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.
https://kotaku.com/spelunky-the-kotaku-review-5923232
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?
