Cave Story

Cave Story is a Metroidvania platform-adventure video game developed by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. It was initially released in 2004 for Microsoft Windows available for free.

Main plot
In a mysterious cave inside a floating island, a robot named Quote awakens. He is suffering from amnesia and doesn't know who or where he even is. After exploring the small cave he is in, he stumbles into the village of the Mimiga, a race of rabbit-like creatures. The Mimiga are in big danger, as they are being held captive by an evil man known as The Doctor. He has sent out his two minions, known as Balrog and Misery, to find a girl named Sue, who has been transformed into a Mimiga. However, Balrog and Misery accidentally abduct a different Mimiga named Toroko. Quote finds Sue outside of the village in a place called the Egg Corridor. Sue has found the egg of a Sky Dragon, which will take her off the floating island once it has hatched. Sue wants to rescue her brother named Kazuma, who has been looking for her. However, she has been stopped by the Mimiga leader, King. He captures her and holds her responsible for Toroko being kidnapped. While captured, she tells Quote to find her brother in Grasstown, which Quote is able to do after helping the resident Mimiga there. After freeing Kazuma, the two meet Professor Booster, who tells them that the Doctor is planning to use the red flower, a plant that turns the Mimiga into insane monsters, to create an army to take over the world below the island. He tells Quote to enter the Sand Zone to find and destroy the red flowers.

While in the Sand Zone, the player finds Curly Brace, who attacks the player at first but quickly trusts him. She is also a robot who has no memories of who she is. Quote also meets an old woman named Jenka, who calls the player a "soldier from the surface". She says Quote's kind was sent to kill the Mimiga on the island. Balrog somehow steals the key to the warehouse where the red flowers are located from Jenka. Jenka tells Quote to stop Balrog, but he is to late, and before he can reach the warehouse, the Doctor feeds the red flower to Toroko and kills King. Quote is forced to kill the insane Toroko.

After killing Toroko, Misery traps Quote deep inside the island. Curly Brace has also been trapped in the Labyrinth with Quote. They work together to escape it. However, they find a rock that blocks their escape, but Balrog surprisingly removes the rock, showing that he has good in him. The two also find the Core, a creature that keeps the island floating in the air, which they destroy. Unfortunately, the Doctor saves the Core from death and prevents the island from destruction. Curly Brace sacrafices her air tank to keep Quote alive, but the player may rescue her if certain conditions are met. Quote returns to Mamiga Village, where he finds the Doctor captured all of the Mimiga.

"Bad" ending
When Quote reaches Kazuma in the Egg Corridor, Kazuma tells Quote that he is fleeing the island using the newly hatched Sky Dragon and asks the player to join him. The player accepts and they flee the island, leading the Doctor to conquer the world unopposed. (It should also be noted that even if you do accept Kazuma's offer but you climb the Outer Wall, you still get the normal/best endings.)

"Normal" ending
The player refuses to flee the island with Kazuma and instead must try to confront the Doctor and destroy the Core to turn the Mimiga back to normal. Quote finds a plantation where Mimiga are being used as slave-laborers to harvest the red flower for the Doctor. Quote is then captured again and put in a cell with Sue. After waking up from a rest, he finds that Sue is gone, but finds a note that says the Doctor used to be part of a research expedition with Sue's family and Professor Booster, but he turned on them after he found an object called the Demon Crown. Quote makes his way to the Last Cave and to the Balcony, where he finds the Doctor and all of the Mimiga. The Doctor has made a red crystal with the essence of the red flower in it. This allows him to live even after Quote kills him. Quote must them face the Undead Core, destroying it and causing the island to collapse. Quote and Sue jump off the island, where they are saved by Kazuma on the Sky Dragon and they regroup with the surviving Mamiga, as the island crashes to the ground.

