A Second Chance to Save the Future

At long last, Cave Story has hit WiiWare, but without any of the fanfare you’d expect for such a stupendous title. It seems like years ago that Nicalis announced it would be porting over Studio Pixel’s gorgeous, handmade love letter to classic games, Doukutsu no Monogatari (or Cave Story to the majority of you). I’ve been waiting with bated breath ever since I heard that the game would be hitting Nintendo’s underappreciated download service with newly redone graphics and music. While I had some misgivings about Nicalis damaging the authentic feel of the game in the porting process, I was mostly just excited for the opportunity to play this game on an actual controller. Luckily for all of us, my misgivings were as unfounded as my excitement was justified.

Cave Story is the epic tale of a lone battle robot squaring off against an evil force to save an endangered underground race of rabbity-looking balls of cuteness, dubbed Mimiga. The story isn’t all that important; although it is well told considering the same person who developed every other aspect of the game wrote it. I actually found myself getting attached to some of the characters at random instances throughout the adventure just because some of the dialogue is surprisingly endearing. The story is also integrated well into the overall game without ever feeling too intrusive, despite the inability to skip through cutscenes.

 

Mario With a Splash of Metroid; or Perhaps the Reverse

 

Regardless of the relative strength of the game’s narrative, the real reason that this game rocks so hard is that the core gameplay is spot-on throughout. The game’s protagonist, Quote, starts out in the cavernous depths of the world with no health to speak of and no real way to defend himself. After carefully winding my way past treacherous pitfalls with some patient platforming, I finally had my hands on one of the game’s many weapons. From there, I found myself embarking on a brilliantly constructed journey of advancement and discovery.

 

As the adventure unfolded, I constantly came into possession of increasingly varied and powerful weaponry. Each of the game’s main weapons is actually substantially different from the others. These differing abilities allow for some Metroid-syle exploration where new areas can only be accessed after certain items are acquired. There are also health and ammo power-ups scattered in well-hidden locations throughout the course of Quote’s adventure. Because of this, game very much feels like it is in the vein of a Metroidvania title, but with far more precise platforming than we have seen in recent titles that earned the moniker.

Don’t think that the fact that this game was obviously influenced by some popular franchises to mean that it apes them entirely. In fact, as much as Cave Story reminds me of classic games from the past, it’s obvious that the creator, Pixel, strove hard to assure that the title had plenty of unique mechanics of its own. The most apparent of these is the weapon leveling system. Each of Quote’s weapons has its own level that can be improved by grabbing gems dropped from fallen enemies. At each of the three levels, the weapons get progressively more powerful and start to have more divergent effects. The final level of one of the weapons is actually the spirit of a powerful Mimiga soldier that flies out and drains life from Quote’s enemies. I quite liked that one.

 

The twist to all of this is that getting hit not only drains your life, but your weapon level as well. This changes boss battles from the endurance runs that they might have been into these odd balancing-acts. The damage that you do is so front loaded, that you really have to make sure that you can hit each boss hard at the beginning of the battle, because later on most of your weapons will be all but ineffectual.  This dynamic ends up being incredibly fun, and helps the game feel pretty singular, as managing the different weapons becomes increasingly complex.

 

What Once Was Old is New Again

 

Nicalis did an excellent job with this port. I had my fears going in to the game that the redone sprites and music might hurt the overall charm of the title. Changing these elements of a game does not always yield the best results, and I like to cover my bases as far as skepticism goes. In the end, though, what I got with Cave Story for WiiWare is basically the exact opposite of what I had feared. The extra detail on the game’s sprites actually added more character and life to the heroes and villains of this epic tale, and made the game even more charming than I had remembered..

On top of the gorgeously re-envisioned character and background art, the game’s music has gotten a slight revamping. Though the original compositions were always pretty good, I actually liked the new music a bit more. On top of that, players can enable the original graphics and music if they so choose, so everyone should be happy! The WiiWare version of the title also offers some other additional features on top of those already mentioned. There is a boss rush mode, a time attack for one of the later hidden areas of the game, and a second playable character (who I actually took more of a liking to during the game than the actual protagonist).

 

A Timeless Epic for the Ages

 

Cave Story offers a far grander adventure than I could have anticipated. Quote’s journey is long and fraught with peril, and I seldom found myself just going through the motions. Each area of the game presents its own unique challenges, as do the individual boss encounters (which get totally insane at later points in the game). Managing your weapon levels while trying to maximize the damage inflicted on the enemy and mitigate taking damage made for some seriously heated encounters. The game’s multiple endings are also pretty compelling, hinging on nabbing certain items at key points and offering the player different amounts of satisfaction at the game’s conclusion.

 

How one person managed to make this game by himself is beyond me. There is so much content here, and the experience feels fresh despite the old school imagery and game mechanics. Quote’s quest is immediately engrossing and the bizarre character designs (which I found initially off-putting) add a distinct charm that drew me into the adventure. I’m glad that Nicalis pushed forward to deliver this game to Wii owners. It is one of the premier titles on the WiiWare service, as well as being one of the shining stars in its genre.