Developer: Now Production Publisher: Irem Release: 09/18/87 Genre: Action
Spelunker is one of the most frustrating and annoying NES games of all time. I am ashamed to say I spent far more hours playing it than I care to admit but boredom will do that to you. Yet in spite of its egregious flaws it was a massive hit in Japan. Spelunker was so popular a Japan only sequel was created which in my opinion is ridiculous. Surprisingly it is a far better game than its predecessor. But that is because the two have very little in common. Is Spelunker II worth playing? That is a trickier question to answer.
The demon Geyla has ruled Fairy Land for over a thousand years with no one to oppose him. As one of three adventurers you could care less. Your only objective is the treasure that lies all around Fairy Land. Spelunker II: Yūja e no Chōsen is one of two Japan exclusive sequels to Spelunker. The other, Spelunker II: 23 no Kagi is an arcade game that is similar to the original. Whether the changes in this version of Spelunker II are an improvement comes down to personal preference.
Right away it is immediately apparent this is a different title than its predecessor. You have a choice of three character classes with distinct abilities. The explorer is more or less the equivalent of the hero of Spelunker. He has the most health to start and can carry more items than the other heroes. The priest has the highest virtue and can kill the undead using their default magic attack. In addition they have a special attack that only works on bosses. The esper starts out the weakest but has the highest growth curve. Even though they can only hold one of each item they can teleport which is incredibly useful for exploration. Your experience working through the game changes somewhat depending on your class. But to be completely honest outside of one or two quirks (the explorer needs a rosary to kill the undead) it is largely the same.
Aside from health you have a virtue meter. This morality meter goes up when you kill regular enemies but drops when killing innocent animals like deer or desecrating graves. Virtue has an effect on numerous aspects of the game. Certain items require a set level of virtue to use. There are one or two points where your virtue needs to also be higher than a particular value to progress. If you fall in to a pit the Lord of Hell will either send you back if you have high virtue or kill you if you are an asshole. You also get one of three endings depending on your ending virtue. Raising your virtue is as simple as wandering back and forth and killing the same enemy so it is not as restrictive as it sounds. It is merely one more thing to keep track of as you play.
Most of the flaws that ruined Spelunker have been fixed. Your hero controls like a standard platforming character and the game is no longer so constraining in your movements. You can drop from any height and only take slight fall damage. There is no air meter and you have a lengthy life bar as well. The controls are still a little stiff when jumping off ropes, something you will be doing a lot. I will not lie, I wish that were better. But at least the game has a solid base to start.
The goal in every level is to locate the orb needed to exit the level. Finding this orb is a lot harder than it sounds. Spelunker II is similar to the Goonies II in its exploration minus the annoying first person rooms. You will build a small inventory of items but nothing as extensive as Konami’s title. Each of the game’s three levels is massive and unfortunately you are given no guidance. There is little variety among the game’s environments so prepare to get lost a lot. There is a heavy amount of backtracking and it can feel like you are wandering aimlessly like Metroid until you stumble upon that one item or boss that helps you progress. Of course once you know what you are doing the world feels smaller. But at least the journey to get to that point is less aggravating than in its predecessor.
Even though the controls and overall design is better Spelunker II is still an extremely difficult game. You only have a single life and there are no passwords or continues outside of a cheat code. The game is rife with cheap hits and the game tries to balance it out with health restoring items on nearly every screen. Depending on your class you will have a harder time at different points of the game. You receive no direction and the dual map system makes mapping each level rough. That leads to a lot of aimless wandering and eventually death. I wish there were some kind of guidance; the hints you find are so vague they are worthless. While titles like Zelda can be just as obtuse there is at least some logic to guide you. Spelunker leaves you to your own devices and suffers for it.
In Closing
In the end is Spelunker II a bad game? I would say not completely. Although the design is different Spelunker II feels like it trades one set of problems for another that can be just as annoying as the original. However many of the niggling issues that ruined that game is not present here. But to appreciate its good points you will have to tolerate some jank. It is kind of funny to think this is the game Super Pitfall was trying to be. I would certainly play this over that POS any day however.