"Best" ending
If the player has reached certain conditions, than they may be able to save Curly Brace from death after she gives Quote her air tank. Using a certain item, Curly recovers her lost memories and remembers Quote's name and they where in fact not killer robots sent to kill all of the Mimiga, but where instead sent to destroy the Demon Crown to stop it from falling into the hands of evil. At the point in the normal ending where Quote fights Misery and the Doctor, Curly joins to help Quote in the fight. After the island begins to collapse, Quote and Curly are taken to the Bloodstained Sanctuary. Curly is lost, but Quote finds her in the Sanctuary. Finally, they encounter Ballos, the creator of the Demon Crown. He was once a wizard who went insane and destroyed the land where he grew up in. The Demon Crown will also repair itself when destroyed and only killing Ballos will destroy it once and for all. With the help of Curly, Quote manages to kill Ballos and stops the island from crashing into the ground. However, Ballos's prison is collapsing, but Balrog arrives and saves Quote and Curly from being crushed to death. The three leave the island and live out the rest of their lives in peace.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) First and foremost, Cave Story is credited for started the indie game revolution, as its immense popularity led to many other people to create their own games by themselves.
 * 2) The story is amazing, with a deep and sometimes dark plot (especially towards the end of the game) but similar to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the game is light-hearted at the same time. It has a lot of emotional depth and almost all of the characters where well written and fully fleshed out (See WIR#3). The plot also has many twists and turns and leads to a very emotional ending.
 * 3) Tons of likable characters and every one of them feels fully fleshed out. For example, King is a very strong character physically due to how he used to eat the red flower, but he has a soft side despite his appearance, as he wants to protect his family members. Another good example of a fully fleshed out character is the side villain Balrog, who he first learn is a typical henchman character of the main villain, but as the game goes on, he helps the heroes and even saves them from certain death at the end of the best ending.
 * 4) The gameplay is extremely satisfying. In the game, you guide the protagonist, Quote, through the game world, mostly solving platform puzzles and fighting enemies using a variety of ranged weapons to progress. When defeating enemies, you will gain experience points, and when you get a certain amount, your weapon that is currently equipped will be upgraded to increase it's damage and range, and even a special power at max level, which is when you level up twice. However, if you take damage from enemies or hazards, you will lose experience points and can even have your weapons leveled down a level. Along the way, players may find health and missile tanks to increase their maximum health and ammunition for their rocket launcher.
 * 5) * In addition, it is really easy to understand the controls, as the button layout is very simple. You have one button to jump, one to shot, and two to swap out your weapons, while also using the the arrow keys or analog stick to move the player around. Basically, almost anyone can play this game due to how simple the button layout is.
 * 6) As mentioned above, there are two main collectibles: life capsules and missile expansions, which both increase your health points or missile ammunition by different amounts depending on which container you collect. They are usually found in secret places throughout the areas of the game, and some areas can be re-visited to find new collectibles using new items you find.
 * 7) * The collectibles are also a good goal to work for 100% completion, as they make the player a lot more powerful.
 * 8) The pixel art looks amazing despite the simplistic look, especially in the Cave Story+ release. You can tell what you are looking at despite a small amount of pixels being used for the sprites. The character close-ups in the dialogue sections also looks very good, with some detail on the characters and having a sort of cute look for all of the characters. The Cave Story+ re-release even adds a lot more detail and sizes up the sprites.
 * 9) * The background art and the art used for the world that the player explores is also amazing and uses a lot of pixels to detail the walls, floor, and everything in the environment.
 * 10) The weapons in the game are very unique in design and each of them feels different from one another, with a lot creativity in how they work.
 * 11) * The Polar Star is your starting weapon. It acts as a normal handgun that shots a bullet with each press of the attack button.
 * 12) * The Missile Launcher launches rockets at enemies. Unlike other limited ammo weapons, where it is replenished over time, the Missile Launcher requires you to collect ammo for the weapon. The higher the level, the more rockets fired. It can also be upgraded to the Super Missile Launcher late in the game.
 * 13) * The Fireball is a gravity affected gun that fires balls of fire. The projectiles fall to the ground and bounce a few times before disappearing. It also pierces enemies and can climb up slopes. It is best used when having high ground over enemies.
 * 14) * The Bubbline fires bubbles, firing automatically starting at Level 2. It has limited ammo that regenerates over time. At Level 3, when fired, the bubbles will surround Quote sort of like a shield. When the oldest bubble projectile pops, it fires a white projectile to where the player is facing.
 * 15) * The Machine Gun acts as a replacement for the Polar Star. It fires ammo rapidly when holding the fire button down and has limited ammo that is restored over time. At Level 3, it can be used as propulsion to travel upward to high places. It is also the only weapon that affects movement when fired.
