Developer: Nicalis, Inc., Studio Pixel

Publisher: Nicalis, Inc.

Played on: PC

Release Date: November 22, 2011

Played with: Keyboard

Paid: N/A

---

Booting up Cave Story+ was a truly nostalgia-infused experience.  Seeing the opening cutscene and hearing the catchy menu music immediately hooked me back in after dabbling in the original release around a decade ago.  This time around, I was determined to see the game through to the end, and I’m happy to report that I did just that!  Doing so wasn’t without its difficulties, though, and it’s left me with some complicated feelings to parse out.  Does this indie gem from years ago still hold up?  For the most part, I’d say, “Yes”.

Cave Story+ tells the story of Quote, a robot who was apparently part of a past war on the planet’s surface.  These days, he’s been living life underground, and – in his wanderings – eventually makes his way to a village, home to a small group of rabbitlike critters known as Mimiga.  The Mimiga are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a man known only as The Doctor, who has been kidnapping Mimiga for some nefarious scheme.  In a case of mistaken identity, Balrog and Misery (two of The Doctor’s cronies) show up and kidnap a young Mimiga named Toroko, thinking that she’s a different Mimiga named Sue.  This ultimately triggers a chain reaction of events, resulting in Quote setting off to find Sue, rescue Toroko and the Mimiga as a whole, and uncover the true purpose behind The Doctor’s plans.

While I wasn’t captivated by the plot in Cave Story+, it held my attention long enough to keep me invested in the characters.  Credit definitely has to go to the writing, which manages to craft a detailed world for Quote and company to inhabit without getting bogged down by exposition.  There were even a few laugh-out-loud moments to be had, despite the game generally taking itself pretty seriously.  Add in the fact that there’s actually three different endings to get depending on player choices and certain gameplay actions, and there’s surprisingly quite a lot going on for what seems to be a small game.  The biggest knock I have against the story is that cutscenes and dialogue sections are tied to the save state, meaning if you go through a big conversation and then die right after, you’ll have to see it all over again.  Thankfully, there are often save points shortly after story moments, so this doesn’t tend to get too egregious, but it’s definitely noticeable when it crops up.

I’ve seen Cave Story+ described in several places as a Metroidvania, but to me it felt a lot more like a classic run n’ gun platformer in the vein of something like Mega Man.  The platforming took me a lot of time to get used to, though.  Quote moves and jumps in a very loose, floaty manner, and it meant that areas requiring precision platforming could be extremely frustrating.  Mercifully, I found that such sections were less common as the game went on, combined with me getting used to the movement.  However, there’s unquestionably a learning curve, particularly when using a keyboard; it’s weird to have a binary input method translate into such analogue-feeling animation.

Over the course of the game, Quote can be kitted out with an assortment of weapons, each of which provides different firing patterns so he can adapt to various scenarios.  Some weapons have ammunition, while others are unlimited, though only the powerful missile launcher requires you to collect ammo to refill it; all the others refill automatically when you’re not firing.  Quote’s currently-equipped weapon can be leveled up by collecting XP triangles dropped by killed enemies, with each level increasing the weapon’s power and sometimes affecting its firing style.  For instance, the missile launcher at level one only fires one small missile at a time, whereas at level three each shot fires a small barrage at your opponents.  The catch is that taking damage will also subtract some XP off your equipped weapon, potentially downgrading its level in the process.  While this can feel overly punitive at times (particularly in the middle of boss fights), I found that it added to the strategy of the game and incentivized taking down ordinary mob enemies to build XP rather than just avoiding them.

My biggest qualm with the XP system is that it can be annoying to level up weapons that aren’t getting used as often.  For example, I mostly saved the missile launcher for boss fights, levelling it up to max and then conserving ammo until I really had to use it.  However, the only way to level it up without using up a bunch of ammo was to kill enemies with a different weapon and then swap to the missile launcher while picking up the XP triangles.  It ended up being tedious and fiddly, and it made me wish there was more of a formalized XP allocation system, especially since once your equipped weapon hits max level, any additional XP you collect for it gets wasted.

There’s an assortment of boss fights in the game, with each one providing a non-trivial challenge, but I didn’t find things to be too bad on the normal difficulty.  That is, until I hit the final boss, or rather, bosses.  In a move I can only describe as sadistic, Cave Story+’ final “boss” forces you to go through a gauntlet of four challenging fights back to back with only minimal healing and no save points.  Die at any point along the way and you have to start all over.  I’ll be honest: there were a couple of points where I legitimately thought I wouldn’t be able to beat the game because the whole thing seemed insurmountable.  I ultimately did (my Steam achievements can prove it), but my word; this one set of fights took Cave Story+ into tough-as-nails territory, and left me drained when I finally finished it.  Add to this the fact that technically this wasn’t even the final final boss (there’s a hidden one that you face afterwards if you’re going for the best ending), and Cave Story+ is clearly a game that’s happy to dole out punishment to its players, even if it leaves the difficulty curve feeling a bit uneven.

In contrast, I think there’s something for everyone in Cave Story+’ presentation.  If you’re a fan of the original release of the game, there are options to use the OG graphics and music, which still hold up in a charmingly low-fi sort of way.  If you prefer more intricate visuals and sound (as I did for my playthrough), there are updated options available that maintain the feel of the original while providing more detail to flesh out the world and characters.  Either way, while it’s not pushing the boundaries of pixel art animation or chiptune music, Cave Story+ still looks and sounds great all these years later.  I mentioned at the top of this review that the main menu theme brought back a flood of nostalgia, and there’s good reason for that: there are some catchy-ass tunes in this game, and it’s well worth checking out some of the music even if you don’t plan on playing the game.

I’ve seen a few places describe the original Cave Story as “the quintessential indie game” due to it being the product of a solo developer long before that was a common thing.  Two decades after the original release, I’m still impressed by how much work must have gone into the game, particularly when it comes to the diversity of characters and resulting large quantities of sprites.  Even in this newer Cave Story+ version, the game still feels like a blast from the past, from its occasional quirks to its challenging gameplay.  Personally, this feels like the definitive edition of the game, with the original sound and visuals available for those who want it, but remastered options on the table to help it fit in with more contemporary titles.  I don’t think that Cave Story+ will convert anyone who isn’t already a fan of this type of game, but for those that are, it’s a great title that’s well worth a look if you don’t mind a stiff challenge.

8/10