Saving people is not the point of Spelunky. The trapped humans you encounter in the roguelike platformer are essentially just people-shaped health packs, there to grant you a heart if you escort them to an exit and finish the level you find them on. But, while you’re doing that, the back of your brain will inevitably create a story about how your damsel got there. If you could only play as a guy in Spelunky and could only rescue women, the results would feel like only one kind of story.
However, Spelunky lets you change up your avatar and whom you choose to save. While such tweaks don’t affect the basic mechanics of the game, it does provide a slight tonal shift to whatever stories spinning in the back of your head. The video above, cut by our own Chris Person, demonstrates a little bit of what I’m talking about. As for me, I personally liked the surprise of not knowing whether it’d be a seductress, stripper dude or a goofy pug waiting for me to free them in a particular level. If you’re playing Spelunky, what’s your preferred damsel style?
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