One man, one cave, one seriously awesome story.

While shuffling through the gaming blogs, I came across several posts announcing the release of Studio Pixel’s Cave Story via Nintendo’s handheld content delivery service, DSiWare. While I now understand that Cave Story was initially released in its native Japan in 2004, I had actually never happened upon the game.

The title debuted for the PC as a free executable. Free. And since I didn’t even have a DSi, I figured that I’d just track down a copy to play on my computer. Recently, I’ve been trying to teach myself a little web coding, and have thus been doing my work in the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. Being too lazy to restart my system and boot into Windows, I found a Linux port of Cave Story (linuxDoukutsu-1.01) and ran it from there.

If you’ve been keeping tabs on our blog, then you know that I’m a sucker for gaming nostalgia; so, I’ll spare you the gush and just say that Cave Story is a successful homage to 8-bit gaming. In terms of aesthetic presentation, Cave Story manages to make ample use of what resources the 8-bit paradigm has to offer and doesn’t spare one byte.

Cave Story's tiles, animated sprites, and color palettes are choice.

By my count, most objects and characters are something like 13 x 13 pixels square and adequately convey a sense of depth with two-to-four step color gradients. As you would expect, the music and sound effects are super low-fi, but succeed in much the same way that Cave Story’s art style does. The most impressive aspect of all this is the fact that Cave Story was created by one man, Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya.

Essential characters are assigned well drawn portraits that
supplement character development nicely.

Even without knowing about the game’s barebones development ‘team’, Cave Story impresses. The story is well composed so far, with a very tidy narrative full of colorful dialog (fantastically translated by whomever ported the game to Linux) and lively characters. In short, you begin as a perceived human amnesiac who awakens in a cave full of hostile creatures and without a weapon to boot. Once you find your way to the subterranean abode of an apparently narcoleptic gunsmith, you can snatch up a pistol with which you vaporize your would-be assailants thereafter.

I like to blow things up.

In a 2d shooter with some platforming elements, I love to play with a gamepad. With an Xbox 360 USB controller, the game is a blast. The left analogue stick lets you navigate through the sidescrolling landscape, while you are allotted face buttons for jumping, shooting, switching your weapon, and opening the area map. Additionally, my shoulder buttons open the game’s inventory screen.

Cave Story’s fun factor is driven by the player’s ability to clear an entire screen by gunning through their enemies with an assortment of quick and powerful weapons. Enemies will drop golden triangles that can power power up certain weapons through various levels of efficacy, along with hearts that replenish your health and ammunition for those weapons that can be depleted. Once the player figures out how to effectively swap their weapons, the game can pick up a deliciously chaotic momentum of ripping through swarms of badguys and collecting the spoils.

Japanese developers: masters of the art
of launching way too many missiles at once.

However, I gotta say that one of Cave Story’s stumbling blocks is its slightly inconsistent physics that kill what could have been snowball-like momentum. When the main character runs, there isn’t that satisfying gradual acceleration that games like Super Mario Bros. have. In fact, it almost feels like you’re always trudging through mud. The same can be said about jumping. Instead of short snappy hops and long springy leaps, jumping feels like something you’d expect from walking on the moon. The player is given the option to jump higher the longer that the jump key is depressed, but landings are sticky as you return to those weird dragging strides. In short, the way the main character moves is not entirely conducive to a game that involves some degree of platforming.

To be fair, the developer did take some thoughtful steps to accelerate the platforming experience by including an array of interactive environments that effect the player’s progression through the level. For instance, the second stage involves traversing a network of high powered fans whose force, when combined with a jump, can propel the main character an entire screen length. In fact, as I’ve progressed through each zone, the environments have become more visually interesting and kinesthetically involving. There really is a good balance of helpful and hazardous environmental elements -- from pits of charging enemies to pillars that provide cover -- which makes level design one of Cave Story’s strongest assets.

Smart color design and deceptively soft edges
give Cave Story's environments a natural appearance.

Overall, Cave Story is an independent game that is pure engaging fun at its core, and whose budget-to-quality ratio alone is a marvel to behold. While the developer’s relative limitations may be to blame for some of Cave Story’s shortcomings, those shortcomings are overshadowed by the rest of the game, which is disproportionately solid in comparison. You can play Cave Story in a variety of incarnations: Wii Ware, DSiWare, Windows, MacOS, Linux, and a variety of homebrewed ports. While purchasing the commercial versions of the game may be a good way to support an indie developer, these releases have a significantly more modern presentation, and don’t feel quite as charming as their earlier counterparts. I suggest snagging one of the free releases, and finding some way to make a generous donation to Mr. Daisuke Amaya directly.

Whatever you do, play this game. The versions are detailed in the link below: I’ll let you sort ‘em out.

http://www.cavestory.org/downloads_1.php