Damsel Get!

It almost doesn't matter how interesting the level you build is, if there's no goal in it other than the finish line, it will get boring pretty fast. In Spelunky, there are three different goals to aim for, asides from finishing the game, and each one ties to a different randomly generated item in the levels.

The first, and most obvious goal is to collect treasure. Once the terrain has been generated, treasure items of varying kinds are sprinkled across it like delicious candy, and it's Spelunkyman's job to go and pick it up. Each different peice is worth a different amount of money/points, which can be spent as you progress through the levels at shops or to create checkpoints, or stached up to create a high score, which in turn unlocks it's own rewards, which I'll get to later.

But even with collecting treasure, it's not quite as simple as that. The loot is spread out pretty evenly throughout the floor, but it's not always just laying out in the open. There are pots, which usually contain treasure but occasionally also a snake or spider (so you have to be careful when you look inside), there are chests which may require keys found elsewhere in the level, and there are shiny golden idols, which are important into and of themselves. Not only is each idol worth a staggering 15,000 points, almost five times as much as any other treasure item in the game, they present two distinct challenges. The first challenge is to remove it without dying. Like in Raiders of the lost arc, when Indiana Jones picks the idol off the pedestal and has to outrun a giant boulder, different areas have a number of different traps guarding their treasures. From giant rolling boulders to floors collapsing into piranah pools, and even the dreaded falling ceiling, each one must be escaped simply to *get* the idol in the first place. Then, as a secondary challenge, unlike the rest of the treasure, you have to navigate the rest of the level and physically bring it to the exit door before you get your reward. This means you can't attack (short of throwing the idol, which works, but may cause you to lose it), you can't drop bombs or use ropes, and you have to be very careful dropping off of high ledges because you can't grab onto most ledges without dropping the idol. The reward is great, though, because often an idol will be enough to more than double the score you've collected elsewhere in the level. And since you're shooting for about a hundred and fifty thousand points in one run for the top treasure challenge, it's a hearty bite.

The second challenge is also as you might expect, it's to kill monsters on your way through. Each monster has a distinct way of moving and attacking (typically just bumping into you), and you have to be very careful to rack up a hundred and fifty kills throughout the levels. You can't always just throw them into a trap, you have to brutally murder them yourself by landing on their heads or smashing them with your whip. Usually.

Each terrain type has a handful of monsters in it that will appear as the level is generated. The basic caves will have snakes, spiders, bats, and cavemen running around in it, all of which are pretty simple to predict and to smash, although the cavemen take a handful of hits to do away with permanantly. The jungle has frogs, piranahs, monkeys and yes, man eating plants. The ice caves have yetis and aliens, and if you break open a block of ice, you can uncover frozen cavement too. Finally the ancient temple has cultists, and a mix of monsters from all the other levels, just to keep you on your toes. They're placed randomly too, and it's an occasional inconvienence to find and reach, or epecially kill them, but it's always tempting to wreak havok as you pass through.

But there's one more twist on monsters, and that's special levels. In special levels, the normal rules for generating monsters are put on hold for special rules. There are bosses for almost each type of monsters, giant spiders, fish, aliens, yeti or the feirceome giant mummy, and a few special levels for the others - snake pits, undead monsters, and dark rooms (which are like boss levels for traps). Bosses are still only worth one monster despite their eighteen hit points (to a normal monster's one, or occasionally three) but always drop two things: treasure and items. Treasure is great for obvious reasons, but items make it worth to kill the bosses, because for the rare time you generate an item shop, do you really want to spend two levels of treasure just to grab the high-jump-shoes? Bosses all have special areas and attacks all to themselves, and bypassing them is almost always easier than fighting them, but the occasional fight against something so giant is fun, challenging, and rewarding - making this more than a little side-quest.

Finally we come to the last type challenge in the game, rescuing trapped damsels. Damsels will appear on about every second level you play, and can appear absolutely anywhere, giving them equal chances of appearing on flat ground or on a hard-to-reach ledge. Once you rescue them, you have to carry them all the way to the exit (often harder than not), and you can't even throw them like you can the idols, as they only have a few hits before you kill them. Damsels are fragile after all.

But damsels offer you one of the best rewards in the game, even outside of attempting to rescue nine of them in a fifteen level game; each time you successfully rescue them, you gain an extra hit point. You start with four, and this is the only way to empower youself with more, making the damsels expressly important to surviving to the end of the game. Then again, if you're really good you might want to sacrifice the damsel at one of the occasional sacrificial altars in the game, to gain favor with the gods. You gain different types of rewards for this, but they can be equally tempting.

If you eventually collect enough treasure, kills, or damsel rescues to get a high score in a particular area, you unlock the ability to play special challenges, or to play *as* different characters throughout the game. Those rewards are fantastic, because the different characters each have their own tricks, like the storekeeper's shotgun, or the shortcut guy's ability to dig through solid rock.

Every reward in this game really feels like you've earned it.