 * 16) * The Blade is a sword that is thrown in the direction of the player. The range gets shorter and you are given a bigger blade at Level 2. At Level 3, when the blade hits an enemy, it does multiple slashes with varying damage. A ghost-like version of King also replaces the sword's animation.
 * 17) * The Snake combines the accuracy of the Polar Star and the piercing ability of the Fireball. At Levels 2 and 3, it fires projectiles in a wave-like pattern. The shots can also travel through walls.
 * 18) * The Spur is an upgraded version of the Polar Star. Other than acting like a Polar Star when normally fired, the weapon can be charged to fire off a laser, with the damage increasing with each charge level.
 * 19) * The Nemesis is a gun that fires two quick and powerful bolts at Level 1. However, unlike other weapons, it decreases in power as it gains experience points and levels, to the point where it fires rubber ducks.
 * 20) The many different in-game items also help the player out in many ways.
 * 21) * The Map shows the basic layout of the area the player is in, making sure that players won't get lost in any of the areas.
 * 22) * The many different Keys that you can collect are used to open various doors to new areas and are mostly used to progress the story forward.
 * 23) * The Turbocharger restores used ammunition on the Machine Gun a lot quicker, so players don't have to wait as long to use it again if they run out of ammo.
 * 24) * The Booster 0.8 and 2.0 are jetpacks that are used to reach the player to higher places and keep them over the ground longer.
 * 25) * Curly's Air Tank stops the player from losing health while underwater.
 * 26) Though the game is short (just a few hours), it does everything it needs to in that time frame.
 * 27) The game has three different endings that give it some replay value. The two endings are a bad ending, a standard good ending, and the "best" ending that requires a lot of work to reach but is a very satisfying conclusion.
 * 28) It is a perfect example of flow theory, the idea of balancing player skill and difficulty in a video game. Early on in the game, the player isn't as skilled with the game controls and the game allows them to learn easier by putting out only a few enemies. As the game progresses, the player is likely to have mastered the controls and usage of guns and items, so there are more enemies and larger variety of attack patterns. The best ending path is also a good example of this. Since players are not likely to reach this ending on their first run and more likely to reach it in multiple playthroughs, it is a lot more difficult than the normal path.
 * 29) It has an immense number of ports available on Wii consoles and above so that it's open to anyone.
 * 30) The boss fights are great. They are very creative and the fights are challenging, making defeating the boss feel all the more satisfying. Some require players to think about boss weaknesses, such as the fight against the frog version of Balrog.
 * 31) * Some of the fights also have a bullet-hell aspect to them, unlike other games of the Metroidvania genre. The boss fight against Misery is a really good example of this.
 * 32) The re-releases have three difficulties (Easy, Normal, and Hard) so that anyone can have a good time playing the game. Based on what difficulty you are playing on, the damage you take will vary.
 * 33) In relation to the above pointer, the Hard Mode is a brutally difficult but satisfying game mode that is a great challenge for veteran players. In this mode, you are limited to having only three health points and there are no heart canisters that you can collect. This makes battling enemies feel a lot more stressful, but incredibly satisfying to eliminate them successfully. This also makes boss fights a bigger challenge.
 * 34) While simplistic, the chiptune music is amazingly crafted and is an excellent soundtrack for the game. The quiter areas have less rapid notes and beats, while the boss battle music sounds very intense and gets the blood pumping. All in all, the music does a good job of canveying emotion alongside fitting the action perfectly.
 * 35) The game has two upgraded versions of that add new features of their own.
 * 36) * The 3DS exclusive Cave Story 3-D remade all of the game's standard sprites and made them 3-D models, and making the environments 3-D models as well. There are even a few items that are exclusive to the game.
 * 37) * Cave Story+ adds a lot of new features, the biggest and most obvious is remastering all of the pixel art sprites to make them more detailed.
 * 38) A lot of small touches where added to the game to make it slightly more enjoyable and unique. For example, based on what difficulty you are playing the game on, Quote's character design looks different, with Hard Mode giving him a more human looking design. Another example is the variety of "joke items", which are items that serve no real purpose other than to amuse the player, such as the Prinny Cap exclusive Cave Story 3D, which replaces Quote's cap with a hat of a Prinny from the Disgaea series.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The Bubbline (otherwise known as the Bubbler) gun feels pointless.
 * 2) The Nicalis ports are worse than the original, as they have a higher framerate (The game was purposely designed around a 50 FPS cap), which breaks the platforming.
 * 3) The final level, the Blood-Stained Sanctuary (otherwise known as the Sacred Grounds), is extremely difficult and sometimes even a bit unfair.
 * 4) * The same goes for Hard Mode. While it is a good challenge, it is very frustrating due to how it is designed.
 * 5) The fetch quests are a bit tedious and annoying to do sometimes.
 * 6) The PC port lacks the 3DS/Switch additions. This okay for the WiiWare/DSi versions as you cannot update games on there, but it's disappointing because the 3DS/Switch versions have some great features, including...
 * 7) *Widescreen Support
 * 8) *Co-op
 * 9) *Dynamic Lighting and Animated Talksprites
 * 10) *Famitracks and Ridiculon Soundtrack
 * 11) *Sand Pit

