GOTD – Cave Story
Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari) – Action / Adventure (PC/MAC)
Pixel Studios.
Although it’s been featured on several websites and publication as an outstanding freeware game (including, in fact, our school newspaper) this game deserves still more coverage. It has an excellent plot (thanks to a great translation by the guys at Aeon Genesis, it is great in English as well), a very large map to explore, tons of secrets… the list goes on.
The best part, of course, is that it’s free. This game, however, does not have a feeling of a “free game” – this feels like a platformer straight off of the NES, with a graphical layout somewhat reminiscent of Legacy of the Wizard, but with portraits and characters in a unique style. This is easily one of the best freeware games I’ve played. Gameplay is most similar to Super Metroid, but it surpasses it in some respects – a leveling system for guns, more secret areas and items, multiple distinct endings… this is a better game than several commercial ones I’ve played.
The story is deliberately vague at the beginning – your character awakens in a dark tunnel with no recollection of the past – but as it develops it becomes pretty complex, as you figure out how you got onto the floating island, what’s going on and why. For an action game, the story is quite good.
What makes Cave Story even more impressive is that the creator, Pixel, created the entire game, including graphics and music, on his own. He’s an inspiration to game-interested programmers everywhere.
And so, I recommend to you this game. Unravelling the mystery of the floating island may take quite some doing – it’ll require quick reflexes as well as a little bit of thought – but you should give it a try!
Screenshots:
Links:
GameFlaws’ Cave Story tribute site. One of the best resources. I was able to make some minor contributions.