title with leanings towards Wonderboy and recent sidescrolling
Castlevania titles. You control a little amnesiac who runs around
helping out these rabbit-ish creatures called Mimigas while trying
to find your way out of the giant cave inside the floating island
which makes up the game’s setting.
You can expand your health meter by collecting Life Capsules in
similar fashion to Metroid games, while you can get stronger by
collecting energy to boost your firearms’ output. Each weapon can
be built up to the maximum level (3) fairly quickly, but taking
damage will drain energy from its experience meter, sometimes
causing it to level down. Given how quickly they power up this
only tends to be an issue during boss fights, and even then there’s
usually plenty of opportunities for collecting more weapon energy.
The game has loads of secrets, too. Shih Tzu and I haven’t found
everything, and we’ve each played it through a couple of times
(not to mention having read the script.) It’s pretty awesome that
way.
For a freeware Japanese platformer, it’s fairly lengthy and has
quite a large amount of text. I’d guesstimate that each playthrough,
provided you knew what you were doing, would take about 4-6 hours.
Tack on an extra couple of hours if you don’t know what you’re
doing, possibly for extreme problems with nasty bosses (which this
game has plenty of, especially towards the end.) We’re also talking
three very different endings, plenty of plot, and quite a cast of
charming characters. It really is a superb little gem 🙂
Another thing that really makes Cave Story enjoyable for me is how it manages to stay interesting even after playing it multiple times. Many games feel repetitive after a while, but here, the experience still feels fresh because of the small details and different ways you can approach the gameplay. As you continue playing, you naturally start improving and understanding the mechanics better, which makes everything feel more rewarding. I also appreciate the balance the game maintains—it’s not too difficult, but it’s not too easy either. You can play it casually for a short break or spend longer sessions without getting bored. That flexibility is one of the biggest reasons why I keep coming back to Cave Story. Overall, it’s the kind of game that doesn’t just entertain you for a moment, but actually gives you a consistently enjoyable experience every time you play.
