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🦉 WE READ 204 OWNER COMMENTS
Spelunky 2: what owners actually say
Owners revere Spelunky's procedural generation and fairness but a vocal minority find it tedious and punishing compared to other roguelikes
What owners complain about
- Perceived tedium and repetitiveness SOME
Multiple veteran roguelike players report finding Spelunky 'enormously tedious and repetitive,' saying that no matter how many hours they invest, they never find satisfaction. One player who beat BoI and ascended NetHack still couldn't get into it despite 'many hours trying.'
- No power-scaling to offset difficulty SOME
Players note you can't stack items like in other roguelikes — you pick items matching your playstyle rather than accumulating power. One commenter explicitly wanted 'tools/equipment/power ups that offset the difficulty' and felt 'constantly abused by the game' because Spelunky isn't designed that way.
- Steep knowledge requirement SOME
The teleporter and other items can kill you unless you've studied external resources. One owner states: 'You can use it safely as long as you've read the wiki. If you're trying to play unspoiled, it will kill you.' The game effectively requires out-of-game research.
- Platform availability gaps SOME
No native Linux or Mac clients exist — owners confirm Wine(skin) is the only option. One user couldn't find it on the Xbox store, and another noted it may not be backwards compatible. Initial release was PS4 and PC only.
- Punishing instant death design SOME
Permadeath and instant death are core to the experience and explicitly cited as defining traits. While praised by some, others find this design exhausting rather than engaging.
What owners love
- Gold standard procedural generation
Multiple commenters call Spelunky the benchmark for procgen in game dev, praising how levels are always guaranteed completable. One owner played for seven years and calls it 'one of the greatest video games ever created' and 'pure perfection.'
- Deaths feel fair
Owners consistently report that when they die, they feel it was their own fault — usually from rushing or not spending resources — rather than the game being unfair. This is contrasted favorably against other roguelikes.
- Perfect for short sessions
A player who 'only makes time for games I can play for short sessions' calls Spelunky 'an absolute godsend,' highlighting it as ideal for constrained gaming schedules.
- Deep long-term replayability
Veterans report playing for 7+ years and still coming back, unlike NetHack or BoI which they describe as 'monstrously tedious exercises in building an ascension kit.' The hacking/modding scene 'goes super deep' with tools like Frozlunky.
- Superior level design to peers
Owners directly compare Spelunky's levels favorably to Dead Cells, calling Dead Cells' levels 'one of the weak design points' that are 'nowhere near as fun and interesting as Spelunky's,' which uses more sophisticated room composition.
Surprising patterns
- Veteran roguelike players who have beaten NetHack and BoI specifically prefer Spelunky BECAUSE it doesn't let you brute-force with overpowered item builds — they find the item-stacking progression in other roguelikes more tedious than Spelunky's lean design.
- The teleporter item is intensely divisive: one owner calls it 'one of the best applications of RNG in any videogame,' while another says it 'breaks two of my favorite things about Spelunky' by requiring wiki knowledge and conflicting with normal item-carrying strategy.
- A personal milestone goal of winning $1MM in a daily challenge kept one player engaged through 'a lot of near misses,' suggesting the daily challenge format creates long-term personal targets beyond just beating the game.
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Buyers who want roguelikes where accumulating items and power offsets difficulty over time will likely find Spelunky tedious and unrewarding, as several veteran players report the game deliberately prevents power-stacking.
Synthesised from 204 real owner comments across 4 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →