With my current lack of cash freeware games are becoming more and more appealing too me. In truth though this game has been one I've loved for a long while, even when I first got my 360 and couldn't get enough of smashing the crap out of zombies in Dead Rising, or first installing a copy of Sam and Max Episode 1, I'd still stop and take time to give this game a little play, I've been playing on and off for well over a year now in small 5 minute plays and I'm genuinely surprised a game can be so long. What am I talking about? None other than Cave Story which if you haven't heard of, with it's confirmed Wii Release you'll hear of it a lot more soon.
So, what's the game about? In truth I've never taken much time to take in the plot and only skimmed to get to the game play but from what I remember you play a soldier from the surface who's somehow ended up underground in a village with some cute little dog like things when one gets kidnapped, you take it upon yourself to save the little fella which of course leads onto a bigger adventure. In truth plot isn't what sells this game but I do have to admire it because it's where the text comes in the most and this game has been lovingly translated to a quality you'll never find in a Korean MMORPG or something.
So why did I speed though the plot? Not because I'm impatient or anything, hell, I loved Final Fantasy VII for it's long winded plot, no, the reason I sped though it with Cave Story is because the game comes into it's own in game play. How is it original? It isn't! The game play is pure fun side scrolling action, with an odd 3 level system for each weapon (taken from some horizontal space shooter you'd find in some 20p arcade) and pickups along the way which boost your HP bar (and when your running around with 10 times the HP you had when you started the game you start to feel a little smug about yourself...it's sad I know but trust me you'll feel the same). There are no real puzzles although every now and then a mini-quest to collect some items to get past something to move on in the game. The Boss battles are challenging but usually they'll throw you a save point just before it and a box to refill your HP. It's rare these days to find a game which isn't trying some epic new game mechanic to stand out, and I know in the freeware world you have to normally do something insane to get noticed but although I love seeing what developers come up with, there are a lot more misses than hits, so it's nice to play a game which is simple, old school and most of all fun :-D
Graphics are an odd one to cover for this game. If your looking for a game based purely on the graphics stop reading now...thinking about it leave my blog and go buy a PS3 you chav. Cave Story prides it's self on it's 2D 8-bit graphics and audio and I love it for this. The game genuinely looks like it would be at home on the NES and in one sense I wish it was because I think the only thing that could make this game that little more awesome is if it came on one of those old NES carts and I could play with a game pad from back when having an a AND a b button was quite advanced.
So, to sum up this is a game which I hope with it's up coming jump to console will get the recognition it damn well deserves. It's a high quality game which can be over looked based on it's 8-bit goodness and even though it'd fully free to download for Windows, if it hit's the Xbox Live Arcade one day I'll be buying it. Till then I recommend you download it, but if you need a little more convincing below is a trailer for the game, Enjoy :-)
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