Spelunker & Sqoon retrospective: Mortality bytes | NES Works #051 

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Professor Sakamoto perform game music live. He played Spelunker, a game I hadn’t seen yet, but every few seconds he inserted that death jingle. The crowd went WILD.

Sqoon is so crazy, I didn't even realize that nobody shoots back until you mentioned it

Wow, Spelunker was thought of so negatively in the US? I remember the first time I rented it, I immediately fell in love with it! You get used to its tricks really quickly, to the point where speed runs are challenging, but FUN as hell! You don't want to do it any other way once you've nailed all the sensitive spots and can plow right through it! I loved the music, I loved seeking out and finding places to get secret 1 UPs, all of it! So much attention to detail, it was one of my favorites on the NES as a kid.

For some reason, Sqoon’s aesthetic looks really appealing to me. I think it’s the predominantly blue/pink color palette, it looks very clean. Reminiscent of Downwell a bit.

Sqoon! The Nintendo censors forgot the mermaid in the title screen :)

Sqoon became this weird battle cry back in the day, sort of like how The Tick had "Spoon!". Such a neat little title, even though noone i knew, uncluded myself, was ever any good at it.

Spelunker is the kind of game I would never play because of difficulty alone, but I can appreciate how freewheeling its design is. Very few games at this time combined item use and exploration this way. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Metroid took a few pointers from it both structurally and aesthetically. ...I also appreciate it for inspiring Spelunky, because that game is my jam. I play Spelunky the way office workers played Microsoft Solitaire back in the 90s.

I've never even heard of Sqoon, but it looks pretty freakin' rad

I love Sqoon. Hard game to find. Especially with a label that’s not jacked up. But I love the unique look and feel of this game.

lol I played both of these games for the first time on one of those bootleg plug and play NES systems. You know the ones. N64 controller shell, Sega Genesis spare controller, and a light gun that looks dangerously close to a real gun

Following is all according to a rumor: During late 90s and early 2000s, Spelunker was considered as a kusoge in Japanese internet communities in par with games like Ikki and Takeshi's Challenge, but these kusoge callouts were more of meme rather than a harsh critique. IREM even cashed into the meme and made an official comic strip series Spelunker Sensei, a teacher wearing a hard hat who just keeps on dying on every turn in otherwise normal school life. Eventually, people started beating the game consistently, and with new "higher" standard for kusoge being set by more atrocious games, Spelunker eventually got recognized more as a cult classic.

As a kid I always found Spelunker's intro to be quite menacing, sad, and melancholic. It still gives me chills to this day.

Who can forget the Tick's catchphrase and NES classic, Sqoon?

Jeremy, did you know Spelunker actually got an anime? I'm not kidding, it's called "Spelunker Is A Teacher"

Oh man, Spelunker looks like an actually-fun Super Pitfall! I will definitely be checking it out. I've played a good bit of Sqoon over the last couple of years and enjoy it quite a bit. Takes some getting used to but it has some charm to it, interesting mechanics and pretty fast paced gameplay for the time.

I was so relieved to come across this and realize it wasn't just me that was awful at Spelunker. Out of all the video games I have ever played, I could accomplish the least on Spelunker. I literally could not get anything done on that game

I've never heard of Sqoon before. I quite like what I just saw

Excellent video as always Jeremy. You're the absolute authority on western-released NES games.

I heard about Sqoon from Pat the Nes punk a few years ago. One of the best shooters on the NES.

I'm just happy to see a new NES Works video! Great work!

I love the puns in the titles and in the beginning of the videos

I feel like there's a throughline to be explored with regard to games like Spelunker, Manic Miner, Blagger, Dizzy et al and their exacting puzzle-platformer game design approach, to the much-maligned Euro platformers of the 8 and 16 bit era in terms of design philosophy and audience expectation in the time of their release.

2:40 I can see why Challenger wasn't released in the US as it's so simple; though it really is a fun little game.

I've never played either game, but I just read about them this week in Pat Contri's "...Guide to the NES Library" and saw his Pat the NES Punk episode on "Sqoon" from a few years ago last week. So, it was nice to get another perspective today.

Sqoon seems like a cross between Stinger and River Raid, which is a winning combo in my book (I'd say it looks more like TwinBee than the sequel, but that game didn't have side-scrolling levels, only vertical ones...)

Psyched for whenever Deadly Towers retrospective drops

From what I understand, Spelunky was based on the arcade version, which the Japanese fans did not like because it tried to make the game non-punishing.

