Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUESpelunky
Spelunky is a unique platformer with randomized levels that offer a challenging new experience each time you play. Journey deep underground and explore fantastic places filled with all manner of monsters, traps, and treasure.
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Video reviews
Reviews and deep dives from YouTube and Bilibili, in every language. Open the original video to watch.
Other voices, for reference.
Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A procedurally generated 2D platformer by Derek Yu (freeware 2008, HD remake 2012 on Xbox 360 and 2013 on PC) in which you descend cave levels collecting treasure and rescuing damsels, with permadeath and no persistent upgrades, widely credited as a foundational roguelike-platformer.
Critics and players treat Spelunky as a landmark of design. The HD version carries a Metacritic PC score of 90 (as listed by Steam), and the Metacritic Xbox 360 page shows 87 from 54 critics; Wikipedia also lists Vita 88 and PS3 83. Steam users are Very Positive at about 92 percent of roughly 16.7k reviews. Praise centres on tight controls, systemic interactions, fairness of the core rules, and extremely high replay value (Daily Challenge, co-op, deathmatch). The recurring complaint is brutal, instant-death difficulty with no difficulty options, plus RNG-dependent bad runs. It is not early access and is not abandoned, but the PC port is old: recent Steam reviews report launch trouble on Windows 11, no Steam Cloud, and a few reports of lost saves. Many players now suggest Spelunky 2 as the next step, though some Steam reviewers prefer the original.
What players praise
- Tight, responsive movement and a huge skill ceiling; players describe moves becoming muscle memory and runs feeling earned
- Systemic, emergent chaos: enemies, shopkeepers, damsels, bombs and traps all interact, producing memorable stories (for example an angry shopkeeper or an exploding frog wrecking a run)
- Short runs (typically 30 to 45 minutes) with no meta-progression, so skill and knowledge are the only progression
- Daily Challenge gives a shared seed and leaderboard that some players have used as a nightly ritual for over a thousand hours
- Lots of hidden secrets, items and areas (Black Market, hell/Yama run, journal, skins) that reward curiosity and experimentation
- Fun local co-op and deathmatch; co-op revives via coffins add social chaos
- Strong audio-visual charm: cute art and music contrasting with a ruthless game
- Critics compared it to a manual of game design; GamesRadar gave it 5/5 and IGN gave 9.0 with an Editor's Choice
What players criticize
- Many threats kill or stunlock instantly (spikes, ghost, mantrap, black knight, UFO, shopkeepers, yetis, explosions), so one small mistake can send you back to the Mines
- Some runs are decided by RNG rather than skill, for example a Black Market entrance next to a shopkeeper or no bomb merchant when a golden chest is walled in
- No difficulty setting or assist options; newcomers find it punishing with little on-ramp
- PC port technical problems: crashes when changing resolution, needing multiple launches on Windows 11, and Windows-only (no Mac or Linux)
- No Steam Cloud support; a few reviewers report losing progress after a failed launch and reinstall
- Controls can feel cramped or quirky to some (complaints about no auto-run toggle, cramped hands); critics also flagged control quirks and a throwaway multiplayer
- Some reviewers with mixed feelings called the game a poor grind because one death costs 15 or more minutes of progress
Distinctive features
- Permadeath with literally no persistent power-ups: the only thing that carries over is player knowledge and unlocked shortcuts
- A platformer built on roguelike principles, inspired by Rogue and Super Mario-style movement, which helped define the roguelike-platformer subgenre
- Levels assembled from hand-designed room templates in a 4x4 grid that guarantee a path, so generation feels authored rather than random
- Fully simulated world where shopkeepers, damsels, and even you can be killed or turned against you; killing or robbing a shopkeeper has lasting consequences in that run
- A time-limit ghost that punishes slow play, pushing players between careful and fast styles
- Daily Challenge with a global seed, and deep speedrun/score-chasing culture (hell runs, 'no gold' and speedrun achievements)
Divided opinions
- Fairness: fans call it tough but fair and say every death is your fault; critics of the game say the stacked instakills and RNG make it unfair
- Original vs Spelunky 2: some Steam reviewers say the sequel is better in every way, while others say the sequel did not improve on the first
- Metacritic user score is only mixed (7.4 on the Xbox 360 page from 216 ratings) even though critics rate it 87 to 90, reflecting players who bounced off the difficulty
