Cave Story 3D

One man’s labor of love is    well, apparently, a gaming sensation. From the spare time of programmer Daisuke Anaya - the second most awesome video game personage named Daisuke- came the freeware breakout hit Cave Story, itself a love letter to all things retro. And if you replace the R in retro with an M, and add Freud’s concept of instinctual, uncoordinated trends    you get “Metric.” Did I mention that it’s in 3D now? And that you have to pay for it? Everything comes with a price, it seems. But that’s no reason to pass this one up. One of the nice things about freeware gaming is that, if you have even the most passing interest in the game, you’ve probably played it already, as there’s pretty much no barrier to entry.


So you’re familiar with this weird pasty-looking robot, his arsenal of weapons, the bunny-looking Mimi gas whose village serves as a jumping-off point for this whole craziness, and the Metroidesque adventures that soon follow. It was great when it was free, but what does this paid version get you? Well, the graphics have been completely rebuilt from the ground up, as is befitting a 3D reinterpretation. Kind of like the first time you play 4th Generation Pokémon on the DS, it’s kind of jarring - and really cool - for a previously flat game to suddenly exhibit parallax. Along with these developments, the camera experiences more freedom and can zoom to a particularly close spot or take a more interesting angle as the need arises.

Further, this version is translated and published by Nippon-I chi, who have injected their own brand of weirdness into the experience. ‘Cruz    c’mon. Some massive thing busts through the wall, you’re not thinking “Huzzah,” iconic as that’s become. You know what you expect to hear. And you get thirsty, in a Pavlov a sort of way. OH YEAH. While you’re doing all of this, your bottom screen turns into a touch-based map-and-inventory system, serving pretty much exactly the purpose you’d expect it to serve. You can use this to switch your weapons, between your starting pistol, missile launchers, Mario-sequel fireballs, the requisite katana    ‘cut you never go spelunking without a katana    each of which can be upgraded up to three levels by collecting the yellow triangular shrapnel that falls from downed hostiles. ( redirected here )


The mechanics and physics are just as you remember them, that is today, “really impressive for a one-man production. I realize there was a bit of backlash when this game hit Wetware, as suddenly money was being asked for what was originally a bastion of indie gaming. But with a complete overhaul, along with an extra dimension, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that the improvements made in Cave Story 3D are, infect, worth the price of a physical copy. OH YEAH.