At first blush, the very idea of Cave Story 3D seems redundant at best, ridiculous at worst. Don’t get me wrong; Cave Story itself is a great game. That’s the problem.
Created almost entirely by a one-man team called Pixel — a shy, unassuming fellow by the name of Daisuke Amaya — the original PC game was practically perfect right off the starting blocks. Gloriously inspired by and cast in the image of classic 8-bit platformers, Cave Story offers very little room for improvement. The world design is huge and interesting despite its minimalist nature, and the play mechanics are informed by old-school sensibilities but feel unique and fresh, with unique jump physics and guns capable of immense barrages of projectiles. The story unfolds in an almost entirely linear fashion, but its pacing manages to leave one with the impression they’ve just played a Metroid-esque open-ended adventure. And eventually, you realize that Cave Story has multiple outcomes both great and small determined by decisions you make, organically, within the game itself.
