Spelunker HD Message Board

PlayStation Plus subscribers ready for some football can tackle NFL Blitz for free starting tomorrow. Following Tuesday's regularly scheduled PlayStation Network update, the arcade-style American gridiron simulator will be gratis, along with discounts on Alex Kidd and Spelunker HD.

Spelunker HD is deeply discounted at half off, diving the game's price to $5. Sega Master System classic Alex Kidd in Miracle World will be 80 percent off, making the regularly priced $5 game a mere buck. Be sure to practice your life or death, competitive rock-paper-scissors strategies before visiting Miracle World.

Welcome to Living in the Past, a weekly column about what's new in old games. Now get off our lawn.
I'm a fan of the genre of game that I can best encapsulate as "people dying in caves." For whatever reason, there's a subset of sidescrolling platformers that puts players in the role of an archaeologist or other explorer, navigating subterranean tunnels full of deadly creatures, traps of unknown origin, and always, always spikes.

Examples of this genre include Cave Story, La-Mulana, and Aban Hawkins & The 1000/1001 Spikes, all published (or almost published) by cave game fans at Nicalis. Other examples include the two games I want to talk about, which share a lot of DNA but diverge in interesting ways: Mossmouth's brilliant Spelunky, and one of the progenitors of the genre, Spelunker (and its modern-ish sequel Spelunker HD). Spelunker was first released way back in 1983 as an Atari computer game; it later found success and infamy in arcades and on the NES.

Mossmouth's XBLA game has been a critical success since its release in July, and was beloved as a freeware PC game before that. Conversely, most people don't have anything nice to say about Spelunker, and I think my appreciation of the PS3 sequel puts me in a fairly elite club. However, that club most assuredly includes Spelunky creator Derek Yu.

Spelunker HD - the PSN game from Tozai Games about an extraordinarily fragile cave explorer, not the XBLA game Spelunky that was partially inspired by Spelunker - will get new DLC almost two years after release, along with a free update.

The update, due August 28, adjusts the camera in online multiplayer, and gives you ten new "Championship Mode" stages for free! Seven more Championship Mode packs will be out soon after, each adding ten stages. These stages all give you 50 lives to start instead of five, because they're apparently even harder than the brutal game. Two more unspecified DLC packs are also planned for September.

Each Championship Mode update costs $1.99/€1.99, unless you're a PlayStation Plus member. For two weeks after the update, both Spelunker HD and the DLC will be sold at half price ($5 for the game, $1 for each DLC pack) for Plus.

PS3 owners in Europe interested in extremely methodical, simulated cave exploration will get a treat tomorrow. Tozai Games announced that Spelunker HD will be released on the Euro PSN this week, allowing more challenge-seeking gamers to step into the shoes of gaming's most delicate hero. In retro or modern graphical modes, you'll navigate through dark caves, looking for keys and treasure, while maintaining your air supply and avoiding the spikes, stalactites, ghosts, bats, birds, and short falls that will end your life.

The announcement offers good news for North American spelunkers, as well: the European and American versions will share leaderboards and servers, meaning we'll see an infusion of new players for the up-to-six-player co-op.

Bellevue, Wash. - Tozai Games announced that Spelunker HD will launch this Wednesday, August 10th, on the European PlayStation Network. This devious reimagining of the classic 1983 platformer created by Tim Martin contains all the fun and teeth-grinding challenge of the original, but with bold new 3...

Is this 80's classic a worthy relic to uncover once again, or should it have stayed buried?

Join your friends online for some tandem cave diving.

Too much good PSN content! Head ... *pop*. Okay, maybe it's not that dramatic, but there are a lot of games in this week's update. There's new titles like Pac-Man Championship Edition DX or Spelunker HD and new-to-PSN games like Dragon's Lair and Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalker, with every title mentioned carrying a $10 price tag.

Then ... well, then there's all the price updates and plenty of add-on content. Check it all out after the break.

Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:
(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Spelunker HD Screenshots

Notorious, best-selling platformer comes to PS3. Are you up for the challenge?