Spelunky

Ironically I started playing this because I wanted a bit of a break after finally 100%ing [i]Hollow Knight[/i]. I try not opening too many "will take a lifetime of grinding to 100%" games at once, and I still have a lot to cover in [i]VVVVVV[/i]. So I figured I'd go for what I thought was a cute little indie darling platformer with maybe a bunch of collectibles. For some reason, I never got the memo about how brutally hard this game is. That's what I get for not checking average playtimes on HLTB before starting a new game. Anyway, that alone is of course not at all a reason to not recommend this game. I love challenges and a good grind, broadly speaking. Unfortunately I don't think that [i]Spelunky[/i] is a [i]good[/i] grind. The risk/reward ratio is way off for what I personally find enjoyable: for example, even a big section in [i]Celeste[/i] will only last 30 to 60 seconds per attempt. I don't mind trying that 100 times in a row to get better and better and finally succeed. In this game, on the other hand, an attempt will last 20 to 40 minutes. That is way too long when a single mistake erases all progress – I simply don't get any satisfaction from that aspect of roguelikes. I need the constant progression of a roguelite to keep me motivated. I'm not sure I'll even attempt to achieve much more in the game – I had some fun during the first 5 hours or so. Unlocking all the shortcuts, understanding all the mechanics, reaching every biome at least once. But constantly repeating the same initial phase of runs just to get a bit closer to a completely successful one hasn't been a lot of fun in the second half of my 16 hours of playtime so far. There's a few achievements that feel like going for those specifically could be fun, so I'll stick with it for a bit longer. But I have no intention of 100% this, so I'm making an exception from my usual policy to only review a game after reaching completion.