Play This Now: Spelunky

I'm about ten months late on this recommendation, which is right about when this was making the rounds on the gaming blogs, but I hadn't really gotten around to playing it until just the other night. Since then I've gone well past the 100-death mark, and that might be the most important distinction to make. If you play Spelunky, you're going to die. A lot. Basically, Spelunky is a side-scrolling platformer take on Rogue: the levels and items are randomly generated and placed, and your victory depends on luck just as much as skill. Maybe it's because I just played a bunch of pinball this weekend as well, but there's something about the way the game is structured that reminds me of it; No matter how sharp your focus one mistake can ruin all of your progress, and even though it's frustrating you know you can do better, and that keeps you coming back. It'll probably take a few deaths just to get the hang of the controls and get an idea of the mechanics, like how to successfully navigate one of the stores without an errant button press resulting in the shopkeeper blasting you with a shotgun, but once you do you've got a surprisingly deep time-waster that's perfect for short pick-up-and-play sessions.

Link, TIGSource Spelunky thread.

Link, Spelunky Wiki.

-K.