I first dove in to Spelunky when I picked it up on a steam sale a little over a year ago. I had always had interest, but I was hesitant to pick it up for full price for fear that it wouldn't grab me. The learning curve was daunting, so much so that I walked away after only playing for a few hours. Being no stranger to difficult games, I couldn't help but feel disappointed in myself.

Not much later, Patrick started his "Spelunkin' with Scoops" feature. I try to consume most content here, so I kept up with it, mostly only listening while I was at work. Never would I have imagined how deep the game went in terms of mechanics. I was under the impression it was a "get as far as you can with the highest score" kind of game. Patrick's interest renewed my own interest, and I began playing every day for months.

There was success, there was failure, but I was always learning. I was hooked and had a desire to get better and better. Eventually, I "beat" the game. I made it to Olmec, stomped him, and then...now what? There were still the daily challenges, but I was no where near skilled enough to race to the top of the leader boards. The only leader boards I ever took seriously were Super Meat Boy's because it's probably my favorite platformer ever. "Spelunkin' With Scoops" introduced the path to Hell to me, and the secret boss, Yama. But was I dedicated enough to do that? At the time, not so much.

Now, after having stepped away from the game for months again, I'm back at it. This time, I'm set on defeating Yama. The fact that this game keeps drawing me back in is impressive. I'm nearing the 50 hour mark on playtime. I spent $5. I couldn't ask for more value out of such a small package. And I'm not stopping there.

I'm documenting this process on youtube, a first for me, so not only am I excited to be interested in the game for a third time, but I'm also trying something new. There isn't much of a plan, other than I love this game and want to tell people about it, (and there's something intriguing about having tangible evidence of the process).

Shameless self promotion.

If you stumbled upon this, thanks for reading! And if you haven't played Spelunky, go play it!

Spelunky rules, I play the daily every single day on Vita. It's always a good thing to pick up if I have 15 minutes to kill (unless I get deep on a run).

Granted, it's a crippling addiction, but a good one! Right...?

I eventually stopped playing because I don't have 40-50 minutes a day to spend on a single run ghost mining. I'd beaten Yama a handful of times and had moved on to practicing getting the plasma blaster from the Alien Mothership so I could get super high scores. Now I'm out of practice and still haven't gotten the speedlunky trophy, the only thing left for me to do now that I've cleared 1 mil (even if it didn't upload to PSN).

I haven't decided yet if I'll go for all of the achievements. Usually I don't worry about them. Today was only the second time I ventured into the mothership, normally I just ignore it, but I had wasted the Ankh and figured why not. The Alien Queen made quick work of me haha.