Particular respect should be paid to the story – which is actually far, FAR better than it has any right to be for a free game. It’s an exceptionally well put together action platformer, which not only handles nicely, but benefits from some very smart level design, oodles of retro charm and more atmosphere than you’d ever have thought possible from a fairly rudimentary patchwork of pixels. Simplistic pixel characters and environment – give it all a decidedly retro feel, though there’s a more ‘knowing’ quality of game design here, afforded by the creator’s (lone dev’ Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya) 2004 release and five year gestation period.
In the original free PC version – which I’ll point you to in a second – you’ll discover that it’s all represented in a charming 8ish-bit kind of way. It’s a well worn style for sure – but when all those elements combine? HEY PRESTO! Rewarding feelings of discovery are pumped into the pleasure circuits of your brain. Think of Dokutsu Monogatari (to give it its full/original name!) as a cute MetroidVania – you know the kind of thing right – big sprawling world, some places you can get to, others you can’t, until you have the right power up to make it accessible, and in between, you’ do an awful lot of platforming and killing.
Short answer is, ‘I can’t’ – that is except to remind you lovely, lovely people out there that it exists, and if just one of you is in the ‘No I haven’t played It’ category – and then goes on to play it – then I have already justified this post. In fact, so much has been written about Cave Story in the past, that you’ll wonder if I can possibly add anything more than what’s already out there in the whole of the internet. That should be as good an indication of the game’s quality as you should need.
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