First Reviews: Spelunky 2 - We Have a Masterpiece

"Mossmouth took its time and managed to deliver a masterpiece that improves upon its predecessor in ways I never even would have imagined. Spelunky 2 takes everything that made the original great and expands upon each of those individual aspects without ever over complicating the elegant, retro simplicity of its 2D platforming. It doesn’t do much to win over people who already weren’t fans of the original’s unforgiving difficulty, but as someone who is more than 200 runs in and feels like he’s only scratched the surface, Spelunky 2 is a game that I see myself playing for a long, long time," Mitchell Saltzman, IGN.

"Perhaps it’s a little safe in the way it goes about things, anxious not to lose that Spelunky magic by disrupting the familiar flow. But that spell hasn’t worn off after 10 years. With its dastardly remixes of existing themes and a bunch of brilliant new additions, this will certainly replace Spelunky HD as the definitive cave-diving Derek Yu roguelike. I wouldn’t change a thing – though some of my former turkey friends may have different feedback," Tom Bramwell, The Guardian.

"Spelunky 2 enhances and expands on what worked in the first game without “fixing” anything that wasn’t broken. In that way it’s the perfect sequel for fans who have been playing this game for over a decade. Newcomers might be scared away by the difficulty and seemingly impenetrable secrets, but the effort to get through this is well rewarded," Kyle Hanson, Attack of the Fanboy.