{"id":17130,"date":"2017-11-29T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T00:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=17130"},"modified":"2017-10-26T17:09:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T17:09:15","slug":"spelunker-party-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/29\/spelunker-party-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Spelunker Party! (Switch)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Spelunker was an 8-bit 2-D platformer game where you explored caves, avoided obstacles, and gathered treasures.\u00a0 It came out in the US, but gained more popularity in Japan, probably because it was one of those easy to play yet hard to master games, and it came out when the Famicom (Japanese NES) was big.\u00a0 You can even find Spelunker references in other Japanese media, like anime cartoons and video games like Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master).\u00a0 There\u2019s even been a few remakes and rereleases of the game, and I\u2019ve reviewed a few of them.\u00a0 Such as Spelunker HD, which was one of the first games I reviewed on the PS3<\/strong><\/a>, and Everyday Spelunker, a mobile version of the original game<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Now cave exploring is back as a downloadable title on the Switch with Spelunker Party!<\/p>\n

Spelunker Party is actually a reworked version of a previous game that came out on the PS4 a couple of years ago called Spelunker World.\u00a0 It\u2019s a free-to-play game, and while it has most of the same levels and content, Party takes out all the free-to-play gimmicks and reworks them to fit into a stand alone title.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into all the differences here, as I just want to focus on the game I\u2019m reviewing, but let\u2019s just say the two games are very similar.\u00a0 Although I do think the tutorial in Spelunker World is a bit more explicit, but you get more lives in Party.<\/p>\n

As a Spelunker, you\u2019ll explore 2-D caves looking for treasures.\u00a0 Choose from a boy or girl, and you can find more characters to play as later on.\u00a0 You can find coins and gold, lithographs, and colored keys to open doors.\u00a0 Spend gold on candy to give to a dog in the main menu, and he\u2019ll find treasures for you like new outfits to wear.\u00a0 Lithographs work in a similar fashion.\u00a0 Find them in caves to piece together a puzzle, and when it\u2019s completed you can unlock that gear.\u00a0 Some gear you collect are just cosmetic, but some can do things like let you take extra hits or give you more energy.\u00a0 Worn equipment in a stage can level up when you complete it, but you can also gather previously collected lithographs to level up your gear as well.\u00a0 You can also find pets to take with you in caves that can help you as well, such as a dog who can dig up treasures.<\/p>\n

Other items you can pick up in the game include bombs and flares.\u00a0 Set down bombs to blow up rocks blocking your path or to open up hidden passages.\u00a0 Shoot up flares to temporarily scare away enemies like bats.\u00a0 You can also use a fan to blow away ghosts, but that\u2019ll use up your air.\u00a0 Run out of air and it\u2019s Game Over.\u00a0 You can refill your air at checkpoints.<\/p>\n

One thing I wish this game included was the original Spelunker game.\u00a0 That way you can see the history behind it and why in the new game, a fall greater than the height of your jump can kill you.\u00a0 Just think of it like other old games like Donkey Kong or Pitfall.\u00a0 But even though the game is very challenging and sometimes frustrating, it is still surprisingly addictive, too.\u00a0 Play control is simple and responsive.\u00a0 You can even explore caves with up to four players online and offline via a split screen.\u00a0 In fact, one other problem with the game is that in order to get ALL the treasures, you HAVE to play with others since some caves have switches you can only activate by having someone stand on them the whole time.\u00a0 But if you enjoy classic game remakes with a challenge, you\u2019ll want to check out this game anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spelunker Party! is rated E for Everyone with ESRB descriptors of Mild Fantasy Violence and Mild Language.\u00a0 I really don\u2019t remember seeing any bad language in the game, but the violence is just silly and cartoony.\u00a0 If you get hit by an enemy or trap, most of the \u2018death\u2019 animations just have your guy or girl spin around and fall down.\u00a0 Although there are a few silly exceptions, like if you fall too far, your explorer will sit on their butt and grab their legs and rock back and forth.\u00a0 Or if they fall off a pit, they\u2019ll try to swim up in the air, Looney Tunes style.\u00a0 One of the more notable ones involves bats, though, and has a bit of crude humor to it, too.\u00a0 Bats attack you by dropping guano on your head (guano is bat poop).\u00a0 If you get hit, it\u2019ll show your player with an afro made of bat poop!\u00a0 Gross, but still kind of funny.\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for some of the menu text, and younger gamers may get frustrated at the high difficulty of later stages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spelunker was an 8-bit 2-D platformer game where you explored caves, avoided obstacles, and gathered treasures.\u00a0 It came out in the US, but gained more popularity in Japan, probably because it was one of those easy to play yet hard to master games, and it came out when the Famicom (Japanese NES) was big.\u00a0 You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17132,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17130\/revisions\/17132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}