Cave Story+
Run, jump, shoot, fly and explore your way through a massive action-adventure reminiscent of classic 8- and 16-bit games.
Cave Story+ is a platformer, metroidvania and indie game
developed by Nicalis, Inc. and Studio Pixel
and published by Nicalis and Inc..
Released on November 22nd 2011 is available in English on Windows and Linux.
It has received 7,560 reviews of which 7,028 were positive and 532 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9 out of 10. 😍
The game is currently priced at 14.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Cave Story+ into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Cave Story+ through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *:Windows XP
- Processor:Intel Core Solo
- Memory:128 MB RAM
- Graphics:64MB RAM
- Hard Drive:200 MB HD space
Linux
- OS:Ubuntu 10.04 and Newer
- Processor:Intel Core Solo
- Memory:128 MB RAM
- Graphics:64MB RAM
- Hard Drive:200 MB HD space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I love this game to bits but just download the freeware version 20 years and still a classic, one of my personal favorites, but I say just download the freeware version instead, [url=https://www.cavestory.org/download/cave-story.php]preferably an NXEngine port for modern systems , for the reasons below: - this version adds updated graphics (including animated portraits and proper widescreen support) and two new music soundtracks (one is from the Wiiware release), controller support as well as some challenge modes based on fan-made levels. That's all pretty neat but whether it's "15 bucks for a free game" neat is up to you. - the Switch release from a few years back added multiplayer as well as some graphics updates and QoL changes. You would expect the older Steam release to get an update with these features but that still hasn't happened yet. There's always the chance Nicalis might fix this but they've had about 7 years now so don't get your hopes up. - there are rumors that the creator, Daisuke Amaya/Studio Pixel isn't being paid for the Nicalis ports of the game because they stole the rights to the IP from him. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccwVdj8dYQQ]This doesn't appear to actually be the case though. In fact, [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aQEGFrOkJ8]they're still keeping in touch with each other as of writing. That being said, Nicalis is still a crappy publisher so you might not want to support 'em regardless. I could go on and on about Cave Story any day, which is why I flagged this as a positive review, but unless Pixel works with a new publisher to release another version of the game (fat chance lmao) you won't be seeing that there.
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Everyone should play Cave Story. It’s an absolute classic, and you can even snag it for free at cavestory(dot)org. My first time playing Cave Story coincided with my decision to binge the Chris Chan documentary. The crushing difficulty of Cave Story paired with the unrelenting cringe of the Chris Chan’s saga seared both into my memory forever. If endurance is the measure of greatness, then I’m officially a legend after surviving that week.
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I've replayed this game over 50 times probably and it never gets any less fun. its freeware though and should be played as such, please dont support Nicalis and their treatment of pixel
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Great game although every demon at Nicalis is most certainly going to hell for how they divided up content and features across all of the varying versions of the game. Why can't you be normal
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With the popular genre that is 'Metroidvania', arguably one of the most popular and beloved types of games that many gamers enjoy playing in the past decade alone as far as the indie scene goes, one has to wonder where it all began and what paved the way for future titles to further hone their craft in gameplay design with this specific genre itself? Before continuing onwards, I should help clarify what even a 'Metroidvania' is for those not in the know since, as one can reasonably deduce, it is a combination of two well-established games in their own right, that being Nintendo's iconic Metroid games as well as Konami's own Castlevania series, with how both games share traits that define the genre as a whole, such as having a large interconnected map and progress throughout said map that is largely blocked or hindered which is gradually made more accessible via various items and the abilities that you gain through them that makes for a highly-satisfying time spent when it is done well. Though to focus on the subject of today's review here, Cave Story began as essentially 'freeware' during it's humble beginning way back in 2004 by the development team of a single man, Daisuke 'Pixel' Amaye, who designed the game's levels and characters, orchestrated the great music behind each of the levels and boss battles alongside having written what is quite the charming story that (for about 98% of the game anyhow) takes place entirely within a massive 'cave' of sorts, hence it's namesake, all essentially a one-man army where it concerns the development of this game! Indeed, it should be noted that this could be argued to be the first ever 'indie' project of sorts that reached a scale of polish that resembles the modern indies of today alongside having had a reach that even the best Flash games could not quite muster during the earlier years of the Internet, seeing how Steam was still in it's infancy during this time and was home to either current triple-A games at the time or ports of an older title from earlier generations, with not a single actual 'indie' to be found from two whole decades ago. Getting onto what makes Cave Story so great to play though, you start off in an isolate and abandoned cave as a character with seemingly no name (this does