61 Frames Per Second : cave story

Whatcha Playing?: Okami

Cole Stryker — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:00:00 GMT

I finally got around to playing Okami on the Wii this week. I really wanted to enjoy the game, but it's difficult for me to get past all the collecting and endless NPC conversations that drag down the pace of the game. It seems that the only complaint most critics had with the Wii version is its poorly implemented Celestial Brush controls. Sure these are annoying, but I think that they are far from the game's cardinal sin.

It's basically a Zelda game, for better and for worse. It looks great. The world is a joy to traverse, and the ancient oriental flourishes are a welcome change of pace from the usual medieval sword and sorcery. It's a stylistic triumph.

The thing I hate most about action-adventure games is the impulse that the developers have to litter the game's environment with collectables. It's repetitious and it prevents me from enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Just once I'd like to pass through a forest without having to dig up medallions, shake fruit out of trees, or cut through grass in order to collect butterflies or beetles or some other meaningless token. It's lazy game design. I'd much rather play a game half as long if it were stripped of the mundane.

The other drawback is a bevy of bloated dialogue. Fortunately most of it is skippable, but it would have been even better to eliminate the player's annoying sidekick who serves to state the obvious constantly.

Why can't more 3D adventure games be like Cave Story?

We are Skeptical of Cave Story's DLC

Cole Stryker — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Where this would usually be cause to celebrate, I can't help but think that anything added to this game is going to bring it down. Here's some news from the port's team:

We’re still working away at Cave Story trying to make sure it’s faithful to Amaya-san’s original while adding a few things for the console release. One of these new additions, I’m happy to announce is Download Content. I think we received enough e-mails demanding it that we’re doing our best to include some new surprises in the WiiWare release. You’re going to have to wait for more info on that.

Even hearing the phrase "graphical facelift" makes me cringe. One of the game's biggest appeals is it's charictaristically pixellated style. Hopefully they won't change things too much. I'll let Tim Rogers at Action Button articulate why I don't want anything in this game to be "retouched" or "improved" or "facelifted":

Cave Story’s existence as a 100% independent product is, in a way, both the cause and effect of its immortally perfect game design. We have applauded, as of late, game developers with “common sense”. In this very review, we have mentioned the spreadsheet mentality of the Modern Large Game Publisher. The parenthetical sentence in which we say that game companies actually hire people to tell them that “Sports games appeal to sports fans” was more than a rhetorical device: it was a report of fact. There’s an objective truth hidden, somewhere deep inside Cave Story’s kiddy pool of mechanics: that videogames can and will be planned and polished, though the absolute conviction of one man is exponentially more powerful than the givings-up, sighings, and signing-on-the-line-which-is-dotted-ing of a committee of professional quitters.

Cave Story is just fine the way it is. Adding to it would only dillute its excellence. For those of you who have yet to play the game, I suggest you download and play it RIGHT. NOW.

(via Kotaku)

Break On Through The Underside

Nadia Oxford — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:31:00 GMT

Announcements about fan-run game projects have a way of making us all slump our cheeks into our fists with a sigh. This could have something to do with the tendency of fan projects to never get anywhere. Oh sure, people gather and they talk all sorts of great ideas. That's the easy part. Then comes time to translate those big ideas into ones and zeroes. Suddenly, enthusiasm dulls. Everyone's too busy with work, school and peeling their flesh off their arm inch by inch, a far less painless endevour than programming game code. Six months pass since the last update, then a year. The forums because a ghost town. The hit counter starts to roll backwards. Somewhere, a big dog barks.

But maybe we need these creative failures; they make us all the more receptive to great ideas that are seen all the way through. For instance, The Underside. Inspired by Cave Story (great!), The Underside features an adorable little cat-character in exploration-based gameplay (great!!) as he tears through his corrupt world with the aid of a chainsaw (YES!!).

The Underside isn't yet done, so maybe it's a little early to celebrate its cartoony sadism. The latest video of its development, however, reveals a game that's quite far along. To slip and fall now would be unlikely...though not impossible. Death at this stage would be a damn shame, though.

Especially since The Underside is clearly its own game. The inspiration is obvious, but the graphics, environments and game engine are clearly original. The creators also tip their hats at Earthbound through clever character dialogue and design. Between Cave Story, Metroid and Earthbound, there are certainly worse games to be inspired by.

The Underside, the Mother 3 translation and Cave Story on WiiWare make my inner Nadia sing with joy for fan dedication in the game industry.

Related Links:

The Best News In Sixteen Thousand Years: Cave Story Coming To WiiWare
Spelunking Through Cave Story
Cave Story Medley On Piano

The Best News In Sixteen Thousand Years: Cave Story Coming to WiiWare

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:06:00 GMT

Well, there were rumours about this possibly happening. I remained cynical and said, "Naaaaah," but I was just putting on my icy bitch act (wait, act?) to keep my heart from being broken. Oh the tears I shed at night in hopes that Pixel's beautiful Cave Story would come legitimately to WiiWare, XBLA, PSN, a Tiger Handheld game, anything that let me get my fix through a different means.

And now, Praise Ballos...

I've ripped through Cave Story forwards, backwards and upside-down; if someone wrote a Cave Story Gama Sutra, I would totally flip through it and nod confidently at, uh, half the positions, I guess. I haven't finished Hell, you see.

I have reason to delay my attempts even further, since there are whispers that the WiiWare edition of Cave Story will have extra features. Fascinating. I wonder what they'll be? Probably Mega Man 9-style achievements that will validate our lives like religion and community service never could.

