Cave Story...
First of all, Those of you who have not played Cave Story or have not HEARD of cave story, then your 2D street cred is in serious jeopardy.
So not to spoil much of the excellent story, you are a mute android who wakes up on a mysterious island underground. As soon as you begin the game, awakening in the dark damp cave surrounded by spikes and power critters, you can already tell this game is full of color, life and character.
After you explore the cave a bit you get past the first couple of easy obstacles and get familiar with the controls. Your character jumps and shoots smoothly and if you grew up on the same consoles as I did, you feel right at home.
After the cave is where the story takes off. You meet the humble rabbit-like creatures known as mimigas:
Which, aside from you, are who the game's central story revolves around. Some are hesitant to talk to you or come near you, which should tell you a thing or two about who you are, and all the while running through their town you notice it seems sort of desolate and abandoned. I do not want to ruin any more of the story but further bothering of the mimigas will explain things a bit more.
The story kicks ass to put it frankly. I don't want to spill the beans on many of the characters and things that happen along your journey, but you will be sucked in immediately.
So onto the gameplay, One thing you will instantly fall in love with is the weapon upgrade system. Every weapon has a small bar underneath the ammo count that charges when you collect the small gold triangles that spew out of fallen enemies. This bar will charge once to improve your weapon and raise it to level 2, and once again to level 3 maxing it out. This get's really interesting when you max out your weapon to it's most potential and then take damage, losing your upgrade and keeping you on your toes. The system works flawlessly and in a jam will have you searching for an enemy just to top off the upgrade bar and keep roasting the cute cuddly bone gators in the sand zone.
There are different zones to explore and different ways to explore them. The environments are all in hand crafted pixel style and blend together so well. On top of all the running and shooting are excellent platforming elements and puzzles that you'll run into constantly.
The enemies are full of personality as well. My personal favorites? These guys: are the ghosts sticking out of the ground in the grass zone that launch sonic waves at you when you shoot them. Always makes me smile. The bosses you encounter are gorgeous pixel bad-asses and the fights are always epic. As the story unravels and the final fights start coming into the picture, you'll look back to when you never heard of Cave Story, and you'll think "How?".
- Graphics 10 - Gorgeous hand drawn pixel scenary and enemies make this game one of the best looking retro titles despite it being about 15 years behind it's era. This game was re-released on the Wii and even with updated graphics. But do yourself a favor and get the original for free. I myself have not played the new one, I definetely would, but I love the original right now as it stands.
- Music 10 - Catchy tunes you'll sing to yourself all day at work just to have you coming home and booting it up just to get the song out of your head! (it wont work)
- Gameplay 10 - Awesome shooting action, Brilliant weapon upgrading system, Excellent Platforming areas with puzzles and riddles along with items reminiscent of zelda and metroid combined with everything else you could hope for in a retro styled game.
- Replayability 10 - Alternate endings, different weapons and weapon variations, different items to collect and tons of hidden secrets will have you coming back for more. Even if you've beaten it 5 times, you can not get tired of Cave Story's charm.
Conclusion: Cave story is a masterpiece that every gamer should play. The weapons are creative and unique, The enemies are smart and deadly and the story will keep you enthralled the whole time. Sometimes you'll laugh your ass off, other times you'll feel heart broken and on the edge of tears. Myself, I love Gears of War, Wipeout HD, Fallout 3, Bayonetta, and all of that other fun stuff that's out there today. But This game will take you back to your roots. It's such a refreshing game and you will find yourself glued to your computer screen until you've squeezed every last drop of gameplay out of it. I'm not a professional, and honestly this is probly the most in depth i've gone into a videogame review, but I'm proud to have Cave Story be my first, and I'm glad to give it a perfect 10.