get revealed in a particular instance, should you find the right item required to unlock playing what is no doubt the other 'main character' of this game) whose goal is not established straight from the get-go, seeing as you are practically thrown into the game with little to no context outside of a brief cutscene at the very start of booting up the game before even seeing the main menu itself! This naturally lends itself into a great way of immersing yourself into the game itself, seeing as the silence from the titular character here does wonders in the same vein seen not only by the Zelda and earlier Metroid games but also can be spotted in other excellent titles like Half Life, GTA3 and Doom, since part of the fun of exploring a new game is learning all about the world and it's inhabitants plus figuring out the situation you find yourself in and how to best escape or resolve it. Though to touch directly upon the gameplay itself, you start off pretty much weaponless and no means of defending yourself, however this is quickly corrected first by offering a life capsule in plain sight (other capsules are either hidden or hard to reach) to boost up your limited HP followed right afterwards by taking your first firearm from a chest, the Polar Star, which is a weapon that seems pretty weak at first however, due to an interesting mechanic seen in Cave Story, this can quickly change depending on how skilled you are at both platforming and dealing with the many enemies in this game. Since shooting at enemies and killing them would normally result in 'EXP' gained, giving you reason to pursue them for levelling up once enough has been accumulated and becoming stronger that way, Cave Story avoids this RPG-grind by instead having them drop varying sizes of flashy golden triangles, which collecting them will add to a separate bar for each weapon, as each of them start off at Level 1, gaining enough will upgrade it to Level 2 and even more to Level 3, upon which further triangles allow it to 'MAX' out, as merely upgrading them doesn't mean it will stay that way if you take damage from enemies, the strength of which will not only take a bigger chunk out of your HP but will also further strain the bar determining your weapon's level as too much lost will downgrade your firearm to the previous level, thus weakening it until it is upgraded once more. No doubt this is but one small part of what ties into the Metroidvania genre as a whole, seeing as various items collected throughout your journey will also aid you in your ability to progress throughout the game's various environments, whether this be through additional movement in the air after jumping, being able to breathe underwater or even reducing the amount of triangles lost when hit alongside other useful items, some of which are mandatory whilst others can be entirely missed and make for hard challenges later on! It is why I highly appreciate then that, perhaps outside of the starting Polar Star gun which even then has it's own purpose leading into multiple other superior firearms later on, each weapon has it's own strengths and weaknesses that have their own three levels to separate their level of usefulness, since most reach their peak at Level 3 however some offer different attributes at earlier levels that may (in specific situations) be better for combat than their Level 3 counterparts, with one in particular actually encouraging you to AVOID triangles in order to maximize it's raw power! Such diversity amongst Cave Story's arsenal of weapons is why I appreciate the thought put into the usefulness of each of these firearms as it's why replayability is so great for this indie gem, noting that this game has three entirely unique endings that encourage the player to go back and do things differently alongside taking on harder challenges to overcome as choosing to give away items for better ones or talking to characters at the wrong time may not be the best decision as far as the 'ideal' path goes, but knowing when to do so is part of the learning process of reaching the best ending of this game, something I thoroughly enjoyed learning for myself! Now to touch upon a tricky subject here, seeing as this is Cave Story+, an improved port of the original freeware game that is published by Nicalis, who shares the rights with the original developer, (I believe Daisuke owns the freeware game whilst Nicalis has full ownership over the new ports) as this improves on a lot of things, including remastered music and new graphics that retain the old 8-bit graphics but enhance it with further detail that closer resembles 16-bit styled retro games that is quite faithful to the original game on top of various new game modes that challenge the player's mastery of both specific firearms and challenging areas featured in Cave Story alongside the many boss battles themselves! I say all of this as, despite this being a great port offered on Steam, this is arguably not the best version of this game as the one for Nintendo Switch under the same name is currently being updated by Nicalis, with further new content such as entire new characters to play as through it's unique 2 player co-op mode alongside other gameplay and graphical improvements, as they have seemingly stopped updating this game since 2018 for the most part. Whether you want to purchase this version on Steam that is no longer the main priority for Nicalis as far as ports of this game goes is not for me to decide, however I can wholeheartedly recommend this port of Cave Story to those on Steam whilst also encouraging those to download the freeware game if you prefer to not support the publisher.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 19 November 2024 05:18 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 21 January 2025 02:01 |
| Steam price | 23 January 2025 04:45 |
| Steam reviews | 23 January 2025 03:59 |
Online players
17
Developer
Nicalis, Inc.,
Studio Pixel
Publisher
Nicalis, Inc.
Release
22 Nov 2011
Platforms