I play Roguelikes for the story. Except Spelunky.

http://spelunkyworld.com/

I hate roguelikes. I want my characters to show the fruits of my hours, whether it's better weapons or unlocked skills. In a game genre where every time you die, you start over from scratch, it's hard for me to play these games without ripping the rest of my hair out. Every run, I can feel my heart beating out of my chest. Not so great for someone who's been enjoying the laid-backness of games like Terraria or Rune Factory. And throw in that there's usually absolutely no story progression through gameplay (don't die is not a storyline), roguelikes just aren't my thing.

But recently, I stumbled on a 2009 indie hit created by Derek Yu called Spelunky. I was watching a YouTuber on a Let's Play, and I was intrigued by the game mechanics, the close calls, his many deaths, and also by his triumph. After finding out that the game was free, there wasn't much for me to lose by at least trying out the game...

...except several hours. Spelunky is an action adventure game, where you traverse/bomb/climb different terrains in search for treasures, saving random damsels in distress, avoiding deathtraps, and eventually escaping with all your rewards.  No map is the same, even when starting over. Within the first hour I played, I died 10 times (they keep track). But knowledge of how to deal with certain enemies or remembering how far you can actually jump make each successive trip a little less painful.

While it's hard for any laid back gamer to enjoy this type of pressure, Spelunky offers is a severely challenging, yet delightfully rewarding experience. No matter what kind of gamer you are, you should give Spelunky a try. It's awfully refreshing.

Throwing Money At My Screen: Stardew Valley

http://stardewvalley.net/

(All images are from the official site. Can't make my own screenshots when the game isn't out yet..)

Stardew Valley is being developed by ConcernedApe and published by Chucklefish.

The game is still in development, and I'm sure my attempts to try to describe the game won't do it justice. So I'll just let the trailer do the talking.

Hard to believe this game is being developed by one person.

I can't really categorize this game well. I can label it as a sandbox farming game. But I think calling it an "everything" game is more appropriate., because from the looks of it, you can pretty much do anything. From starting your own farm to mining caves, or courting a future wife to fighting off slimes. And there's still new content information to be released, including multiplayer co-op.

So far, there's a couple of demo videos on Youtube. And from the looks of it, the potential of the game is through the roof. 

Oldschool graphics. But don't let that deter you from the gameplay

In a genre that's dominated by Harvest Moon and to a smaller extent, Rune Factory, Stardew Valley looks to add a fresh take on a dying game style. There's no release date set (the estimate is some time in 2013), but until then, I'll just continue to throw money at the screen, hoping the game comes out now.