gwynvsthegames-blog

[gwynvsthegames-blog]

Cave Story - A Look Back

First off, welcome to my first major post on here! I hope you enjoy yourself! Feel free to reply, share your experiences with this lovely game!

To begin, we need to go back a bit. Back to 2004. 14 year old Gwyn is searching the internet for cool games, and has found a game with enticing graphics, incredibly high user ratings, and no one seems to be able to say anything bad about this game... A few hours later, young Gwyn is utterly transfixed by this wonderfully designed game. Unable to put the game down, they make it to an area called "Outer Wall". A hauntingly beautiful and calming song is playing, clouds are racing past in the background, a green-haired man is standing next to a dragon hatchling. The soft blue tones, lit by the moon and stars... It was a moment that immediately struck me, and stuck with me to this day. Honestly, it feels like years of me playing indie games wouldn't have happened without the memories I shared just now. That game's name is Cave Story.

If you've been playing indie games, or if you're even tangentially aware of indie games, you've likely heard of Cave Story. The title originally debuted in December of 2004, as a very niche freeware download. I remember stumbling upon the game on an old freeware gaming site, back before "proper" distribution services like Itch.io or Steam existed. The game was quirky, cute, challenging, and the music immediately wormed its way into my head nigh-permanently.

"Well Gwyn, what's so good about the game, exactly?" How kind of you to serendipitously ask me a question like that to use as a segue! Cave Story is a perfect example of a very simple set of mechanics, jumping and shooting, done in superlative form. It's often likened to Mega Man or Metroid when using a shorthand description of the game, and those are definitely apt. If you took the tight controls and satisfying sounds and effects of Mega Man, then mashed those into the exploratory and mostly freeform gameplay of Metroid, you'd have something very close to Cave Story. Personally, the best thing about the game is the overall feel. The gradual acceleration and deceleration of the main character, and the floatiness of the jumps lends to a bit of a learning curve upon starting the game. However, once you've mastered maneuvering, you'll find yourself slipping in between enemy shot patterns, and laying on the suppressing fire effortlessly. As you're blowing the cutesy enemies away, they burst like piñatas into prizes! Extra health and ammo for your missile launcher, or most importantly, experience triangles! (Affectionately called “EXP Doritos” personally.)

Speaking of experience, Cave Story has a very interesting mechanic revolving around levelling up your guns (with a max level of 3) as you acquire them! Cool! If you get hit, though, your gun will lose experience and even level down, losing power! Oh no! This set of mechanics adds a sense of depth that incentivizes not getting hit, aside from the obvious incentive of not dying.

So the game feels good to play, but tactile feel isn't the only important aspect in the overall presentation! The graphics and sound are also incredibly noteworthy, with one side feeding wonderfully into the other. Firing your weapons, hearing the punchy sounds, seeing the cartoonishly large bullets, and the abundance of particle effects surrounding the explosions... It's a wholly satisfying facet of the game that only serves to raise up the already-impressive package of the game!

Music is a massive driving force for making memories. Good and bad, memories can be painted more vividly with sound. From the iconic first few notes from Super Mario Bros' Overworld Theme, to Sonic's Green Hill Zone... All games that have stuck themselves steadfast in my mind have all had strikingly catchy and well-composed soundtracks that I will generally be found humming when I'm out and about. Cave Story is no exception to this. The music is upbeat and eclectic, with a broad range of emotions to invoke for any given moment. One of the (presumed) antagonists, Balrog, has a dopey theme befitting of his less-than-competent nature. The poor guy (toaster?) tries his best, though. I will say "Mischievous Robot", the theme for the Egg Corridor level, is probably one of my favorite level themes in the game. It's a high tempo, energizing song, and I always find myself trying to run and shoot a little faster because of that song... Which doesn't always end well for me, hah!

Really, I can sit and describe the music all day long, but here's a few recommendations from me when it comes to the Cave Story soundtrack.

Moonsong, Mischievous Robot, Last Cave, Running Hell, and Plantation. Those five are easily my favorites! Enjoy them on YouTube, or the whole original soundtrack for free from - and a huge shoutout to - cavestory.org

... Look, honestly, this whole thing is a really indulgent project for me. I'm going to gush a little bit here. This whole article gives me a chance to really talk about one of my favorite games of all time, and that's really important for me! Every time someone asks about indie games to look into, I'll always say Cave Story. Every time. I've bought it on every platform it's been released on, and hell, I had a PSP that I admittedly flashed to put homebrew applications on it specifically because someone ported Cave Story to it. That's just how much I love this game. To go even further, I've gone as far as to even study the nuts and bolts of the game and quite a while ago, I made a really extensive mod for the game. I added ammo counters to every weapon in the game, which previously only applied to the Bubbline and Machine Gun weapons. I replaced the Polar Star, the first weapon you acquire, with a custom Submachine Gun, with custom gun sprites and bullet sprites... It was pretty hardcore, to be honest! I went really far with this game!

I'll wrap this up by simply saying, please do yourself a favor of playing this wonderful labor of love by one guy. Daisuke Amaya, also known as Pixel. I doubt he'd ever get to read this, but seriously, Pixel, thank you for Cave Story. Everything from the gameplay, to the music, to the inner workings of the game is immaculate and it's a game I will never forget as long as I live. It's something so innately important to me. Genuinely, I love the characters, the setting, every single facet of the game is the standard that I will hold myself to when I finally start making something. I'm competitive as hell, and being able to surpass one of my game design idols would be a crowning moment for me.

As for where you can pick this lovely game up?

Cave Story is freeware, its re-releases aren’t. The original english fan-translated version is available from cavestory.org, but if you want to support Nicalis, and Pixel, buy the 3DS, or Steam versions! They come with added levels, challenge modes, etc! It’s great!

Anyway, thank you dearly for reading and (hopefully) enjoying the first of many articles from me! More are coming quickly down the pipeline!

[gwynvsthegames-blog]

Let the Games begin!

Hello there, Tumblr! My name is Gwyn. I'm testing the waters today and starting on an idea that has been a couple months in the making. For starters, this blog will mostly consist of video game discussion. Not necessarily "reviews" per se, but a thorough examination of what (in my opinion) makes a video game truly enthralling and entertaining.

I'm aware that many outlets already revolve around video games and reviews, and plenty of people out there can write thought-provoking commentaries on video games... But let's be honest, video games are my biggest passion in life. More broadly, games in general bring me such joy and happiness. Card games, interactive entertainment, board games, and even just verbal games... Those kinds of things resonate with me deeply, and are generally my favorite types of human interaction.

Distancing myself from sounding possibly too pretentious, I'd love to move forward with the blog and its general post structure. I'm not a terribly busy person, as such, I'd love to discuss the things that interest me on a weekly basis. This means I'll be discussing card games at times, indie games most of the time, and console games occasionally, too! As I said, expect at least a few posts per week, and possibly some interviews with developers in text and audio form! In addition to this, I’m planning to record a podcast every weekend, talking on all things gaming, and possibly allowing myself some tangents here and there, hehe.

Anyways! Allow me to formally welcome you to GwynVStheGames. Mind the dust while I get the theme sorted out, etc etc... If you're interested in my main/personal blog, hit me up at GwynVStheWorld or on Twitter. Also consider supporting me on Patreon if you enjoy the project and would like to keep the posts coming. Depending on how many patrons I can acquire, I'll start writing more and more, and working harder on the publication! Much love, and have fun out there!