Nintendo Switch Version

 * 1) Co-op is heavily flawed as if one player bites the dust, both of you lose. This can be very frustrating for new players who aren't familiar with the game.

Cave Story 3D

 * 1) The Cave Story 3D release is quite controversial and may be considered one of the worst versions of the game. While it replaces all of the pixel art sprites with 3D models, it removes the charm that the art style had and isn't enough to justify the $40 price tag.
 * 2) * The enhanced graphics also make some areas way to dark and hard to see, such as the Ruined Egg Corridor.
 * 3) You get way too much HP, therefore throwing the challenge out of the window. Without glitches, you can get 99 HP compared to the 55 HP you can get in the original game. You also get HP for a lot of random things that you do in the story, like bringing back Jenka's puppies gives you 1 HP.

Reception
Upon release, Cave Story received critical acclaim from many gaming publications and players. 1Up.com described the game as "so massive that it rivals modern [Game Boy Advance] Castlevania and Metroid games in terms of scope and play time." Matt Miller of Game Informer stated that the game contained elements of Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, The Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania into a "engrossing, challenging, and quite lengthy" whole. In July 2006, the original version of Cave Story was called the best freeware game of all time by Super PLAY.

The WiiWare version of the game also received positive reviews, but there was criticism on the $12 price tag the game had when the original version was free. The same critism was given on the Cave Story 3D release, with many critics believing the graphical upgrade not being enough to justify the $40 price tag.

Legacy
Cave Story is credited for starting the indie game revolution. After the successful release of the game, many other people began developing their own smaller game projects by themselves or in small teams.

Trivia

 * Phil Fish used this game as a inspiration for Fez.
 * Once Nicalis had the publishing rights for Cave Story and the game is no longer available for free, they have ordered DCMA actions on fan projects that recompile the code from the original free release.

Videos
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