Cave Story

Cave Story was one of those games that as a kid I had watched people play/do challenge runs of and played it myself after getting interested, but because I was a kid who as bad at games, I never finished the “true” end. As an adult, 15 or so (or even longer) years later, I saw the PC version on sale and while I know it’s not the “ideal” way to play I figured being able to play it on steam deck with whatever new stuff could be fun so I picked it up.

My first feelings playing the game now was wow, this game feels so slippery compared to what I remember! Not that I had remembered much, but the jumping took some time to get used to for sure. It feels very different from most of the more modern platformers that I played, and while I wouldn’t call this a metroidvania the control scheme is still somewhat similar.

But what did come back immediately was a huge wave of nostalgia right after I changed the music back to the original OST. The environments, the art, the sounds, the gun feel, all those aspects are still honestly amazing to this day. There weren’t that many different weapons but each weapon had a distinct use case that I really liked and the environments were varied enough while also not being long which helped with the game’s pacing a lot.

This is probably a testament to how much I’ve grown up in skills but I did feel like when I was younger the game was a lot longer haha. Probably because I kept dying. One thing though that I had resigned myself to doing now is that I would do all the things that I didn’t do as a kid. That meant finally beating hell, getting the true end, using the spur, and getting the nemesis. As a kid I mostly used the machine gun and I don’t even think I got the booster 2.0 so I figured I’d try out all the hard end-game challenges this time around.

Of course, they kicked my ass. The nemesis was probably a mistake considering how I had gotten the spur, and it made me wish I didn’t exchange the blade for it (it is a cool weapon though! I just like the blade more). Hell especially was as rough as I remember watching people play through it and it took me probably around 30% of my actual playtime haha.

I think the coolest thing about playing cave story now though is how much I feel like it still holds up. Not just gameplay wise, but I think the setting is cool, the characters are fun and interesting, and perhaps most importantly is that I think the map design is well thought out. The only exception is maaaaybe grasslands which I think you go through a few too many times, but each area I think does a good job of balancing being not too large or too small, and having enough varied enemy types/rooms to keep it fresh while going through them. The bosses while having relatively simple movesets (even if they kick my ass with them sometimes) are still challenging without being too unfair.

In general, I’m actually a bit surprised with how much I enjoyed replaying this game years later. A short fun nostalgic trip to the past that still holds up. Would I play it again for curly story and maybe to try out the snake? Possibly. But I’m glad either way I played it again!