Gluttons for over-the-top action will want to keep their eyes on Cavern Kings, which is an explosive action platformer that’s just hit Steam Early Access and is also available on itch.io during its current beta state.
Developer Vine took elements from Super Crate Box and Risk of Rain when designing Cavern Kings, and then, well, just smashed them together and let them run rampant.
Add a few gratuitous explosions and you’ve got Cavern Kings. Vine calls it a “procedurally generated, mech-mashing, powerup-hoarding, guns-blazing permadeath platformer.” That’s about right.
Your only goal is to dig deeper into the depths in order to grab better power-ups, which are guarded by increasingly tough monsters. You have a shovel, but will soon want to grab a big gun of some sort once the enemies start tunnelling through walls, bringing the ceiling down, and charging at you in mass groups.
Cavern Kings is a game that forces you to revel in the chaos. The monsters and level layouts are randomized so you never know what to expect. The bosses take up half the screen and will smash up everything around you just to get at you.
The game also has a never-ending difficulty, lets you stack up infinite power-ups, and has seven unlockable secrets to discover. If you want to check it out it’ll cost you $9.99 on Steam Early Access and itch.io. There’s also a demo you can download on itch.io.
