As someone who has played Rogue and NetHack, I can say that Spelunky captures the spirit of these games in a graphical platformer. In fact, Spelunky has a number of similar elements, including:

✅ Procedural levels with special landmarks, like shops, altars, and snake pits.
✅ Random level modifiers, including darkness, the undead, and... bees!
✅ Plenty of ways to get hurt, and several ways to heal.
✅ Ways to die instantly no matter how much health you have.
✅ Most ways of dying are obviously the player's fault. The rest are just bad luck.
✅ Angry shopkeepers.
✅ Ball and chain.
✅ Hidden passages, secret levels, and unlockable shortcuts.
✅ Hazards and items that you have to figure out as you find them.
✅ Non-obvious ways to use things that make sense in retrospect.
✅ Surviving becomes a lot easier with experience.
✅ The game is never so easy that it's boring. Even experts will have accidents and die.

Death doesn't break momentum thanks to start and restart being a single keypress. With the amount of dying involved, this little detail is a huge quality of life booster.

Daily challenges are fun, but I'm not sure about the death matches.

I look forward to Spelunky 2, but I'm not done enjoying this one yet.

As someone who has played Rogue and NetHack, I can say that Spelunky captures the spirit of these games in a graphical platformer. In fact, Spelunky has a number of similar elements, including: ✅ Procedural levels with special landmarks, like shops, altars, and snake pits. ✅ Random level modifiers, including darkness, the undead, and... bees! ✅ Plenty of ways to get hurt, and several ways to heal. ✅ Ways to die instantly no matter how much health you have. ✅ Most ways of dying are obviously the player's fault. The rest are just bad luck. ✅ Angry shopkeepers. ✅ Ball and chain. ✅ Hidden passages, secret levels, and unlockable shortcuts. ✅ Hazards and items that you have to figure out as you find them. ✅ Non-obvious ways to use things that make sense in retrospect. ✅ Surviving becomes a lot easier with experience. ✅ The game is never so easy that it's boring. Even experts will have accidents and die. Death doesn't break momentum thanks to start and restart being a single keypress. With the amount of dying involved, this little detail is a huge quality of life booster. Daily challenges are fun, but I'm not sure about the death matches. I look forward to Spelunky 2, but I'm not done enjoying this one yet.