There are plenty of amazing platform shooters out there. Metroid. Gunstar. Contra. None of these games can quite compare to Cave Story, though.
Released in late 2004, Cave Story harkens back to a simpler time. The graphics are 8-bit, and yet they manage to be beautiful. The music consists entirely of chiptunes, and yet it's some of the best composed video game music I've ever listened to. And the gameplay? Fantastic.
Cave Story starts in, well, a cave. Your character wakes up with no memory of who, or where, he is. He is completely defenseless. Soon, however, he acquires a weapon, and that's where the fun begins. As the game progresses, you can collect up to five different weapons from a pool of nine.
After leaving the cave, you soon learn that you are a soldier robot sent to a floating island in the sky (the game's setting) almost ten years ago. Your character's true history, however, remains a secret for almost the entire game.
The graphics in Cave Story were meticulously crafted, and are very attractive despite their simplicity. The music is similar in this regard. Coupled with an extremely engaging story, these factors make Cave Story one of the finest games around. It's no surprise it took the creator, Pixel, almost five years to make.
Do yourself a favor and download it today.
Note: Cave Story (aka Doukutsu Monogatari) is a dojin (sometimes spelled doujin) game--that is, one of a genre of Japanese games created by non-professionals. The "delux" package for PCs includes an English translation patch and a game guide; to play on the Mac, you'll need to download both the Mac version and also the English language patch for Macs. (Unless you read Japanese, of course.)
help
ummm, maybe i'm stupid, but i don't see the translation patch (in the "delux package"). which file is it? Help me please; this game looks awesome.
You can get it from here:
You can get it from here: http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/pageN.php?nr=1699&f=CaveStory.zip or just search for it. This is the English patched version, think the link we were given was wrong.
Amazing game
Truly lovely, just given it a decent play. Beautiful graphics, good story and most important of all great fun to play. I don't think you can say this is better than Metroid, they're both very good, with completely different atmospheres. Metroid's all about being alone, exploring an alien planet, where this is all about interacting with and helping people, while again exploring an alien world. Extremely well translated into English as well.
Already applied
In the delux package, the translation patch is already applied... It's in English.
Ah!
Ah, but you'll notice I never said it was better. I said it can't compare. Personally, I think Metroid and Cave Story are about the same quality.
Maybe we were both doing
Maybe we were both doing something wrong, but when I downloaded it, it wasn't translated. Is it definitely linking to the patched version?
Yep, sorry, mis-read that.
Yep, sorry, mis-read that. I would agree with the quality though, it's very polished and definitely in the same league as better known (and commercial) games.
Hmm....
Well, I got it from the first mirror on that page... Seems to be in English...
> The graphics are 8-bit,
> The graphics are 8-bit, and yet they manage to be beautiful.
Not quite. The graphics are fully alpha-blended 32-bit true color, but they feel like 8-bit.
The genius of this game is that it applies modern graphics and gameplay concepts towards creating an experience that is as fun in the present as you remember Metroid, Mega Man, and other platform shooters being when they were new - most of those NES titles feel pretty boring to a contemporary eye.
Thanks for the English link, Llama
I too downloaded the link from the blog entry, and it definitely isn't translated. But the one Llama linked to IS! Thanks!
Same here
Thanks!
Found a cool site with
Found a cool site with secrets and cheats for this game:
http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/guides.php
You're right, it really is addictive.
Yeah...
Just to prevent confusion, I went ahead and added a link to the translation patch, which should help.
Remixed soundtrack
Fans of this game can find an excellent 2-album collection of remixes of Cave Story's music at
http://kwix.shackspace.com/cavestory/index.html
Long live Pixel!
Simply...
Simply one of the single best freeware games I've ever played, bar-none.
Another great timewaster
Cavestory has a proud place on my memory stick for playing a t college when I should be studying. Yay!
Nothing special I personally
Nothing special I personally like hidden object games or the ones where you compare two pictures, those are the best playing them at the bars.