Eggplant run

Such a playthrough was first achieved by Twitch video game live streamer Bananasaurus Rex in November 2013, a month after Spelunky HD's PC release.

In his book, Yu wrote that he had always had an admiration for the type of absurdity video games can include without criticism, such as how Toru Osawa placed an Eggplant Wizard in the Greek mythological setting of Kid Icarus.

The sprite sheet that carried the graphics for a few larger monsters in game still featured a blank area, and Yu quickly painted a five-frame animation of King Yama's face as a big, blinking eggplant.

Using a cheat engine, YouTuber chaindead brought the eggplant to the final boss and demonstrated what happens when the item collides with King Yama's head.

In order to get an eggplant in single-player mode, one needs to get a random seed in which a mystery box and one of Kali's sacrificial altars appear in the same level.

However, such AI-controlled characters are difficult to manipulate and are prone to accidentally kill themselves in the game's hazardous levels, adding to the difficulty of solo eggplant runs.

[6][7] As of 2020, Spelunky speedrun aggregator MossRanking has listed videos of successful solo eggplant runs by over 60 players, some of which impose combinations of additional restrictions (such as Maximum, No Gold, Pacifist, and Low%).

"[9] Eurogamer described the solo eggplant run as a "remarkable goal" and a "colossal feat", saying that watching Rex's "increasingly stressed mental state" resulted in a harrowing viewing experience.

[10] Douglas Wilson, writing for Polygon, described the first successful solo eggplant run as "an important, downright historic achievement," calling it "2013's most fascinating video game moment".

Lastly, Wilson suggested that the Spelunky community "[beat] Derek Yu and [programmer] Andy Hull at their own game", subverting the designer's intentions by completing a run that was not intended to be possible.