What with all the talk (and a less-than-stunning trailer) of a sequel on the horizon, we decided to take on Spelunky and give it as close to a well-rounded discussion as we could manage. It’s a game that has the honor of being both one of the greatest titles ever created, and also something neither of our hosts have been able to beat despite dozens of hours spent travelling its strange caverns. Not that defeating the game is really the point of Spelunky, a game that’s very much about the pure experience of play, as well as the not-quite-so-pure experience of being endlessly hurled by a yeti into the same wall for all of eternity. Topics include good procedural generation vs. bad procedural generation, how secrets and Easter eggs work in the age of the Internet, and how well Spelunky, already five years old, stands the test of time. As a bonus, Blake gives us some perspective how the game relates to Dead Cells, which takes a lot of the lessons learned from Spelunky and gives them a new twist, while Sean silently wonders whether the term Roguevania used by Dead Cells’ creators means that Spelunky should be called a Mariovania, but decides this is too stupid to say out loud.

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