Retro Inspired
SPELUNKY 2
New games that wish they were old
By delving deep below the surface with his subterranean hit, Spelunky, Derek Yu found gaming gold and spawned a whole string of likeminded titles. With Spelunky 2 now released, Derek reveals its origins and proves that sometimes, less is definitely more
Words by Retro Inspired:
» [PC] Get this cute dog to safety and your reward will be a loving lick that will restore one heart of health.
IN THE KNOW
» PUBLISHER: MOSSMOUTH
» DEVELOPER: MOSSMOUTH, BLITWORKS
» RELEASE: 2020
» PLATFORM: PS4, PC
» GENRE: ROGUELIKE
Spelunky was a fantastic, and rather brutally difficult, surprise when it arrived at the tail end of 2008. Mossmouth’s game placed you in the boots of an intrepid explorer (later named Guy Spelunky) who delved into procedurally generated caves in search of treasure and other goodies. Designer Derek Yu took inspiration from a variety of diverse titles, including Super Mario Bros, Spelunker and the platformer genre in general, and Spelunky became so popular that he had the opportunity to create an enhanced edition of the game, initially for the Xbox 360 in 2012, and then later for other systems, including PS3, PS Vita and PS4.
He’s now back, 12 years after he delved into the caves, and fans will be pleased to know that while Spelunky 2 is very much business as usual, it also has clever new surprises to keep veterans on their toes. “I had some ideas for Spelunky 2 right after we released Spelunky on Steam, but I didn’t think about it seriously until I started writing my book about the game,” Derek tells us, referring to Spelunky, which is published by Boss Fight Books. “It was writing the book that really made me want to do a sequel, since I had to reflect a lot on Spelunky’s development during that time. It wasn’t long after that when I reached out to BlitWorks and Eirik Suhrke about working on it together. Thankfully, they were excited, too!”