- Whether the game is a replayable perfect roguelite or a frustrating grind depends on tolerance for permadeath without progression
Repetition and friction
- Dying to a trivial mistake late in a long run, then restarting from the Mines
- Stunlock chains from arrow traps, tiki men, boomerang throwers and shopkeepers that feel unfair even to experienced players
- Unlocking the secret path (shortcuts, Black Market, City of Gold, Yama) is obscure and convoluted when playing blind, which some compare to The Binding of Isaac
- Completing all achievements and journal entries can take hundreds of runs (one reviewer was at 920 runs), which some see as a grind
- Jank on modern PCs: needing relaunches, resolution crashes, missing cloud sync
- Co-op and multiplayer can be frustrating if friends are not on the same skill level (one reviewer called it not fun with friends)
Hoped-for improvements
- Steam Cloud saves and more robust save handling, given reports of deleted progress
- Better compatibility and stability on modern Windows (Windows 11 launch failures, resolution-change crashes)
- Optional difficulty or assist features, or a gentler on-ramp for first-time players
- Safeguards against the most unfair RNG placements (Black Market entrance near a shopkeeper, bomb scarcity) without removing the challenge
- Mac and Linux builds, or official ports to more current platforms (a Switch version exists per Wikipedia, but not on PC storefronts)
The 2008 freeware original already had a cult following; the 2012 Xbox Live Arcade HD remake was a critical hit and the PC/PS3/Vita/PS4 versions followed in 2013-2014, with a Switch release in 2021 per Wikipedia. Wikipedia notes it passed 1 million sales by 2016, sold 61,408 copies on Steam in week one, and about 577k Steam copies lifetime; PC Gamer UK named the 2013 remake its Game of the Year, and it ranks highly on Eurogamer's Games of the Generation and The Guardian's 50 Best Video Games of the 21st Century lists. Steam-revenue-calculator estimates about $10.6M gross and $3.1M net on Steam (Boxleiter method, treat as order of magnitude); SteamSpy lists 1-2M owners. The game is not in active development, but remains popular (the Steam listing showed around 60 concurrent players at the time of the data pull, with reviews still arriving in 2026). Known PC issues: Windows 11 launch trouble, no Steam Cloud, Windows only. Spelunky 2 (2020) is the follow-up. Note: my web-search quota ran out mid-task, so OpenCritic could not be confirmed (null) and Reddit, IGN and Eurogamer pages could not be fetched; scores for Metacritic come from Steam's listing plus fetched Metacritic pages.
Community sources
- Top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews for Spelunky (local file) ↗
- Steam app data: Metacritic 90, 92.2% positive of 16,681, SteamSpy owners 1-2M, revenue estimate (local file) ↗
- Metacritic (Xbox 360 page): Metascore 87 from 54 critics, user 7.4 from 216 ratings, critic and user themes ↗
- Metacritic PC page URL; fetch returned the same 87/7.4 summary as the main page ↗
- Reception, per-platform Metacritic scores, sales figures, release timeline, accolades ↗
- Steam store page for Spelunky (review summary from local data) ↗
- Steam community discussions: Windows 11 launch issues, cloud saves, difficulty, daily-challenge scores ↗
- Estimated gross/net Steam revenue for Spelunky (Boxleiter method) ↗
- Fan resource hub: mods, tools, journal, daily challenge ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Spelunky (2008) is the classic exploration-focused roguelike credited with helping revive the genre in the modern era. PepperHead openly admits this is a controversial take: he is not a fan. He wants meaningful variation between runs, and feels every Spelunky run plays similarly. He respects the game and its legacy but finds the brutal one-shot deaths and style of play not to his taste, and places it in C tier.
What the creator praises
- Huge influence on bringing roguelikes back to the modern gaming world
- Feels like a big adventure with many worlds, secrets and things to find
- Rewards learning every trap and hazard if you stick with it
- Deliberate brutality is part of the design and people love that concept
- He respects the game and says it is fine that others enjoy it
Issues raised by the creator
- Few unique builds; runs feel fairly similar, with the same character each time
- Random elements lack a strong reason to exist without build variation
- Brutality and one-shot deaths frustrate him, e.g. getting killed suddenly in world three
- He lacked the patience to learn it, and did not play it when first released
- Exploration-only style is not what he wants from a roguelike
Design observations
- Focus is on exploration, worlds and secrets rather than build variety, which was its original goal
- Mastery comes from learning each trap and avoiding one-shot kills
