Cave Story

by Wolfa on the 14th November 2009

Dōkutsu Monogatari, as it is known in Japan, is one rare gem and probably one of the best games I have ever played. It is an action-adventure platformer, and even though it is free, Cave Story outclasses Super Metroid and Contra"Cave Story outclasses Super Metroid and Contra". Released in 2004 with a development time of 5 years(!) by Daisuke Amaya, aka Pixel (visit his personal page). It looks and plays like a game on the old Nintendo 8-bit system.

It all starts with you, a super deformed little manga boy, waking up in a cave, without any memory. You'll jump around and explore the cave. It feels very strange to start with. You do not really know where to go, what to do or what the actual game is about, or even what the gameplay is about. But it won't take long until the mystery starts to unfold.

You'll get a gun. There are a total of nine weapons to find through the game. Each weapon can get experience, from golden pyramids that falls out of the enemies you destroy, and level up. Leveling usually gives the weapon a better focus on what it is best at (think spread weapon gets wider spread angle) and do more damage. But each level usually adds A LOT of it. Some weapons can be close to useless, get one level, and they become weapons of mass destruction. There is a catch though, whenever you take damage your active weapon loses experience. The higher the level of the weapon the more experience it loses. If you max a gun and take a tiny hit, be prepared to lose that hard earned last level.

You will also meet up with a rabbit-like people, the mimigas, and learn about the new threat they are facing. I do not want to spoil more of the story, but let me say there is a lot of it, and it is good! Some scenes are played out with animations but mostly you dwell deeper into your past and the cave world by talking to other characters.

Be prepared to die. The difficulty curve always goes up. It becomes really hard in the later stage of the game, but the controls are good enough to make you feel that it is actually your skills that lacks rather than the limitations of what your avatar can do.

And Cave Story is free!"And Cave Story is free!" And there are ports to all major operative systems: Windows, Mac, Linux, Nintendo DS, PSP and there is a redux coming out soon for the Wii on Nintendo's WiiWare. So if you have not heard of this game, there is really no reason for you not to grab it!