The jump to modern times from the eighties wasn’t kind to Spelunker.
The control stick/circle pad or whatever you want to call it isn’t the best control mechanism for a game that needs precise control. I tried to climb up a rope and misread a jump and died. Everything can kill you in this game and there are times when you think you’re home free and then one of your own items kills you, like a bomb. The bomb is used to destroy rock formations in your way. However, if you don’t go off-screen before it detonates, you lose a guy. The game will get on your nerves very quickly and by quickly I mean the “first jump off the elevator” quickly.
The whole point of the game is to try and get to the end of the cave and locate the underground pyramid and the treasure. By how tough this game is, it’s like looking for the fountain of youth, only a handful of people even know of it. There are ghosts that haunt the cavern and will come after you so like I said, EVERYTHING is out to kill you. To prevent death, you have to use the items you find in the cave such as flares and bombs. You’ll also have mine carts and rafts to help you find the legendary treasure. However, even things that shouldn’t hurt, like a dirt mound, could mess you up as you mistime the jump and bounce off.
The game actually has some things going for it such as music. This game has some of the catchiest music I have heard in a NES game. The title theme is very memorable as is the game over theme and trust me; you will be hearing the game over theme quite a few times. I also like the fact that the game doesn’t go out of its way to tell you how to do things and that was common theme in the NES days. The concept is a good idea but the actual game play is where the game hits a snag. The controls might be a little tighter on the Wii U version, but it’s tough to control the Spelunker in the 3DS version.
To conclude, Spelunker is a game available for download on the 3DS Virtual Console service as well as the Wii U Virtual Console. If you take one thing away from this game and store it in the old memory, it has to be the music. After I recovered from my coma from banging my head against the wall, I could still remember the music. However the negatives of the game far-outweigh the positives. The controls aren’t tight enough to have every jump be potential for death. Some helpful items like bombs could end up killing you as well. Timing is everything and being off just a little bit could end that perfect run in the cave. Spelunker is extremely challenging and will be quite an accomplishment if you get all the way through. Spelunker was released in 1984 and DOES NOT translate well into 2013 and for those reasons, I’m giving Spelunker for the 3DS Virtual Console a 5/10, a game that has minor things going for it but the negatives outshine the positives.
Score: 5 / 10
