Crystal Caves

Crystal Caves is a 1991 DOS platformer made by Apogee. It features EGA graphics and only PC Speaker sounds. The game is divided in 3 episodes, the first one being shareware. There's not a huge difference between the episodes. They feature pretty much the same gameplay and graphics with slight differences. The difficulty increases with every episode. In every level you have to collect every crystal in order to leave. This forces you to explore the entire level and overcome most of the challenges in it. It never feels tedious because the levels are fun and not too long. The challenges are fair and the controls are tight (for the time at least). The game is overall pretty easy. You can take three hits in a level except for the insta-kill enemies/pits, but the game rewards you for finishing the level with full health. If you decide to go for a no-damage run of the entire game (like I did) then the game becomes very challenging and more strategic. The only criticism I have for this game is that episodes 2 and 3 don't introduce new stuff. There's a tornado that only appears in one level of episode 2 and never again (what's up with that?). It's a bit disappointing but the fun gameplay compensates for it. Give it a shot if you enjoy classic games from the DOS era. It's a very solid platformer with smart level design,