Why did it have to be snakes

Grab your whip and temple defiling hat, we’re off to adventure, treasure, and painful frequent death. But first, some music!

Continuing the theme of exploring dark and horrible places is Spelunky, a roguelike released back in 2008 where you delve into a deep cave full of traps, snakes, bats, and other various horrible things out to ruin your day in the search for cold hard cash in the form of gold, gems, and golden skulls. Spelunky was considered so good that it got a XBLA release with updated graphics, multiplayer, and coop, but obviously this post isn’t about that. With sixteen randomly generated levels and numerous items to find and buy from mundane firearms to climbing gloves to ancient relics that allow you to find gems hidden in the ground, the game is deeper than its pixilated appearance would suggest. Its ALSO has the best start menu ever.

Way better than "New Game"  "Menu" and "Quit" buttons

As typical to roguelikes, you will die often, be it from the traps or your own carelessness (or both). However, you don’t need to really commit to a single play through, the game is short enough that even if you die on the last level, while you might end up tearing your hair out because of frustration, but you wont lament the time you spent getting that far. The game has been beaten from start to finish in under three minutes in the case of speed runners, and the game itself sends ghosts at you if you wait around in one level for too long.

Using a shotgun on a ghost? Did Ghostbusters teach you nothing?

Between the “level feelings” which change up the levels by making the darker, or full of a specific enemy type, the boss monsters, the challenges (self imposed or otherwise), the short cuts you have to earn, and the secrets, Spelunky has plenty of offer. The game also has a modding community and player made levels to dive into if you find any that interest you. For a game released more than three years ago, Spelunky has a community that’s still going strong. I’d say its definitely worth a download.

Nothing's perfect, however

 You can get Spelunky from here