I find this game so rewarding to play. Maybe one day I'll have enough confidence to play a Daily.

 

I wasn't gonna mention anyone specific but since you pointed it out... yes it was you.

 

Also I totally understand what you mean about working up to playing the daily.  I didn't go near them until I could consistently get to the temple and even then my first few dailies were terrible.  I used to do warm up runs before a daily as well but I found that actually ended up hurting my performance on average.  For some reason I tend to do better when I jump straight into the daily.

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I used to do warm up runs before a daily as well but I found that actually ended up hurting my performance on average.  For some reason I tend to do better when I jump straight into the daily.

 

I found if I've not played for a few weeks, a warmup run helps, but if I'm playing once a day, same as you.

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Very. I got to the point where the only things left to do were ghost to score highly, or beat hell. I'm not good enough to do the latter yet, and find ghosting gems super dull. I only take an opportunity to do that when a vault presents itself with along with some good ghost escape routes.

 

Yeah I have the same approach. The only time I'll wait around is if there's a vault on the Moai Head level and I have the Ankh. For some reason I like suiciding by leaping straight into the ghost.

 

For anyone hesitant to start doing the dailies, my advice is to just go for it because nothing's made me laugh more than a sudden, stupid death in a daily challenge (the earlier the better).

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Yeah I have the same approach. The only time I'll wait around is if there's a vault on the Moai Head level and I have the Ankh. For some reason I like suiciding by leaping straight into the ghost.

 

For anyone hesitant to start doing the dailies, my advice is to just go for it because nothing's made me laugh more than a sudden, stupid death in a daily challenge (the earlier the better).

Yeah, there's something hilarious about dying in 1-2, and then finding out on the leaderboards that half of your friends also died on the same level for probably the same reason.

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this game was one of the few things actually installed on the SO's computer

 

hmmm

 

 

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hmmm

 

 

Hey it's surprising to see Far Cry 2 on that installed games list. I wouldn't have thought it was in your wheelhouse. Hmm.

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Finally got the Speedlunky achievement! My time was 7:04 seconds :D

 

(too bad I accidentally did it on my girlfriend's account. D'oh!)

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I picked up Spelunky again today, while drinking my morning coffee. Despite my months away I made it to the Jungle...and immediately landed on some spikes I didn't notice. 

I'm still in two minds about this game. The actual progression through the levels is fun, but when I die I immediately want to stop. I don't hit that quick restart button, I just turn it off. In comparison, when I play Rogue Legacy, I die, I immediately hit restart to blow my cash on upgrades, then find that I've already walked into the castle ready to have another go. Is that one tiny bonus of +5 HP making the difference between loving a game and finding another good?

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I think Rogue Legacy is better at giving you that push to continue.  Once you die you have all the gold to spend, which of course puts you back into the game because you've already picked another character and probably want to use the new upgrades/equipment/runes you just bought.  Spelunky on the other hand doesn't have that same sort of endless loop.  The only thing driving you forward is your own enjoyment of the game.  And obviously death in Spelunky is much more permanent since nothing carries over while in Rogue Legacy each life can impact the next in a direct manner.

 

Naturally it's just a matter of personal preference which one you prefer.  I like starting over from a clean state and working my way up again which Spelunky fits almost perfectly.  I enjoyed the progression in Rogue Legacy but eventually there's a ceiling (which admittedly you don't hit until around NG++) and once I reach that point I don't feel a drive to continue.

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The actual progression through the levels is fun, but when I die I immediately want to stop. I don't hit that quick restart button, I just turn it off.

 

I quit playing Super Meat Boy completely after the first time I died.  Now that's permadeath!

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 I enjoyed the progression in Rogue Legacy but eventually there's a ceiling (which admittedly you don't hit until around NG++) and once I reach that point I don't feel a drive to continue.

 

I got to that today, and I lost interest fast. I'm going to try the Daily Challenge challenge - i.e. do it every day for as long as possible. Maybe that'll spark up my interest again.

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I played Spelunky practically every day from last November to about a month and a half ago. The latter half of my long run I mostly just played the Daily Challenge. Then I was able to play only occasionally due to reasons, so I fell out of the habit. I still play the Daily occasionally, but my day no longer feels incomplete unless I do.

 

I've beaten Olmec two days in a row now, so I guess I haven't lost my touch. Yesterday I lost the Ankh in the ice caves and today I missed the Black Market entirely, so no Hell runs for me.

 

Having played two days in a row and typing this, I feel that I could pretty easily start playing again every day. I won't resist the call, since it's not a huge time investment, ~30-45 minutes per day. Speaking of which, it is pretty funny how the complete runs all tend to be within a one to one and a half minute margin. Olmec run takes about 31 minutes and a Hell run is 42 minutes.

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I like those tricks but the vast majority don't have any practical use.  They're fun though and they sure look cool if you can pull them off.  I've done them all at one time or another.  One trick that isn't shown there is another way of robbing the shopkeeper.  If you stand on the item furthest from the shopkeeper and closest to the door, and throw a bomb and jump at the same time, it will trigger the shopkeeper but you'll come down from your jump directly on his head.  From there's it's a relatively simple matter to grab the shotgun and finish him off.  If you have good timing, you can shotgun the shopkeeper into the blast as well.  It uses a bomb unlike the method shown in the gifs, but I've found it to be much more reliable for me.  When I tried the jump and whip method, I would often grab one of the shop items instead of the shotgun.  The jump and bomb method throws the shotgun toward the shop entrance and away from the items, although the bomb blast may also scatter them around.

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I think what surprised me most about it all is the sheer number of things that can work. The thought that's gone into the design is just wonderful. They also display the physics in Spelunky really well, which is probably my favourite part of the game.

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One of the chief joys of Spelunky is finding those things out for yourself, through natural play *ahem*

 

(not that I didn't watch the odd hell run to give myself a bit of extra insight :P)

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Part of my problem is that I'm terrified to innovate in Spelunky. Getting past 2-3 is such a fucking rare occurrence that the idea of risking something to get a small reward is crazy. 

 

Comparing to Dark Souls (which has a similar level of loss on dying), I innovated much more in that game because I picked it up so much faster. 2 or 3 hours in and I knew the basics and didn't constantly play worrying about dying, because I knew I could probably handle most things the game threw at me. Spelunky on the other hand, I am still very slow and deliberate, because I don't react correctly to a bunch of different challenges.

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