Tai Yugen

Cave Story. Possibly the best indie game ever.


Often called 'The Holy Grail of Indie Development', Cave Story is probably one of the best pc games I have ever played. It has sexy 8-bit graphics, an breathtaking story and amazing gameplay. To begin this review, I shall just quote an other reviewer, since he can say it better then I can.

So. Doukutsu Monogatari is this tremendously good, freeware computer game. I can't praise it enough. You've heard of it by now, I'm sure, but if you haven't, go here. Follow the link to download the game now, use WinRAR to extract the lzh file, follow the other link to download the translation patch, install that once you have it, and then proceed to lose yourself for several hours. Go do this right now. If you don't think you need it, you are not thinking correctly. You need it. Satisfy that need now, then come back here.

-Ajutla, of Gamer's Quarter-

 

History




Still here ? Well, let's continue then. Cave Story is a game made by just one programmer, Daisuke Amaya, or Pixel. It was realeased in 2004 after making it in his spare time, over the course of five years. He made everything himself: gameplay, graphics, story, sound, art, programming,characters,...


Controls


The controls of the game are mostly like any other platformer for the pc: left and right arrow keys to walk, Z to jump, X to attack, up arrow key to aim your weapon skyward, and down to commit an action (talk to NPC's, open doors and chests, etc.). A and S are used to switch between weapons and the W key opens the map. Q opens your inventory, but you don't really need this (unless you want to look at your items). In menus, Z is used to confirm, and X to cancel. That's it. You can modify this, but then you need to change a file in the folder of Cave Story.


Gameplay



You shoot things to kill it, and if they hit you until your hearts are all gone, you die. You can get hearts from fallen enemies, or a group of hearts, if you're lucky. Heart Containers can be found along the way, which increase you health.

While you start with no weapon, you find one soon enough. Along the way, you can find or trade more weapons from NPC's. You can gain XP from defeated enemies, called Energy, but unlike other games, XP in this game doesn't upgrade you, but your gun. That's right, once you gain enough Energy you weapon levels up. Most weapons have 3 levels, and their damage and range increases once they level. But some also gain... strange powers from doing this. Once you gain Energy, it will go towards your currently equipped weapon, but when you get hit, you also lose some, which will eventually downgrade it.



All weapons have unlimited uses, expect for the rocket launcher, due to being able to do much damage in a short time.

Your life can be completely refilled at an Refill Terminal, and you can save at Save Disks.







Story


Since telling to much would spoil the story, I'll be short.

You wake up with amnesia. Seriously, you don't even know your own name. After crawling through a cave filled to the brim with monsters trying to eat your heart out, you soon find a gun to defend yourself with, and continue on. After a while, you stumble upond a place called Mimiga Village, inhabited by Mimigas. Here you learn that they have been tormented by a human called The Doctor, and you decide to step up and help them. And then it's up to you to save this place. But don't worry, the story gets more elaborate once you go on.

The game has three different endings: a Coward ending, which you will recognise once you see it, a Normal ending, which already is hard to accomplish, and a Good  ending, which is impossible to achieve on your first run, since it requires you to do much things you don't know on your first go. After you have gone through all these requirements, you can try to get this ending, but first you have to get through a obstacle course  level, which is terribly hard. If anyone wants to try and get it, I recommend this walkthrough to figure out what you have to do.


Sound


The sound is made by an program called OrgMaker.
It is really amazing, and the music really complements the level it plays on. It is 8-bit music, like the graphic style, and equals that of games like Zelda and Mario.
It is also available for download here.



Graphics


Like I said, 8-bit graphics is what you'll see. It is retro, and that's just the way I like it. The level design looks a bit like Metroid and Castlevania, and the sprites of bosses and enemies are amazingly dertailed, even for 8-bit. Even people who don't like 8-bit graphics are going to love this one. It has been said that, if it was released for the SNES 20 years ago, it would have been remembered as one of the greatest SNES games of all time.


Legacy


Cave Story gained universal acclaim, and even almost spawned a homebrew version for the DS. It was cancelled by the request of Pixel himself, however, because he had been working alongside Nintendo to release the game for the Wii. This Wiiware version featured upgrade graphics (32-bit) and music, and has a Boss Rush mode, a Time Attack mode, and the ability to play through the game as another character. It also has an official English translation. You can also, however, revert the game back to 8-bit mode.This Wiiware version was later ported to DSiware, which featured enhanced controls.



Recently, the game has also been released for the App Store, called Cave Story +, which featured even more enhanced graphics and a whole new level, called Wind Fortress, which was not in the final release of the game, since Pixel thought it was to difficult (remember, this guy is Japanese). It also has a fourth ending.

Cave Story + has been released on Steam just a few days ago, I believe, and is a port of the App Store version. It will also have future content updates. It currently has a discount of 15% percent, so grab it while you can ! Or just do it to support Pixel.




There also has been an 3DS version, with completely new graphics, 3D of course, and the extra modes. It can also be played with the original sprites, not graphics, unfortunately :(


Or, you can just download the original game.

For more information, I recommend the fan site.


TL;DR Play It.



P.S. Never give up your Polar Star, and don't get the Booster v0.8. Just sayin'.