Spelunky 2 sends Ana Spelunky to the Moon to find her missing parents, and the trip down is one of the best roguelike descents ever built. Mossmouth and BlitWorks turned a cult favorite into a 2020 platform game that keeps the cruelty and sharpens the craft. It is out now on PlayStation 4 and PC, and it earns a 9.1/10.
Trailer, via MossmouthGames.
Ana Spelunky Goes Looking for Her Parents
The story picks up with the next generation. Ana is the daughter of the explorer at the heart of the original adventure. When her parents go missing, she follows their trail all the way to the Moon, then descends into a labyrinth of deadly caves.
That setup is thin, and it does not matter. Spelunky 2 uses the missing-family hook the way the first game used its treasure hunt: as a reason to keep going down. The caves teem with hostile creatures, cunning traps and hidden treasures, and the aesthetics draw on ancient cultures and their mythological figures. Olmec, Kali, Osiris, Lamassu, Tiamat and Hundun all turn up in the mix.
The Caves Rearrange Themselves Every Run
The core loop is unchanged. Ana navigates 2D side-view levels, collects treasure, and dies. When she dies, the run ends. The player loses every item she was carrying and starts again from the beginning unless tunnels have been unlocked as shortcuts.
Procedural generation rearranges the game with each attempt, so the winding passages never repeat. That is the whole bargain of Spelunky 2: the game is never the same twice, and it is never fair twice either. A path that worked a minute ago is gone. The player learns the systems instead of the map.
New areas expand the trip. Volcana brings a lava theme to the descent, and each level includes an additional backlayer that players can explore for extra risk and extra reward. The game also adds new monsters, new traps and ridable mounts, which change how a run can be played without softening it.
Liquid Physics and 19 Coffin Characters
The most interesting mechanical addition is the liquid physics system. Fluid flows naturally throughout a level rather than sitting in fixed tiles. Water and lava move, pool and spill, which turns the environment itself into a hazard that can be redirected. It is the kind of change that reads as a detail and plays as a rethink.
There are 19 other characters beyond Ana, and they are unlocked from wooden coffin-shaped boxes found in each area. The game supports four-player online multiplayer, with both cooperative and competitive modes. Co-op is the better fit for the design. The chaos that makes a solo death funny makes a shared death funnier.
What Spelunky 2 Adds
| Feature | Spelunky 2 (2020) |
|---|---|
| Protagonist | Ana Spelunky |
| Setting | The Moon, plus new areas like Volcana |
| Level structure | Procedural caves with a backlayer per level |
| Liquids | Flowing liquid physics system |
| Multiplayer | Four-player online, co-op and competitive |
| Unlockable characters | 19, found in wooden coffin-shaped boxes |
A Sequel That Knows What It Is
Spelunky 2 does not reinvent the roguelike. It takes the randomized challenges that made the original a classic and builds a much larger adventure on top of them, one designed to satisfy players old and new. The Moon setting gives the descent a fresh look, and the mythological figures give it a stranger one.
The difficulty is the point. Death costs everything except the shortcuts, and the shortcuts cost plenty to earn. That structure punishes recklessness and rewards patience, and it is why the game holds up after the hundredth run. The procedural generation is not a gimmick here. It is the reason the game keeps working.
Where Spelunky 2 Stumbles
Not every addition earns its place. The backlayer is a good idea that can feel like a detour when a run is already going badly. The competitive multiplayer mode is the weakest of the new pieces, because Spelunky 2 is built around careful, deliberate movement and competition rewards the opposite.
The story is also barely there. Ana’s search for her parents gives the game a destination, but the game has little interest in the people she is looking for. That is a fair trade for a roguelike, and it is still a trade.
The Verdict on Spelunky 2
Spelunky 2 is the rare sequel that understands its predecessor well enough to expand it without breaking it. The liquid physics system is the standout addition, the new areas and mounts keep the descent varied, and the four-player online co-op turns a solitary ordeal into a shared one. The game is hard, and it is hard on purpose.
The 9.1/10 is deserved. Mossmouth and BlitWorks built a 2020 platform game that respects the original and improves on it in ways that matter. The caves rearrange themselves every run, and the player keeps coming back anyway. That is the whole trick, and Spelunky 2 pulls it off.
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