Cave Story+

Cave Story +

Cave Story is a well-known game for the people who know such things, and Cave Story+ is a slightly updated edition of that game. However, I am not one those knowledgeable people so for me Cave Story+ was a new acquaintance, and I started the game without knowing anything about it. This was very fitting, because you start the game inside a cave, not knowing anything about where you are, why you are there or even what your name is. Soon you realise that you are inside a huge floating island inhabited by a rabbit people called mimigas. They are in grave danger from a mad scientist, but you believe that you are there to help them. Eventually you start uncovering what is going on, and also who you are.

The plot in the game is rather intricate, so the motivation for the characters is not always obvious. I am not sure that the game constructor himself always knows why the characters act as they do, but since everything is done with such good humour I do not really care.

The game itself is a traditional run, jump, shoot and explore game. The control of the amnesiac main character are intuitive and well behaved. However, it turned out that I was a useless player. In order to progress in the story at a reasonable pace I had to give up my attempt on playing through the game in normal mode and restart everything in easy mode. This, embarrassingly, turned the trousers of the main character yellow. There is a nice selection of weapons that can be obtained through the game, and all types have their uses, so the trouser colour was not too much of a distraction for me in the end.

The graphics and the music are both gloriously retro and happy in style. However, I was surprised to hear Erik Lindström’s fifty-or-so year old Letkajenkka being used as part of the soundtrack. He was sadly not credited in the end titles. This is not how you treat a composer of a catchy song!

Cave Story+ is a very fun game to play and, since there are many choices the player can make through the game and many secrets the player can uncover, it has a large replay value as well. I just wish that my playing skills were on the same level as the game.

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