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Minna de Waiwai! Spelunker - the Switch game nobody's talking about

S

SpeedBeatz

Member
logo_top.png

Official Site

Quick rundown:
-Currently only releasing in Japan
-5281 yen (~$50) for digital and phyiscal
-Demo available now on Japanese eShop (7 levels)
-Up to 4-player local and online multiplayer
-At least 100 levels
-Mostly easy to play without knowledge of Japanese

Item/ability mechanics overview
UI text translations

The game seems to essentially be a revamped and updated port of Spelunker World for the PS4, with the F2P elements removed. It's scheduled for a Spring 2017 release in Japan.
Biggest new feature is local multiplayer (up to 4 people), and there's online multiplayer for up to 4 as well.
It hasn't been announced for the US yet, but seeing as Spelunker World is in English I would be very surprised if it didn't get brought over.
So far I've seen three different lists of "every confirmed Switch game" that left this off!
 
Eolz

Eolz

Member
With the F2P elements removed?!
That's great, I played the PS4 version for a bit, but couldn't stand that after a while, despite the game itself being pretty good.
 
O

Oregano

Member
Mpl90 and I were just discussing this in the Media Create thread. I thought it was just the F2P game so it's a bit of a surprise.

Overall Square Enix is by far the biggest Switch supporter.
 
J

Jiguryo

Aryan mech phallus gun
I had a good time with the PS4 version, despite never spending a cent on it. Hope it gets localized!
 
H

HyperZone<3

Member
if this comes West, it will shoot straight to the top of my Most Wanted Switch games list. Hell, I'd love the PS3 Spelunker to escape that system as well and get some ports somewhere. The contemporary Spelunker games are really terrific, tension-fueled and grueling platformers. A freemium-removed version of Spelunker World would delight me substantially.
 
A

And Grows

Neo Member
Very excited for this. I loved Spelunker HD on the PS3 something fierce, but I could never get into World because the controls felt so laggy to me. Hopefully they'll be a little tighter here...
 
T

Tapejara

Member
I can't believe I'm only just finding out that they've removed the F2P elements and that it's getting a physical release. Hope it comes to NA, but I'm really tempted to import it so I can have a physical copy.

HyperZone<3 said:
if this comes West, it will shoot straight to the top of my Most Wanted Switch games list. Hell, I'd love the PS3 Spelunker to escape that system as well and get some ports somewhere. The contemporary Spelunker games are really terrific, tension-fueled and grueling platformers. A freemium-removed version of Spelunker World would delight me substantially.
Click to expand...

Yep, Tozai needs to find a way to bring Spelunker HD to modern platforms. It's a much better game than Spelunker World (hopefully the removal of F2P elements helps). While they're at it, hopefully they can find a way to bring Spelunker Black back, which was removed from PSN for unknown reasons.
 
C

CrashPrime

Member
I love the switch physical media. Carts/cards are so awesome to collect. Importing if I have to! This is THE 4player console for me. Puyo Puyo Tetris & Bomberman R, now this. Yesssssss.
 
S

SpeedBeatz

Member
Tapejara said:
While they're at it, hopefully they can find a way to bring Spelunker Black back, which was removed from PSN for unknown reasons.
Click to expand...

To shed a little light on that: the Spelunker rights transferred from Irem to Tozai Games at the end of 2011, and Tozai chose not to republish Black (presumably it wasn't making much money). This is why the release date for Spelunker HD on the Japanese PSN store shows up as 2011/12/21 even though it came out in 2009.
Spelunker Black is also literally just Spelunker HD with a different character model and most of the screen aside from a circle around the player blacked out, so we're not missing out on all that much, haha.
 
T

Tapejara

Member
SpeedBeatz said:
To shed a little light on that: the Spelunker rights transferred from Irem to Tozai Games at the end of 2011, and Tozai chose not to republish Black (presumably it wasn't making much money). This is why the release date for Spelunker HD on the Japanese PSN store shows up as 2011/12/21 even though it came out in 2009.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!

Spelunker Black is also literally just Spelunker HD with a different character model and most of the screen aside from a circle around the player blacked out, so we're not missing out on all that much, haha.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've actually got a friend on PSN who was trying to platinum it for the second time on his new account. Said it was absolutely unforgiving. Still, I wouldn't mind being able to give it a spin one day!
 
S

SpeedBeatz

Member
ßig;233565030 said:
How do I get this item?
Click to expand...

Can't get it in the demo unfortunately, you need an item that extends your fan range and only half the pieces for it are available in the demo levels.
 
T

TheLegendaryN

Member
I liked what I played in the Japanese demo on Switch, so I'm really considering importing this. Also good to hear from others that they liked previous games in the series (forgetting about free-to-play stuff).
 
H

Hispanicguy

Member
I downloaded the demo a few moments ago and I'm really enjoying it!

I would consider importing it but with MK8 and Puyo Tetris out the following week, I'll hold off. Maybe by then they'll announce an English version.

Either way, it's a game that's on my radar and will eventually be added to the collection.
 
C

Chairhome

Member
My kids played this last night with their cousin and they liked it a lot. Hopefully there's an English release, but even the Japanese one might work enough
 
B

BooJoh

Member
I played the demo a bit and the game feels like a great fit for Switch. I tried the PS4 version before and enjoyed it but was put off by the f2p aspects. I'll happily pick this up if it comes out in English.
 
P

patientx

Member
Just playing the demo levels took about two hours. How many levels are there in the whole game ? What kind of play time are we talking about ?
 
J

Jucksalbe

Banned
patientx said:
Just playing the demo levels took about two hours. How many levels are there in the whole game ? What kind of play time are we talking about ?
Click to expand...

The PS4 version had 100 stages with about 3 sublevels on average. Not sure how long that took me, because the game doesn't have a timer, but probably around 10-15 hours.
I don't know how different the Switch version is.
 
X

XaosWolf

Member
I'm enjoying the hell out of this. I want all the things.

Really hope this gets a release in the UK cos the last one didn't as far as I know. It was also on a home console so I wouldn't have seen as much playtime as it could have anyways.

EDIT: Am I missing something regarding holding down these switches?
 
1

1upsuper

Member
Totally missed that this was getting a Switch release. I love the Spelunker series. Might get it on the JPN eShop soon.
 
Bog

Bog

Junior Ace
Ok I love this demo. I'm probably going to need to import. Physical release in Japan or no?
 
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