Nintendo Spelunker

When I was in elementary school I started to have a fasination with caves. This facination grew in Junior High after I had did a science report about caves. It was also around this time that I experienced Pitfall II on the Atari 2600, which itself was a huge cave.

For several weeks I played the game every afternoon. Being a naïve kid I hadn't put much thought into the fact that you're goal was to complete the game. Instead, to me it was about exploring a cave. I'd go into the game room with snacks and soda do some exploring and then rest. do some more exploring and rest some more. A cave scenario is a perfect scenario for a video game. They are deep, mysterious, contain plenty of dangers, and can be rewarding as well.

It looks like Spelunker captures the experience quite well. I'm not certain as I haven't bought a copy yet, but I've watched a few youtube videos and played 30 seconds of an emulated version.

Games have gotten too complicated when they really shouldn't have. Consider a game like Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, San Andreas, or 4. You do missions that mimic real life. It's one thing for a game to look and feel more and more real such as the Madden franchise, but when you consider a game about work... it's just work! As games become more real they are going to seem more like real work. The focus is on realism and not fun. Remember when video games were a break from real life?

Spelunker seems different. It has a spirit of adventure. Here is a cave, how deep can you go?

Maybe in some alternate universe someone somewhere is downloading the latest map pack for Spelunker, but only after they upgrade their firmware. Then they will start the game and find the keys to the car. They will drive to the cave while avoiding pedestrians. Then they will get out of the car and walk to the cave. It will take an hour to get to this part of the game so they will use a save point. Then there will be a 12 minute cutscene about the cave and why you must explore it. Then for the next 6 months you will play the game in FPS mode only to find yourself at 98 percent complete and completely pissed off because of a bug in the game prevents 100 percent completion. Then you'll go to the store and buy a new game and start the process again. And while you're upgrading your firmware again I'll be exploring my cave and having FUN.