I loved the hell out of Spelunker and mastered it one summer when I was bored. Found all the secret item spots. Screw the diamond ring!

Squoon is reminding me heavily of SeaQuest

"here's spelunker and sqoon" (deadly towers on the screen) hahahahah, just kidding love your channel Jeremy keep em coming

Looks like the next episode will have a few Acclaim Entertainment published titles including that Space Harrier clone done pre-Final Fantasy by Square. At least it should have a killer soundtrack given Uematsu was the composer.

Thanks for promoting Spelunker. The PS3 sequel (Spelunker HD) is an awesome sequel.

Good job as usual JP my friend

Looking forward to the next game! I was just thinking about it and Rad Racer the other day, and Nintendo's curious foray into 3D graphics on the NES. But as for Spelunker, its death music really is a thing of beauty, one of the more simple, yet memorable jingles out there.

Sqoon’s drowning stickmen are far more upsetting than they reasonably should be. But not as much as Spelunker’s everything. I could happily play and beat Spelunky but the game that inspired it was just a two foot drop too far for me. But at least it’s more fair and consistent than Super Pitfall. Damn, still sad about Irem.

I really love splunker for some reason as a kid I think I got to the 2nd level once

Yesssss finallyyyyy NES Works is back!!!

No one has ever said this, but I'm defintely excited for Deadly Towers.

Dude, I love Worldrunner, it is the Endless Runner That We Deserve

The Spelunker remake on the PS3 is one of my favorite games alltime, I wish they would port it to other systems.

Hah - I'm re-watching Breaking Bad (and watching Better Caul Saul afterwards for the first time), and I watched the "Say My Name" episode last night. Classic.

Spelunker seems to me to have been fairly popular on the Commodore 64 in the U.S.. I suspect it was widely pirated; I have found the disks in several collections. Scene releases often included numerous trainers to make the game much easier (i.e. ruined).

I’m ecstatic to take part in a four player spelunking.

I don't remember ever playing sqoon but it does seem interesting may keep an eye out for it. spelunker I may have played back in the day, was definitely not into it back then...

Love IREM. Metal Storm is my jam

Excited for the entrance of Square and the eventual release of Final Fantasy

You reviewed Sqoon but didn't mention the MAN HAM?! C'mon! The story is the best part of that game!

Jeremy Parish: still responsible for the very best content on RU-vid

Irem didn’t aim for any particular game at all, they just sorta sprayed themselves everywhere.

Did anyone else notice the naked mermaid in Sqoon? How did that make it past the censors?

I thought I was the only person in the world that knew about some spelunker.

I think a lot of people (myself included) just get squoon nowadays because it has a LED.

We owned two copies of Spelunker because my brother wouldn't let me play his copy. He knew, he knew.

Ah Spelunker, The game that will always be known as not Spelunky It holds the same place as infinitminer relative to Minecraft Not as good but inspired something amazing

Oh fuck, I got *_SQOON'D._*

Aw yeah, aw yeah!

Mr. Parrish, you usually cover a games many versions, So I am shocked to see that you did not cover the two Splunker arcade games in here. With better graphics and sound over the original, Irem released them to arcades in Japan. Not sure if they ever made it to America, but you usually mention even the Japanese versions of the titles you cover. Well, you are one guy and you do put together some great videos, so I guess they slipped by you. Perhaps you can update this video and add them in? Just a thought. Lol. Oh yeah, The Famicon also made a game called Splunker 2, but it barely has anything related to the original.

Sqoon looks and sounds a look like that Hausmarqe game on PS4

Avoiding balls lol

"Oh, hey, is this what Pop Team Epic was referencing once?"

Ah, poor Spelunker. Hated at the time, so it was never going to be very good in retrospect. If not for preservational purposes nobody would care about it at all. Still, it's easier than Ghosts and Goblins, so that's something. And I've never heard of Sqoon.

Computer original Spelunker isn't remotely as hard. Its still tough but not absurd.

I will play sqoon.😀👍🎮

Suuuuuuuuuubbbbeeed

Yellow Submarines are overrated. Pink Submarines are where it’s at.

To me Spelunker has a lot in common with Getting Over It, in that they are both unreasonably, and deliberately, difficult, purely because the controls/player abilities are intentionally limited and frustrating to deal with on their own, not because the game design itself is incredibly intricate to grasp. And I loathe them both passionately. They just amount to "play perfectly or fail" which isn't much of a game in my eyes.