Spelunky

Mantraps are dangerous carnivorous plants found in the Jungle. They are one of the few enemies in the game that can kill a Spelunker instantly, regardless of how much health they have.

They will eat anything that touches them, even corpses thrown at them or Spelunkers attempting to stomp them from above.

Spelunky

As expected, these guys are evil! When killed, they drop a skull, which usually shatters when it hits the ground.

Originating in Chinese folklore, Jiāng Shī are the restless corpses of people who've died far from home. Due to rigor mortis they are unable to walk and must instead hop their way back to their hometowns to be buried. They're often depicted in the robes and caps of Qing Dynasty court officials.

Jiang Shi are no strangers to video games; they've previously appeared in Darkstalkers, Super Mario Land, Phantom Fighter, and Touhou 13: Ten Desires among others.

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Yeti!

Any video games with a Yeti is great!

Spelunky

If you pick up this gold statue… beware!

Since the game code was published under a license permitting noncommercial distribution and modification, community members have created many modified versions, or mods, of the original game. Most of these are available via the forums on the website for Derek Yu's video game company, Mossmouth, where a list is maintained of finished mods.

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Another unlockable character is the "Tunnel Man", who possesses a mattock instead of a whip. He is one of the good guys.

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Frogs… frogs are evil in Spelunky. We don't like them.

Spelunky draws heavily from La-Mulana and Spelunker for its visual styling, character design, gameplay elements and general mechanics. Essentially a dungeon crawl, it also adds elements from the roguelike genre, including randomly generated levels, a lack of save points, frequent and easy death, and discovery mechanics. It draws equally from the 2D platformer genre, including real-time interactions with enemies.

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Here is one of the "bad guy". This one is rather dumb and looks like a caveman.

Enemies include animals like bats, snakes and spiders of varying sizes, other characters, and monsters like yeti, man-eating plants and ghosts. The player can collect many items, mainly gold and jewels which add to the player's score, but also useful objects including bombs, guns, climbing gear and archaeological artifacts. Some of the latter have supernatural abilities, including kapalas, hedjets, crystal skulls and golden ankhs, though many of these special items can only be gained through secret methods, like combining other items together. Some items may be purchased or stolen from shops scattered about the caves, though the shopkeeper becomes a powerful enemy if you steal from him.

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In the game, there are three characters you can save… a blonde male, a dog and this blonde chick.

The player can encounter damsels in distress trapped in the caves, who can be picked up and carried to an exit. Successfully doing so returns health to the player. It's possible to unlock the damsel as a playable character; gameplay is identical, except that the player encounters spelunkers to rescue. Another unlockable character is the "Tunnel Man", who possesses a mattock instead of a whip.

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This is the main hero of the game. A cool Indiana Jones-like adventurer!

Players control an unnamed adventurer, known as the spelunker. The aim of the game is to explore underground tunnels, gathering as much treasure as possible while avoiding traps and enemies. The spelunker can whip or jump on enemies to defeat them, pick up items that can be thrown to either attack enemies or set off traps, and use a limited supply of bombs and ropes to navigate the caves. Levels are randomly generated and grouped into four increasingly difficult "areas", each with a distinctive set of items, enemies, terrain types and special features. Later areas contain better treasures, secret locations, and items. However, if the player loses all their hearts or runs into an instant kill trap, they will have to start from the beginning.

Spelunky

Spelunky is an indie action-adventure rogue-like game created by Derek Yu. The player controls a spelunker who explores a series of caves while collecting treasure, saving damsels, and dodging traps.

Isaac and I play it on the PS Vita and PS3. Its one of our favourite game of the year!

In the coming days, we will unveil all of the Spelunky mini figures Isaac got for his birthday!