Cave Story remains a brilliant action-platformer that is absolutely worth playing today
Cave Story lives up to its name in many ways. The story behind its conception and creation is noteworthy considering the final result. Originally released for the PC as Freeware in 2004, Cave Story was completely designed, programmed, and developed by one young man: Daisuke Amaya. He began working on the project as a young college student, and since Cave Story debuted, it has been heralded as the indie darling of modern day video games and has been rereleased several times.
Developer Nicalis worked with Amaya to port the game to WiiWare and also created a 3D remake for Nintendo's 3DS handheld. Other versions were previously released for Windows, iOS X, and DSiWare. The newest version released for the 3DS eShop contains a couple of extra modes that can be unlocked contingent upon how you play the game. Even after many reissues, Cave Story remains a must-play for those who enjoy retro platformer/shooting titles, for it bolsters tight, engaging play, a superb art direction and digital musical score.
The story within, just as the game's birth, is also worthy of recognition; it's one that slowly unfolds, revealing a serious plot with dark overtones. As one who looks to be a young boy, you begin in a lightless cave, and after discovering a gun, you happen upon Mimiga Village, home of the mimiga creatures: personified rabbit-like animals whose population have decreased drastically due to the evil workings of a mysterious individual.
No time is wasted in thrusting you right into the middle of a dire situation. Amaya originally did an excellent job with the writing; dialogue between the main characters is often implicit, leaving the player guessing about the storyline yet captivated by the tense conversations. Since Cave Story's tale is never plainly laid out, plot twists and new characters who enter the storyline are more meaningful and welcome.
The path the main character must take is not always clearly laid out either. Cave Story's world, containing five different areas, is not enormous, but exploration is an important aspect. There are alternate paths that can be taken to find missile upgrades and heart containers, but toward the end, hidden areas open up new possibilities in changing the remainder of the campaign.
Baby dragons, flying and jumping bugs, and a variety of nasty creatures infest the Mimiga's dwelling places. The main character's trusty star gun is a reliable blaster, and it is only one of several weapons that can be obtained. All weapons follow an interesting leveling system. When you kill enemies they drop small, triangular, golden shards. Collecting the shards fill up your equipped weapon's power meter, and when it is full, it ups the weapon's power level. Each weapon maxes out at level four, but when the main character takes damage, the equipped weapon's power meter decreases. This simple concept adds challenge and an incentive (along with not wanting to die) for not taking damage.
There are plenty of fun boss battles in Cave Story with the final string of bosses being particularly memorable. Boss appearances are unpredictable and require no deeply thought-out strategy as much as pure jumping, shooting, and dodging. Yet, the battles come off as complex due to how precise and careful your maneuvers and attacks must be to win.
Though often praised as a throwback to the eight-bit golden days of 2D shooters, Cave Story feels like, in gameplay, a natural progression from the sixteen-bit era. This is a deep game in the genre that ascends above the limitations of the NES generation. It is short, around four to five hours, but with multiple possible endings as well as a few unlockable gameplay modes in this version, replay value is high and for ten dollars. Technically, Cave Story is almost flawless. The only issue I had was that in one area there was a very ungenerous stretch between save points. Otherwise, Cave Story remains a brilliant action/platformer that absolutely deserves to be played today.