After his first success with the heavy-hitting Spelunky, game creator Derek Yu set out to strike again with a sequel to the rage-inducing original. Spelunky 2 is a direct follow-up that carries on both the story and gameplay aspects of the original. For those unaware, the Spelunky series of games are 2d platformers that task the player with traversing the vast caves of an isolated moon. With there being many locations there are many things to find, including secret worlds, Dracula, and even a black market.

A run starts the player off with 4 health points, 4 bombs to destroy structures and 4 ropes to ascend or descend the level. The player’s objective is to travel towards the bottom of the level and make it to the exit. The game is based on a level-type structure, with there being 16 worlds (each containing 4 levels), 5 unique bosses and over 70 enemy/bestiary types to discover.

The main appeal of Spelunky is the randomness of the game. Each level is randomly generated, and you’ll soon come to find that nearly anything and everything will kill you in this game. Expecting to fail again and again may seem discouraging, but it actually drives the player to do better. Overall, Spelunky 2 is a great, albeit at times aggravating, game that you can sink hours into over a single session of playing.