Anyone who grew up playing those games will quickly feel at home in the confines of Pixel’s cave.īut what’s truly amazing about Cave Story is that it doesn’t simply emulate the classic games of old-it surpasses them. Certainly, the exploration and collection of items call to mind games like Zelda and Metroid (the latter having clearly inspired the “you got a doodad” music that plays when you pick up a life capsule), while the action draws from games like Mega Man and maybe even Super Mario Bros. Pixel has been quoted as saying that anyone who plays Cave Story will be able to tell what his inspirations were from the game itself. It’s all meant to evoke the golden age of video games, to pay tribute to the simple and fun games of our youth that were, underneath the surface, surprisingly deep and impeccably designed. The soundtrack evokes chiptunes from the NES and Commodore 64 eras without blatantly copying them, using original themes and sounds to create a score that could have come straight out of some forgotten part of your childhood. The gameplay is a simple 2D run/jump/shoot affair with only a handful of items and upgrades to complicate matters. Big, chunky pixels are the order of the day: the lo-fi graphics may have made sprite work faster (the hero himself stands a measly 15 pixels tall), but they also suit the tone of the game perfectly. And everywhere you look, you can find a love for old games, as well as nostalgia for simpler times. Everything about Cave Story, from the music and graphics to the level design and story, is entirely his doing. Because deep down, even though he probably wouldn’t admit to it, the author knows that he has created a work of quality and that any player willing to invest a bit of their time into it will be amply rewarded.ĭaisuke Amaya, better known to the Internet as Pixel, is clearly a fan of the golden era of console video games. Then again, the low-key nature of this introduction could viewed another way: as a sign of confidence, a measured opening that doesn’t strive to impress because it doesn’t need to. Rather than start you off in a warzone full of burning buildings and exploding helicopters, the main character is dumped into a tiny room without so much as a weapon to fire. It’s an introduction that smacks of humility, suggesting an author who doesn’t want to hook the player with flashy animations or high-stakes drama. No explanation, no motivation, no abilities at your disposal other than walking and jumping. Once you start the game, you’re shown a second scene of a man locked in a room with a computer terminal, and then you find yourself, appropriately, in a cave. As you fumble around with the keyboard looking for a way to get things started (the Z key, for some reason, being the one that starts the ball rolling), a catchy little ditty begins the process of digging itself into a part of your brain that it will never relinquish. Things certainly start out in an understated fashion: After a brief scene of a man in a lab coat chuckling to himself in what appears to be the ruins of an ancient throne room, you are dumped to a simple black menu screen with little fanfare. You could be forgiven if, the first time you booted it up, you didn’t think much of Cave Story.
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