Spelunky on Vita – Perfect Portable Peril

Spelunky is not a new game. It was made available for PC in a more simple incarnation as early as 2008. It came out on XBLA several weeks ago. Those versions of the game, from its free origins through to more polished Steam, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, are all well worth playing. But on the PlayStation Vita, Spelunky has found its natural habitat.

The gameplay’s the thing, wherein Spelunky catches and draws you in. It’s entirely likely that you will be aware of its captivating blend of shifting stages and its take on permanent deaths but please indulge me while I explain the basics for newcomers.

You play as an adventurer, the spelunker of note. A little cartoon Indiana Jones, complete with leather jacket, hat and whip. Your goal is to descend deeper into some mysterious caverns, prompted by a discovered journal that promises riches and wonder. The mystery of the caverns in question lies mostly in their dynamic nature – they change each time you revisit them. And you’ll revisit them often.

The levels of Spelunky are packed with many and varied hazards. From instant-kill spikes and long falls to spiders, snakes and furious shopkeepers – there are many ways to fail. The goal is to collect wealth in the shape of gold and gems lying around or buried within walls. You finish a level by finding its exit. If you find and carry a gold idol to the exit you’ll gain a lot of wealth and if you find and carry a damsel to the exit, she rewards you with an extra unit of health. Dally too long and you’ll feel a chill down your spine and be chased out of the level by a large apparition.

There are chests to open and jars to smash. You’re armed with bombs which can be used as weapons or to excavate much of each level and ropes with which to climb to otherwise inaccessible areas. Sometimes you’ll find a shopkeeper who sells you various useful objects. But it’s all relatively transient and fleeting because if you die, you leave it all behind.

You’ll die a lot in Spelunky, in many different and amusing ways. When you do, you go back to the start. But you’re not really dying, our leather-clad hero wakes up after each fatal encounter back at the entrance to the caves. Every death is a learning experience. Every restart an opportunity for improvement. The frequent failures you’ll suffer in Spelunky are in no way disheartening because despite repeated replaying of levels, they’re never the same. You’re not learning to negotiate set levels, you’re learning the skills required to negotiate ever-changing levels.

It’s this constant amelioration that is so rewarding and so adroitly accomplished by Spelunky that it encourages that compelling feeling that you should just have one more go. Just one more go as your dinner gets cold. Just one more go as you’re made late for an appointment. Just one more go as you forego sleep. Just one more go as you miss your stop and end up on an industrial estate on the edge of town. Vita’s portability adds a whole new way to unwittingly slip free the bonds of routine.

While Sony might have started off the Vita’s life with grandiose promises of grand experiences, it’s the smaller, more swiftly accessible games that tend to support a handheld device for the majority of its life and there are no more intelligently designed and perfectly crafted than Spelunky. In short, Drake is very impressive but this adventurer’s different approach is just as valid and important for a portable console that shows very real promise as it matures.

It really is a perfect fit. Spelunky encourages short bursts of gameplay because you die so often. There are regular opportunities to raise your eyes from the screen, even though there’s likely little desire to do so. Three minutes of spelunking and you’re dead, pour your tea. Seven minutes spelunking and you’re dead, the bus is here. Five minutes spelunking and you’re dead, your wife is finished in the changing rooms. No longer, the need to dedicate time to sessions of Spelunky. Now Spelunky can offer itself during your snatched moments of available time.

On top of the engrossing nature of its single player mode, there’s a Deathmatch game type that pits you against three other players or bots in a kind of frantic, bouncing charge to a comical demise. When you die in this mode, your ghost can still annoy the other players, which kind of says most of what you need to know about the game. Each round is generally over in seconds, too, and you can play against local players on other Vitas or even PS3 consoles. Cooperative play is also possible across PlayStation family members, with the Vita offering a unique little window which allows you to roam off the main screen.

It almost goes without saying that the gorgeous Vita screen does perfect justice to the slightly retro, cartoon-stylings and the crisp controls are perfect for those firm buttons too. If you buy the Vita version, you’ll also get the PS3 version (or vice versa, of course) and it’s on offer via PlayStation Plus for the first couple of weeks of release for £9.59 rather than the usual £11.99.

Not to be missed and probably worth a tenner, even if you’ve already got an earlier version.