Cavern Kings

About

Cavern Kings is a single player and multiplayer action game. It was developed by VINE and was released on September 30, 2014. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Cavern Kings is an infinite action platformer with unique characters, randomized terrain and monster generation, and a variety of weapons. The game features increasing difficulty, explosive special effects, and numerous powerups to help you dig deeper. Although no longer in development, it offers a mostly playable experience with a dozen characters, big boss monsters, and beautiful pixel art .

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62%

Audience ScoreBased on 246 reviews

gameplay6 positive mentions

stability10 negative mentions

The game is very fun and addictive, offering a lot of replayability.
It has a unique style and plays similarly to popular roguelites like Risk of Rain and Nuclear Throne.
Despite being abandoned, the game is still enjoyable and has a solid foundation.

The game has been abandoned and is considered abandonware, with no updates since 2016.
Many players express frustration over the lack of promised features, such as online multiplayer.
There are significant balance issues and bugs that detract from the overall experience.

gameplay
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
55%
15%
The gameplay is polished and smooth, featuring simple mechanics and a variety of unlockable content, though some players feel that the three weapon types lack uniqueness. While the game draws comparisons to "Risk of Rain" in terms of power-ups and enemy design, it distinguishes itself with a more arcade-like pace and streamlined mechanics. The arena mode presents a challenging start but becomes easier as players progress, contributing to an overall enjoyable experience despite some repetitiveness in music and gameplay elements.
- “Pixel art is beautiful, and the overall mechanics feel polished.”
- “The developer is active, the gameplay is simple, and there are plenty of things to unlock.”
- “The gameplay is already quite smooth and enjoyable.”
- “Three weapons with the same general mechanic do not 'play and feel unique'.”
- “When I heard 'procedurally-generated' with a unique variety of weapons, I thought I'd be getting a different gameplay experience every time.”
- “The power-up mechanic, the way you unlock characters, the combat, the difficulty, and just the general feel of this game is very reminiscent of 'Risk of Rain'.”
music
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
50%
17%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews; while some players appreciate the catchy soundtrack and its overall quality, many criticize it for being overly loud, repetitive, and lacking variety, with calls for separate volume controls and additional tracks. Despite these issues, the music is often described as enjoyable and fitting for the game's atmosphere. Overall, players express hope for improvements in future updates.
- “Honestly wasn't too sure what to think when I bought it... but now that I have played it I can say it is by far one of my favorite indie games. I come close to putting it beside The Binding of Isaac, and the great thing about it is it's only in beta so there is much more to come. Catchy soundtrack, cool weapons, cool melee/digging tools, and soon there will be a multiplayer feature, so I have very high hopes for this game. Oh, and let's not forget the awesome bosses.”
- “A great soundtrack with fun characters and unique graphics.”
- “It has great music (but sometimes it does get kind of repetitive) and the gameplay is smooth.”
- “Listen closely, devs: fix your music - it is horribly loud and terrible sounding at this point.”
- “Allow options to manage music and sound volume separately, and stop looping that single track.”
- “Game rating of: 8/10... mostly because it's beta and there is one really long song throughout the game, add more songs please!”
replayability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
20%
20%
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players praise it for offering tons of fun and great co-op experiences, others criticize it for being too easy and lacking clear guidance on unlocking characters, which diminishes its replay value. Overall, opinions vary significantly, with some finding it highly replayable and others feeling it lacks depth.
- “Amazing game, tons of replayability, great co-op fun for up to 4 people.”
- “The replay value on this is really good.”
- “Lots of replayability and fun.”
- “Stupidly easy, no replay value, no explanation on how to unlock characters.”
- “I would recommend the game if it were playable, but it's not... so yeah...”
stability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is currently a significant issue, with many users reporting frequent crashes, glitches, and unresponsive features, particularly with controller configurations and during character selection. While some players find the game enjoyable despite these problems, the overall consensus indicates that it remains buggy and unbalanced, detracting from the experience.
- “Lots of glitches at the moment; I can't even get my game to start up.”
- “I loved the pre-Steam demo of this game, but the Steam version has absolutely awful controller configuration and freezes on the character select screen when I attempt to use the mouse.”
- “It is still buggy and unbalanced, but it's still a really fun game to kill time.”
graphics
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The graphics are consistently praised for their unique style and high quality, contributing to an overall enjoyable gaming experience. Players appreciate the combination of solid controls and visually appealing designs, often rating the graphics highly.
- “A great soundtrack with fun characters and unique graphics.”
- “I love the solid controls and the graphics 10/10 shovel ftw.”
- “Nice graphic style.”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game's optimization has been criticized for underestimating performance requirements, particularly in arena mode, leading to significant lag even on high-end gaming rigs. Players report that performance issues become more pronounced in later levels, especially with numerous enemies on screen, indicating a need for further optimization.
- “The performance requirements are quite underestimated, especially in the arena mode.”
- “Performance does start to chug in later levels, but that's not unexpected with the amount of mobs on the screen.”
- “Needs further optimization; I cannot play in fullscreen without it lagging terribly, and I am playing on a gaming rig.”