Cave Story eShop Review: Awesome Indie Story

Cave Story
Played On: Nintendo 3DS (eShop version)
Publisher: Nicalis
Genre: Adventure

Cave Story has recently made itself on over to the Nintendo 3DS eShop in this latest remake. The title was also on the DSiWare service, which was also available on the 3DS, but luckily for us, Nicalis wanted to remake the game to make full use of the 3DS hardware and the increased upper screen resolution. It’s a good thing too, as this game looks amazing on the 3DS at native resolution.

Cave Story is a action platformer game with gameplay similar to Metroid. The game features several different weapons as well as upgrades. Like Metroid and other similar games, there are capsules to increase your total health and the total number of rocket launchers. All weapons in the game have three levels of power. Weapons are increased by eliminating enemies within the game. When an enemy is defeated, they will drop health refill, rocket refill, or little golden triangles to increase your current weapon’s power. As you might expect, a level 3 weapons is stronger and more deadly than a level 1. If you happen to get hurt, not only will your health decrease, but your weapon’s power level will decrease slightly. So getting hit a lot can decrease the level all the way back to 1. Most weapons have an added bonus at level 3. For example, one such weapon can be used to propel you upward in the wait for an added push. This becomes useful in very tall levels.

Visually, this game is very crisp and detailed. The amount of visuals to be seen is quite extraordinary. The added 3D effect adds a nice touch but doesn’t add too much to the gameplay. The 3D effect doesn’t present any ghosting issues, so playing with the 3D on does work nicely. The game looks very nice, so luckily the game also sounds great as well. The music alone is worth the reason to play the game. Each of the different sections of the game has its own addicting background music. The game features a music jukebox that allows you to re-listen to your favorite music over and over as you unlock them.

If you have never played Cave Story before, you would be missing out by not picking up this awesome indie game. Even if you have played the game before, you should consider giving it another run through. This is one indie game that should not be overlooked.

Rating: 9.5/10

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