Cave Story Catch-All

OH yeah, one of the best independent games of all time is getting released for Wii-Ware "this holiday season" (announcement buried in this release):

I hereby submit this thread for people to discuss their love of this amazing 2D side scroller. Here are some links to get you started.

Cave Story fan site and wikipedia.

Download link for the lazy.

Deceased Crab's Cave Story Let's Play.

OK, so who else has played this? It's available as freeware for the PC, so you can go ahead and play it and report back if you want. Have you gotten the ultimate weapon and jetpack? Have you beaten the game? Beaten the hell levels?

ps. First person to answer "what the heck is Cave Story anyway" in a succinct paragraph will have that paragraph inserted in the OP, since I'm too lazy to write it myself.

pps. HUZZAH!

I really enjoyed the game, though I never finished it. Did get the ultimate weapon (I think?) and jetpack. Never heard of the hell levels.

If you like the "metroid-vania" style of games, you'll probably want to give this a shot.

Still not crazy about the idea of porting a freeware game and selling it.

Think of this as a way to get more people playing and trying the game!

Plus hopefully Pixel got some money out of it... which maybe could help him yknow, work on a sequel maybe?

LobsterMobster wrote:

Still not crazy about the idea of porting a freeware game and selling it.

I don't know, I think Pixel deserves to make some money off of it. It's a pretty incredible little game that he put a lot of time and effort into making.

Plus, the WiiWare version apparently has extra content.

Really? Tell me more!

(OK, this is a blatant attempt to keep people talking about CS so the thread doesn't die / people who haven't heard of it hear about it).

That's what I read at 1up, I think. That is all I know.

I think I saw where there will be a few more story arcs too? Maybe I'm just off my rocker.

Alls I know is: I'm glad that Cave Story is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Such a great game. I played through it again recently. Just as good the second time through.

I heard of Cave Story from a 1up podcast mention (Parish? Sharkey?) - it came up as a good, free game. I think that's how I found GameTap back in the day as well.

I'm very happy to see this ported over and sold. It's a great game, but as I recall I needed to install a language pack to play it. That's nothing to the people in this forum, but I've found it's enough to turn a lot of people off. So anything making it easier to get into the game is goodness.

It's being ported over to the Wii was it? I'd like to see a Flash/Silverlight version on the web (smaller barriers to entry). It might also make a good DSi download game someday.

muttonchop wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

Still not crazy about the idea of porting a freeware game and selling it.

I don't know, I think Pixel deserves to make some money off of it. It's a pretty incredible little game that he put a lot of time and effort into making.

Most definitely, and he's throwing in some higher quality sprites to boot.

IMAGE(http://www.indiegames.com/blog/images/timw/cs_toroko_compare.png) (PC/WiiWare)

Maybe not immediately impressive, but I'm sure it'll make the whole game seem a bit more crisp.

I took a peek at the "Lets Play" on youtube -- looks fun (and hard and frustrating at the end). But I also found the new "official" site with some of the wiiware information. It wasn't linked yet, so here it is.

How much do WiiWare games typically sell for?

I'll take a shot at describing Cave Story in a succinct paragraph:

It's a game where you jump around with a puppy on your head. After that you jump around some more with a different puppy. Then, another puppy. There are other sequences in the game, like a suitcase that calls you names and bunnies who need anger management, but the salient detail is this: puppy helmets.

Nyles wrote:

I'll take a shot at describing Cave Story in a succinct paragraph:

It's a game where you jump around with a puppy on your head. After that you jump around some more with a different puppy. Then, another puppy. There are other sequences in the game, like a suitcase that calls you names and bunnies who need anger management, but the salient detail is this: puppy helmets.

Great. Now tell me why I'd like it.

Because maybe "puppy helmet" is a euphemism for something unspeakably filthy?

Wordsmythe, if that was serious:

Cave Story is the story of a robot that wakes up in a cave deep in a floating island, without any idea how he got there or why, and sets about trying to make the world a better place. It's the best parts of Metroid and Castlevania (genre is sometimes called metroidvania) combined with a decent story, interesting characters, humor and wit.

There also are some bits where you carry puppies around but honestly that's just part of the game.

Producer interview.

Gameplay.

The dude said it will cost between 500 and 1000 points. I'd have no problem paying $10 for it.

KingMob wrote:

Wordsmythe, if that was serious:

It was.

Cave Story is the story of a robot that wakes up in a cave deep in a floating island, without any idea how he got there or why, and sets about trying to make the world a better place.

So it's sort of a Wall-E thing?

Never played this for the PC, but I've seen my buddy play it on his PSP, so I am very interested. $10 is nothin, should be fun.

I didn't think you were serious, either. Here are some more details.

1) It looks like an NES game, as a lot of indie games do, but it's done well, with a variety of landscapes and good art design. Hidden passages, catchy music, a couple puzzles, and nods to other classic games.
2) It gets challenging but has more modern conveniences than those old games. For example, it's generous with save points and they're convienently located. The boss battles are usually a matter of choosing the right weapon.
3) Weapons level up quickly as you kill enemies and collect the tiny Doritos they leave behind. Leveled up weapons have cool effects. Weapons level down when you get hit, so you can't just grind a little and blow through the game without any challenge.
4) The story is decent. I wouldn't say it's especially brilliant, but it works as well as any Final Fantasy plot, and the characters are very cute. The game parcels out plot points pretty regularly rather than front-loading the game with too much exposition. It's very funny in points.
5) Most importantly, it's well-designed in the sense that there are many "aha!" moments. This enemy has one behavior, you kill a few of those with a cheap tactic, then you end up in an area where cleverly placed objects make that tactic impossible. So now you have to learn a better technique. And then you get a different weapon and it makes the earlier enemies trivial, but now there are new enemies who do something unexpected and nasty. And so on.
6) Puppy helmets
7) As KingMob said, if you like Metroidvania style games, it's a real treat. There are plenty of nostalgic indie games out there, but Cave Story is something more, a real love letter to the genre, well executed, full of surprising artistry.

I'll check it out if I have time, then.