*Editor’s Note* Jac Falcon will be submitting the occasional review to Duality. He’s got a gamer’s heart *sniff* and it’s beautiful. What follows is his first review. Look for more from Falcon in the coming weeks.
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Well, Jerod asked if I wanted to write a review, and I said I’d love to. I decided to review a game that nears the other end of the spectrum in comparison to most other games reviewed so far. It’s called Cave Story, and its a freeware pixel sidescroller.
Now I know that phrase right there may have given you a feeling of bored dread, but don’t be so quick to shun it. This game has quickly spread across the internet like a disease for its amazingness, being ported for sales to PSP, and homebrew ports for PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii Ware, and other systems.
Cave Story starts you off with nothing. Well, I guess you can jump … and you have enemies. Though they are only a challenge to someone still tuning themselves to the physics. Not long after, you receive your first gun, which will bring you joy as you blast bats, blue jumping things, and some boxes.
After shooting your first enemy, you’ll notice the item drops. Sometimes they’re hearts for health, but more often strange yellow triangles (and missiles later when you get the missile launcher). When you collect the Triangles, you gain experience. After a while, you’ll level up, which will make your weaponry more powerful. Take out more baddies, but don’t let them hit you — if they do, you’ll lose experience. As you play, you collect more weapons, and each will have its own experience level, depending on what you collect while your using it. Each gun has 3 levels, varying the shot, damage, and length before it dissipates. You’ll often find yourself leveling down and up very quickly in the heated battles.
The game also has a great story. At first you may assume its just a game puller (with no significance on its own), but things actually start pulling together, and a great plot is born. StudioPixel (the game’s creator) made sure to stick many subtle hints throughout the game. On repeat plays, you’ll catch a lot of stuff that seemed insignificant before. Robots, floating islands, evil “doctors”, and a grumpy toaster oven are just a small part of what this game holds. People have made fan sequels, and begged Pixel to make official continuations. You may find yourself going online to understand the subtle metaplot going on in the game.
And oh, how the soundtrack amazes. Sure, its some pretty simple 8-bit-esque music, but the melodies are so well designed, they still contain great emotion. After playing pretty far in, be sure to check out the Cave Story Remix Project, put together by some amazing arrangers, taking the original emotions and pumping them up to much higher levels of pwnage via the ears.
Even the artwork of the game is done well. I mean, its Pixels, but it’s well done, and memorable. there’s lots of secrets, including an uber-difficult “Hell” level. If you want to get to it, you’ll probably have to go on line to figure out how (or download a save for it).
One of the top things about this game? Freeware! You can download this game legally free. And its thanks to Aeon Genesis for the English translation. It’s small too, and you can also download a “Deluxe” edition that contains the pre-patched version, the original soundtrack, and other goodies.
That’s it! Comment if you like my review (or the game itself).
— Jac Falcon
The Blog of Jerod 