Welcome to Bitmob Game Club: Cave Story Edition (part three)!
If you are not familiar with the concept of a Bitmob Game Club you should read about it here, in Bitmob Game Club: Cave Story Edition (part one)!
In this episode of Bitmob Game Club, the contributors tackle Cave Story, an indie game developed by Daisuke Amaya -- or Pixel, as he's more commonly known. Cave Story is quite a unique game, mixing platforming and role-playing game elements together in a way that actually works very well. Cave Story is free to download on the PC and is also currently in development for WiiWare.
Want to follow along? Click here to download the game for PC or Mac.
On with the stories!
Cave Story Edition Contributor: Alex R. Cronk-Young
Alex is starting to think that he is Bipolar as Scribblenauts can make him go from smiling and happy to yelling curse words in 2 seconds flat. His diet has devolved into sugary drinks and Hostess snack cakes and he really should change that soon. He has yet to return to Final Fantasy 7 and it is not because he is at the Temple of the Ancients and doesn't want to see Aeris die. He couldn't care less about that stupid, slum trash.
Cave Story Edition Contributor: James DeRosa
Cave Story has James considering a possible future as a professional caving guide. The Descent has him worried about CHUDs. Plato has him wondering if it's all an allegory. And the NES title Spelunker makes him pretty sure early game designers hated their audiences.
Difficulty Rising
I have a bone to pick. While Cave Story continues to wow with its effervescent charm, I have to say that the difficulty curve has revealed itself to be a bit wonky.
First I would like to say that I am the only member of the Game Club who has played Cave Story before (and completed its super-hard) bonus dungeon, and because of this, I haven't died once this go around. This is proof that the difficulty scaling of Cave Story, in an overall sense, isn't fundamentally broken. Logic would probably dictate that, since I'm the most familiar with the game, I'd probably be the one least likely to have trouble with it.
That said, one of my fellow Game Clubbers (I won't say who) was lashing out via Twitter about a particularly troublesome boss. When he started doing this, I was taken straight back to a around a year ago when I first played the game.
I got stuck in the exact same place.
And that's the thing. As the game progresses, Cave Story begins to feature the kind of teeth-grinding difficulty that falls just short of unfair. I'm guessing some of this will be amended in the upcoming WiiWare release, but, if it's not, I suspect that this will be a huge turn-off for many players (particularly those who didn't grow up in Cave Story's respective referential era).
Anyway, the story has definitely revealed itself to be a bit darker than the fun music and flashy graphic might indicate. Characters are dying (one of whom you can save – very nice) and the overall tone of the game has moved from happy-go-lucky to something a bit more melancholic. This shift is something ultimately appeals to my personal story-telling sensibilities, and so I've forgive a lot.
Ultimately, the game, I feel has a ubiquitous appeal when it comes to style, but so far, the same cannot be said to be true about its more trying segments.
I can't wait for these guys to play the last boss.
If I could produce even a reasonable facsimile of a sinister laugh in text, I would have done so here.
Cave Story Edition Contributor: Evan Killham
Evan Killham is glad that he's doing Game Club, because it's the only thing that he's contributed to the site in weeks. He has a pretty good excuse, though: he's lazy and has had several bad ideas lately. He's currently between games, but were a DS containing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box presented to him, he certainly wouldn't turn it down.
"This is the first time I've really thought, "You know what? Fuck you, Cave Story."
I had just failed in my seventh consecutive attempt to defeat Monster X. But I kept trying.
6:42 - "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"
I still hadn't succeeded.
7:16 - "Okay, seriously...need help with The Fucking Tank Thing."
I hadn't resorted to walkthroughs yet, so I didn't know what Pixel calls that fucking beast, but it was kicking my ass over and over. Alex R. Cronk-Young came to my rescue...kinda.
7:18 (Alex) - "The big green oval with the flooding room? Or are you further then me?"
7:21 (Me) - "Woah, what? I'm not sure what its proper name is, but it rolls back and forth and shoots green sperms at you."
"Green sperms" was the only way I could think to describe what Monster X fires during its second stage of attacks; turns out the Internet prefers "fish missiles", but that's neither here nor there.
7:23 (Alex) - "Just stand a little in front of him and pump him full with the machine gun. When his eyes aren't blue, get away."
Alex was still talking about the island's heart, but I had no way of knowing that just yet. I turned to strategy guides online, which frustratingly gave the advice "shoot it while avoiding its attacks." This is technically a strategy, yes, but offers very little in the way of guidance. Just about then, though, I accidentally hit Q and brought up my inventory, which I actually had never known existed. And so, a little while later:
7:28 - "Okay, finally got it. Thanks, Life Pot."
I'd forgotten all about the Life Pot. Oh, well.
That's about all I had on Twitter for this segment, until an hour later.
8:29 (to Alex) - "Okay, you're a little ahead of me. Just fought the heart of the island, and its projectiles are far more spermlike. Sorry."
Gonna digress here...why do so many of the monsters in Cave Story shoot sperms? I even played a little beyond where we were supposed to. It doesn't stop.
Things were a little less eventful after that, until I returned to the Egg Corridor and reached the mini-boss fight with the two dragons. Then I recommenced sucking. The walkthrough mocked me, saying that these dragons "aren't a big deal" and "shouldn't be too much trouble," but I died a lot regardless.
And then I realized that I could skip the whole stupid thing by ignoring the treasure chest and proceeding straight to the broken window on the other side of the room. I don't use missiles much anyway.
The only other thing I have to say about this segment is that I began to find the points at which I had to choose one option or another particularly maddening. I think the walkthrough I was using made it worse.
Example: Do you want the Booster 0.8?
I can't imagine why I wouldn't want a booster, although I'm not sure what that "0.8" is all about. But yes.
"Fuck you," says the walkthrough. "You should have waited for the 2.0, which grants wishes and allows you to access the super-secret content at the end of the game."
Obviously I didn't read ahead about the boosters, or I would have waited. And it didn't literally say that, but you get my point. Obviously things like this are intended to create replay value, but I don't like the feeling that I might be missing out on something, especially when I have a strategy guide there to confirm it.
Still, the game is fun, despite my incompetence at playing it.
And that's a wrap for part three of Bitmob Game Club: Cave Story Edition!
If you're following along, we'll be playing until The End next time! That means, a new game plus new contributors (maybe)! See below for more details.
Want to join the game club? Shoot an email to: jcosmocohen[at]gmail[dot]com. Subject: Bitmob Game Club.
When it's time for a new edition, four people will be randomly chosen to participate. Be sure you can commit the time and effort it takes before sending the email; otherwise you get the Darnell Boot-O-Doom!
Remember: Each contributor worked hard playing and writing about the game -- give them feedback!
