- This game is what I'd refer to as a metroidvania
- The game started out with some kind of prologue-esque scene, yet I'm still clueless but I know this is what the dev. wanted
- I love the lo-fi graphics that maintain very quality, fluid animation and effects
- The music is great, varied, and atmospheric
- The weapon power up system is fast-paced, streamlined, and doesn't bother with too much micro-management
So, the Winning Formula that Metroid and Castlevania (ie. Metroid 3, CSotN) goes like this:
- Interactive Prologue that lets the player see, read, and play a portion of the past, followed by a (sometimes) late title screen
- A character, level, or item is introduced in this Interactive Prologue and is hyped up throughout the game
- Abilitease, progression based on items/bosses, considerately placed save points, secret items/areas
- Eventually trajectory and exploration is so expanded that you are back tracking and discovering how large the game really is
- Multiple endings based on player skill or thoroughness (equip item X during the last fight, etc)
Cave Story has all of these, albeit in either a very simple way or a subtle way.
Castlevania's enemies drop loot like RPGs and there are usually NPC hubs with shops in them - this isn't the case in Metroid, but there is loot in Cave Story (just not as in-depth as a Castlevania). I think that the weapon level system in Cave Story is a great addition to the metroidvania formula - to me it feels like a more expansive Master Sword from Zelda.
Cave Story is a great game. The action is fun, the music is catchy, the characters are interesting, the pacing is very well done (a lot of player empathy went into this), and it's 1200 Wii Points. If you like Castlevania or Metroid, you will definitely like Cave Story and you should buy it.
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