Perhaps the story will be fleshed out more, though I don't think Cave Story needs that. Its storytelling is beautifully subtle; pretty cute and funny with something thin and dark coiled around it. There aren't many games, movies or novels around that can actually make bloodthirsty rabbits seem daunting without turning it into a Monty Python tribute.

Related Links:

Spelunking Through Cave Story
EPIC Cave Story Medley on Piano
Underpowered Cave Story "Ports"

EPIC Cave Story Medley on Piano

Cole Stryker — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:54:00 GMT

He's not the first to adapt Cave Story's EPIC score to piano, but he's the first to post it to Youtube in a giant 24 minute suite. Check out Sebastian Wolff's video:

It must have taken forever to transcribe those battle scenes! If there was any justice in the world, this cat would be invited to tour with Video Games Live and Daisuke Amaya, aka Pixel, would be given whatever award that goes to digital music composers (they have that, don't they?). This game was created by one dude, and his compositions rival those of any game. In the words of esteemed "dirty south" hip hop star T.I., "Creme de la creme, homey. Top shelf, ya know?"

Download sheet music at Sebastian's site.

Yahtzee Says, Support Your Local Independent Developer (He's Right).

Nadia Oxford — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:42:00 GMT

If you're 1) a gamer and 2) not insane, then one of your favourite all-time games is Cave Story. Cave Story was planned, designed and developed by one demigod, the radiant Pixel. One of the greatest games of all time came from two arms, two eyes and one brain.

Cave Story works so well because the graphics, sound, story and gameplay all compliment each other beautifully. But what if Pixel had proposed the title to, say, EA and had a hive mind work on the game? For starters, it would look and sound radically different because players today are all about the big noises and shiny things according to the Big Men In Charge (which is why Mega Man 9 has everyone leaping like dogs at a lambchop). The aesthetic shift alone would have sent Cave Story's delicate feng shui swirling down the toilet.

Yahtzee talks about the importance of indie games this week, specifically Braid on XBLA. His argument for indie titles against corporate titles is that too many cooks spoil the broth—or rather, too many faceless men in suits destroy the original intent. Sometimes we all need to step back and clear our heads with games that don't stray far from the man or woman who originally thought up the idea.

I don't feel guilty for playing the likes of Mario or Metroid or God help me, Mega Man.. I also very clearly remember a time when developers had a lot of creative control over their games and still managed to mass-produce a lot of cock-ups that clogged the industry's arteries and eventually felled it. I'm a person of balance; things like crooked picture frames drive me insane. Thus, I understand that corporate regulations are sometimes an evil necessity...but I wholly support the independent scene with my enthusiasm, love and moolah (since that's ultimately what it needs instead of the former).

I r dumb. I didn't really “get” Braid when I played the demo, but I will buy the game in full and try harder. Nothing thrives on homogenisation, the game industry least of all. It needs all the creative infusions it can manage.

Related Links:

Indie Dev Moment: A Game a Month from Kloonigames
Yahtzee on E3: Are We Gaming in an Age of Uncreativity?
Yahtzee and the Webcomics Plague

Underpowered Cave Story "Ports"

Nadia Oxford — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:21:00 GMT

I've already done some mouthing off about how much I love Cave Story, the one-man miracle game that looks great, sounds great and plays better.

Not surprisingly, Cave Story has a significant fandom. In fact, a member at the Way of the Pixel forums recently posted a relevant challenge: whip up "screenshots" of what Cave Story might look like if it were ported to less-powerful systems.

The results are amusing, especially the Spectrum ZX mock-up. I'd like to see something done in the style of the Apple ][ or better yet, the Commodore 64.

There's also a screenshot guessing at what Cave Story might look like on the Master System. The forum member went by the system's specs and got something pretty close to the original game. I wonder how well Cave Story would have worked on the NES? The graphics would probably port over well, but the screen tends to get pretty busy sometimes.

I eagerly await the Nintendo DS fan-port.

Related Links:

Spelunking Through Cave Story

Spelunking Through Cave Story

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:29:00 GMT

Something in the air--I'm going to blame all that dang fireflower pollen blowing around out there--has me in a retro mood. For all the 3D delights I could be indulging in (my brother loaned me Guitar Hero III), I've recently made a happy return to Pixel's Cave Story.

If you haven't played Cave Story, drop what you're doing and download it. No, I don't care if you're performing CPR on your half-dead mother, you simply must experience one of the most endearing and well-balanced 2D platformers ever developed. It's easy to find and it's free. You have no excuse. No, I don't care if trafalmadorians are lifting you into their saucer right this minute.

Granted, I avoided Cave Story for years because the name sounded like some slow and winding "adventure" through a key-driven maze. "Cave Story" brings to mind cheap NES bargain-bin knockoffs that your well-meaning aunt would buy you at Christmas. Wow, thanks Auntie Shiela. I can't wait to throw this at the dog next time he gets into the garbage--I mean, I can't wait to play this.

As reality would have it, Cave Story is far more ambitious than its simple title lets on. Though it is freeware developed over the course of five years by one noble man (Pixel), Cave Story plays like the best of Mega Man, Gunstar Heroes and Metroid and is comparable in length to many of your favourite 2D adventures. It's not too short and it doesn't drag on. Its difficulty is adjustable depending on how you play it; there's no challenge selection, but you can steer away from--or towards--much pain depending on the choices you make and the weapons you choose.

If you're masochistic, you can literally choose to go to hell. Good luck with that.

With its simplistic but distinctive graphics and its rocking 8-bit sound library that deserves to be on every iPod in the nation, Cave Story will bring you joy, peace and love. It's certainly filled up the airless black void that used to be my heart.