It’s the freeware game that scored a whopping 10/10. And as Resolution looks back at 2009’s best games, there’s no doubt in Lewis’ mind that this one deserves the top spot – even though it was released last year…

Spelunky’s the game that breaks all the rules, so I feel I’m allowed to do the same. Yes, it was released in 2008, if you want to get technical about it. Yes, it’s the freeware game I wrote about in the actual reviews section, awarding a perfect mark. Sod you all. You’re allowed to break the rules if it serves a purpose.

Here’s the purpose: to ensure every single person in the world has played Spelunky. I can justify my decisions, too. Sure, its first release was last November, but in only reached version 1.0 in September, when the review appeared – and it’s the improvements that were made in the meantime that really seal the deal. And yes, that review should technically have been in the Indie section, but it seemed such a shame not to lavish it with as much praise as a big red ten could ever manage. People have scoffed at me for saying this, but even if Spelunky cost £40 in a high street retailer, I would absolutely recommend dropping everything and buying it straight away. It’s my game of the year, and then some.

It’s a low-fi platformer that looks at least 20 years old. When you first start playing, and inevitably die within three microseconds, you might dismiss it as poorly designed, unintuitive and archaic nonsense. You’d be half-right. But then you play it some more, and some more, and some more, and the most astonishing game opens up before you.

Spelunky takes place over a series of levels, most of which you’re likely to never see. I’ll happily admit I’ve not finished the game, even though it’s technically do-able in under ten minutes. With no saves, limited lives and several ways to die instantly, it is ferociously hard. But the genius of Spelunky lies in its creation of its own rule-set – one that, with persistence, you can learn to understand and master.

Actually, rule-set is pushing it. It’s just one rule, and it’s that Spelunky is absolutely, totally unfair. Traps fire missiles from off-screen, turning you into a big red splat and ending the game. Enemies hide in urns, usually filled with treasure, popping out to kill you. Occasionally, a ghost comes along and you’ve to sprint as quickly as possible to the exit, or you’re haunted meat. Sometimes, the game turns all the lights out, and you have to manoeuvre your way through the caves in the bloody dark.

An inventive use of procedural generation means no two levels are ever the same, and the different stages evolve organically into subtly beautiful worlds, impossibly rich with detail. Available tactics are hidden but varied, and I’m still finding new ways to do things, even having played on and off for over a year. And that’s why Spelunky is so deserving of this acclaim, really: the fact that I’ve put more hours into it than any commercial release in the past 12 months. Maybe longer. Maybe significantly longer.

In my time reviewing videogames, I’ve awarded three 10/10 scores. Despite breaking the rules for it, Spelunky is one of the two I remain absolutely certain about.

HONOURALBE MENTIONS

//Zeno Clash (Review – 8/10)
The most lavishly creative game of the year, Zeno Clash excelled in every way that matters. Its first-person fisticuffs superseded even the quality mark left by the Riddick games, and its world design is second to none. At just four hours, it’s the perfect length too, never outstaying its welcome despite some repetition in later sections. That this is the first game from a small independent developer is just staggering. It knows what it’s doing more than almost anything else released this year.

//Red Faction: Guerrilla (Review – 9/10)
I realise now that all of my picks are games I reviewed. Do I subconsciously assign all the best jobs to myself? Hmm. Anyway, Guerrilla is the first Red Faction game to be actually, properly good. That it has become a game purely about environmental destruction, rather than one in which it happened to feature, is an exceedingly smart move, and there is no better sandbox to destroy than the solitary habitat of Mars. The missions aren’t too varied on the surface, but when you’re forced to experiment and improvise, a whole new world of maniacal opportunity opens up. A marvellous game.

//Machinarium (Review – 9/10)
It’s the best adventure game of the year, at least. Possibly even for half a decade. Its puzzles are devious and occasionally overly tricky, but there’s never a dull moment in this fascinating world. The beautifully hand-drawn landscapes are truly awe-inspiring, the music is some of the best I’ve ever heard in a game, the characters utterly adorable. But what took me back the most are how human its story felt, how much love had clearly been poured into its creation, and how completely enamoured its developers must be with classic gaming. An absolutely astonishing game that very nearly pipped Spelunky to the post. That three out of four games on this list are modest indie efforts says a lot for the quality of underground gaming in 2009.

Format: PC | Genre: Platformer | Publisher: Mossmouth | Developer: Mossmouth | Release date: 01/09/09 | RRP: Free!

By Lewis Denby

This is, to the best of my knowledge, only the second free game we’ve deemed worthy of a full review, rather than coverage in the indie section.

Freeware titles have to either be ridiculously high-profile or suitably awesome to qualify for such plaudits.  Spelunky fits into the latter category with so little doubt it’s unbelievable.  If there’s any justice at all in this cruel gaming industry, it’ll firmly cement itself in the former as well.

We first covered Derek Yu’s fabulous release back in the old magazine era, when J.D. showered it with praise.  That was in its long public beta phase, during which the game has undergone plenty of bug-fixing and received lots of swanky new additions.  The result is a finished game for which I have literally no complaints.  The graphical glitches?  They’re entirely gone.  The occasional freezing?  Very occasional during level transitions, but basically eradicated.  Everything’s refined, gloriously addictive and beautifully unbalanced.

//Deeper and down
The premise is thus.  You’re an Indiana Jones-esque explorer, goin’-a-spelunkin’ in a cave, for reasons cleverly alluded to (though never overtly revealed) in a semi-randomised opening sequence.  The goal is to get from the top of each level to the bottom, escape through a door, and repeat until the end of the game – an ambition you won’t realise for weeks, if not months, if not never.

Though it’s basically a platformer, Spelunky takes a lot of its brilliance from the Rogue-like genre, a collection of games spawning from 1980’s Rogue involving procedural generation and absolutely no save points.  Each time you die, you’re deposited right back at the beginning of the whole game, and each attempt sees you exploring entirely new play areas, constructed on the fly by the game’s code.

So while Spelunky is tremendously, flabbergastingly, ludicrously difficult, it never wears thin.  Effectively, you’re not flung back to the beginning of the game.  You’re flung onwards to the beginning of a different game.  It’s a staggeringly effective way of presenting the experience, and one that really could do to be explored in more titles in the months and years to come.  It means Spelunky has the ability to constantly surprise, and utterly captivate where other games would quickly grow frustrating and tiresome.

The game is frustrating, of course.  It’s chaotically unhinged, and not in any way fair.  Instant-death traps litter the world, and since Spelunky restricts your view to only a small area of a given level, they’re often out of sight when they bring your game crashing to an end.  Missiles fire from off-screen.  You’ll drop down a seemingly innocuous hole to find yourself embedded on an enormous spike.  You’ll break open a jar, usually containing treasure, only for a snake to jump out and eat you.  Spelunky does all this without any warning, it makes no excuses for its abhorrent behaviour, and it’s absolutely brilliant.

That’s the core of what makes Spelunky so viciously addictive.  It’s like gambling with hugely unimpressive odds.  You know there’s bugger all chance of that win, but goodness, the prize on offer is too good to pass up.  So you gamble away your time, hours on end, and you’ve still not beaten the game, but beating the game is the last thing on your mind.  You’re hooked.  You’ll never escape these caves.

[Continues...]