// PC GAMER — GAMING
Cave Story+ review (2012)
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I love Cave story with my whole heart. The platonic ideal of the indie game came at a time when "metroidvania" was barely part of our lexicon. The same went for "indie," really, because before this enhanced Plus release, solo developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya first published the game in Japanese way back in 2004. Its legendary status grew from message board word of mouth, eventually spawning an official translation, WiiWare release, and many more ports. It's a perfect videogame.
Cave Story also factored into one of the surreal moments of my career. In November 2014, while I was interviewing 17-Bit founder Jake Kazdal in a then-temporary office setup in Kyoto, I mentioned the game—probably as an example of Japan's still nascent indie scene—and he casually mentioned that Amaya worked out of an office a few floors down. "Want to meet him?" We took the elevator down and knocked on his door. I've still got his business card somewhere.
If this were my review, I'd probably be trying to type "98" into the score box while the rest of PC Gamer's senior staff hold my fingers away from the keyboard. Chris Donlan's short but sweet review gets to the heart of why a seemingly simple game has stuck with so many people for so long.
From the archives: The review below appears as originally written, with only minor changes in formatting and newly taken screenshots. By Chris Donlan
Over on a Cave Story messageboard, X-Calibar has a problem with Cave Story+. It’s to do with Balrog, a boss who looks like a suitcase. In the old days, his catchphrase used to be “Huzzah!” Now, thanks to the HD upgrade’s alternate translation, it’s “Oh yeah!”
X-Calibar isn’t happy. “‘Oh yeah’? What kind of charge is that?! Even ‘Booyah!’ might make more sense.” If you’re wondering how a game could inspire criticism of this granularity, you probably haven’t played Cave Story. Daisuke Amaya’s homebrew classic is a uniquely polite 2D platform adventure in which you’re dropped into a subterranean world where a villainous doctor threatens a group of bunny people.
What is it? A retro-tinged platformer with great upgradable weapons.Release date November 22, 2011Expect to pay $10/£7 (in 2012)Developer Studio PixelPublisher NicalisPlay it on Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 512MB RAMSteam Deck PlayableLink Steam
You save the day by exploring, shooting weird animals, fighting bosses, and collecting items that, more often than not, open up new parts of the environment, where the whole thing repeats.