Cave Story - A Tale of a Young boy, Bunnies, and Cave

[Dracos]

December, 2004

A lone programmer locked away in a room without food finally released his single masterpiece onto the net.  Collapsing, he was heard commenting about eating the roaches for sustanance.

December-March 2004

A crack team of adventurers came upon this game, realizing that it was both awesome and in crazy-foreigner-language, they took upon the mission of translating the masterpiece, eventually posting the freeware game on the net at http://agtp.romhack.net/doukutsu.html .

April 2004

After being bugged for ages... Dracos took up the game.  He was promptly addicted and went days without rest during crunch time to beat it over and over again.  Near unconsciousness and a month late, he finally scribes down the tales of his adventure here.

Day 1, minute one.

The game appears to be highly old school in style, starting me off as the mighty little boy who can jump high.  There seems to be a save spot and a door.  The feel is distinctly metroid style, though it has quite cute art.

Day 1, minute two.

Note to self:  Do not walk into the spikes.

Day 1, minute three.

Note to self: DO NOT WALK INTO THE SPIKES.

Day 1, minute eight

I have discovered the mighty Polar Star.  Having stolen it from a nifty sleeping gunsmith, I now stand ready and tall to take on the various forces of evil!  Robot boy still jumps high.  But he does it with STYLE!

Day 1, minute ten

Note to self: Doors are evil.  Secondary note: This game is FUN.  Tertiary note: Stop dying lamely~!

Day 1, minute tweleve.

I have encountered these strange bunny creatures.  They appear to be leaving in fear of the Doctor.  One of them fled after I fell through the ceiling and smashed down between them.  They're quite cute though.

Day 1, minute twelve and a half

I have made contact with the cutesy bunny creatures.  They are rather paranoid and worried over this one called Sue.  Apparently, she is the one the doctor is hunting for, and King, their leader, thinks if he gives her up, they'll be free from him.  By now I think I am starting to get the hang of things, my polar star having upgraded itself through my collection of the little golden triangles.  Checking around, I have also discovered a level map item and a clue about exploring~!

Day 1, minute fourteen

I have discovered that this diary is intended to be read by people.  People who are not already playing this game.  Clearly this is a truly impossible notion to me, so I must conclude that they don't exist.  especially since I linked it above.  Carrying on, I have discovered this old abandoned warehouse.  I suspect that the chance is absolutely zero that the person I am looking for is there, but I shall check it out anyway.

Day 1, minute fourteen and a half!

I have found her...sue?  No, wait, this is someone else.  That bunny from before.  She's quite mad...well, a few shots calmed her down.  Wait, what's that noise?  There's something breaking in.

IT IS BALROG, the mighty computer demon~!  With the nose of a bloodhound, he came hunting for sue!  This is unknown robot boy, signing offffff.....

Or something...

Ending that little dialogue, Cave Story was made by Pixel in 2004 and released freeware on the net.  It's a delightfully fun and addictive metroid/castlevania type game.  At least in game mechanics.  There's tons to find, alternate story paths, and jetpacks.  Each weapon has multiple levels of power which go up when you get these little golden triangles and go down when you get hit, rewarding playing a very clean gameplay.  This though doesn't get to the main point...

I'll make no secret of it.  I envy this game.

It is truly awesome.  I would be awed to have taken part in a game that has simply so much style, heart, and craftsmanship.

I often described this game as Metroid meets Earthbound in the 60s Sci Fi.  Having beaten it, I think that's still pretty accurate.  Pretty much every part of this game is well done, using simple and clever design throughout to keep it fun and enjoyable, a smooth balance curve with two secret levels for the difficulty nuts, and multiple endings.  Unlike most games of this style, it has a very nicely written story and tons of dialogue.  There are people to talk with!  They say interesting things!  It's really quite shocking really.

This game literally has pretty much nothing I can bring myself to complain about.  The art is cute and effective.  The gameplay always energetic and fun with sharp controls, new elements coming in regularly throughout, and lots of neat interactivity.  It has well used music that's pleasant to hear throughout.  The storyline is engrossing, reasonably well written, well translated, and generally shows plenty of polish and cute witticisms throughout.  It is easily the best game I've played so far all year and a mighty good showing.  Easily the best two dimensional one in a while.  I suggest everyone go play it.  It's really just one of those games.