Spelunky

[KLG-7A]

http://www.spelunkyworld.com/

The excellent free roguelike platformer has been updated for XBLA release, and is excellent.

There's lots of new stuff, a fun FM synth + live instrument soundtrack, and it's all great value for money.

Fez might have been more "creative", but this is actually fun to play, and represents a decent challenge (I can beat PC Spelunky from start to finish in under four minutes, but I haven't even opened up the yeti stage shortcut on this one yet).

Recmended.

[KLG-7A]

Poor Spelunky. It's just not hyped enough.

[KLG-7A]

Go on, you shits. Play free Spelunky at least. Get to world three. Go on. You can do that.

[dredd]

 Along with Gods, Spelunky is one of the very few platform games I've ever felt compelled to finish - I finally managed to beat it after almost 600 attempts (but only after using the final shortcut).

[madhair60]

Teach me how to play the PC one!  Always wanted to get into it.

[Dark Sky]

I played it for a short time a couple of years ago.  I really liked it, but found it incredibly difficult, to the point where I far enjoyed reading other people talking about their games than playing it myself.  I don't really have the patience to keep trying again and again at games I find far too fiendish, but I love the details of the game, such as the way there's little people with shops, but you can steal stuff from them but they'll keep hunting you down through the following levels...  And there's alters you can leave sacrifices on, aren't there?

[KLG-7A]

I played it for a short time a couple of years ago.  I really liked it, but found it incredibly difficult, to the point where I far enjoyed reading other people talking about their games than playing it myself.

The 360 version is even harder. I've barely seen Yeti world and I'm fucking great at Spelunky.

Here's how to tackle the PC version in easy chunks, and a guide I'd recommend madhair follows:

Start by unlocking every shortcut. Unlock forest, then from that shortcut unlock yeti world (which is the hardest to unlock because forest is such an ass), and then final world (which is easy to unlock as yeti world can be brief). Then from that last portal, win the game. First big milestone done.

Then it's time to get into the black market. Get the locked box in world 1 to find the Udjat Eye (which allows you to see cash--not items as well like the glasses--hidden in walls), which has a special feature of doing a hot/cold beep in a level in world 2 with the entrance to the black market hidden in it. Follow the beeps to find the hidden door, and bomb your way into it. There, in the bottom right corner, is a shop that sells the ankh for 50K. The ankh gives you an extra set of lives after you die, but that's not the main point.

From there, you can attempt a gold run. In world 3, with the ankh, find the big Easter Island head and die near it (press escape and F1, don't use bombs). You'll appear inside and pick up the hedjet (which stops the ghost from appearing).

In world 4, get the magic sceptre from the big mummy, and find that door you could never unlock. Hedjet + sceptre = you can unlock it, and enter Gold City. Second big milestone.

Third big milestone is completing all of the door challenges on the map screen (rescuing eight damsels in one game, finishing from start to end in < x minutes, etc.). That gets you tunnel man and his unbreakable mattock unlocked as a playable character.

Then you can go for high scores.

Make sure to check http://spelunky.wikia.com/wiki/Spelunky_Wiki for every new thing you come across, so you can learn all the tricks.

It's not a massively complex game, you just need to learn by dying a lot. All of the challenges can be taken in small chunks, so you work towards the big goals by wasting a lot of lives.

Just get to the end if anything. It's lorra funs.

[Dark Sky]

Thanks!

Obviously I'm not going to do any of that.

[bitesize]

The 360 version is even harder. I've barely seen Yeti world and I'm fucking great at Spelunky.

Too hard for me, I can't even get through the first world. Reached 1-4 a couple of times but never got any further than that. Please tell me that's the last part of the first world and I get to unlock a shortcut when I get to world 2...

Got any tips for people who can't even do the first sentence of your last lot of tips?

[KLG-7A]

I'd say play the PC version (a little easier) or keep trying and accept that it's normal to lose a LOT of lives in the process.

I think the 360 version might be a little too hard.

[The Wild International]

I've been playing this a lot in the last few days. It reckons my total deaths exceed 300(!). That can't be right, surely. I mean, it is right, obviously, this game is just so addictive. And incredibly hard.
I've managed to reach the Ice Caves, it seems much easier than the jungle as I got right to the end of it before dying on my first try. Can't get back there now, of course.

Love the shopkeepers and their battle cry of "TERRORIST!" if I accidentally drop a bomb on their merchandise, or crack my whip on their beards. Never survived the ensuing chaos, they go absolutely mental with a shotgun and I'm usually dead in seconds.

[KLG-7A]

The XBox version of World 4 seems to be made by people who don't understand games. How did that happen?