Insufficient Funds: Cave Story

Insufficient Funds is a regular post in which we feature a free, or very close to it, piece of media that you can enjoy without overdrafting your bank account.

A lot has been said about Cave Story's difficulty, but here's the thing: I really liked how tough it was. In fact, it could have been a little harder still. I like the punishment to make the reward that much sweeter (don't be a pervert).

When Mega Man 9 came out and everyone was whining and crying over the difficulty, I didn't complain one little bit. Now sure, I still haven't beaten that game, but I thoroughly enjoyed the three or four bosses that I did beat before life got in the way. I sat down and in the course of an hour or two worked my way through one stage. If the game hadn't let me save my progress at that point, then I would have been pissed, but it did. That made the reward of slowly beating it much more satisfying (don't be a pervert).

Conversely, I'll bring up Zelda: Twilight Princess. I bought a Wii at launch and was looking forward to working my way through the game. It was fun I suppose, but the story wasn't amazing and I never died the entire time. OK, maybe I died a few times, but there was never a challenge. I would arrive at a boss, run around dodging his attacks until I had figured out how I needed to hurt him, then proceed to kill him. That's not fun to me. There's no danger, no fear.

Cave Story hits in the middle of these two extremes. You're guaranteed to get destroyed by every boss you come upon (don't be a pervert) until you figure out a good strategy for dodging their attacks and getting some of your own hits in. It might be sort of frustrating at first, but it never took me more then four or five attempts before I finally succeeded. For me the difficulty was almost perfect. When you finally won the battle after your fourth or fifth try, it was much more gratifying then if you had completed it on your first.

I'll attempt to prove my opinion now. Here is a sampling of my Twitter feed while playing through the final battle of the game:

Alright, final cave. Let's get this over with Cave Story. 10:00 AM Sep 30th

If there is another boss after the doctor then I might just have to break the computer screen. 10:25 AM Sep 30th

Jesus, I'm going to have to fight the heart of the island again. I really wish I had saved that heart pot right about now. 10:27 AM Sep 30th

Goddammit. 10:34 AM Sep 30th

Now you're just being vindictive Cave Story. These bosses aren't ridiculously hard but lined up in a row without a save is just stupid. 10:41 AM Sep 30th

And that's about all I can handle for today. 10:48 AM Sep 30th

Dammit. One more try to beat Cave Story before I leave for work. It's pulling me back in. 11:35 AM Sep 30th

Somehow I've gotten worse. 11:42 AM Sep 30th

OK, defeated Misery without getting hit or using my missiles. Now I will probably still fail horribly at the doctor. 11:48 AM Sep 30th

Beat the doctor. Still no missiles used and only lost 8 more health. 11:51 AM Sep 30th

EAT THAT YOU PIECE OF SHIT! 11:58 AM Sep 30th

Now, I don't know if you can tell, but during that final tweet I have the biggest shit-eating grin on my face that you could ever imagine. I fought that bastard for close to two hours (okay, there was also a good 45 minute break in there, but still). It seems long, but that was definitely the longest I took to beat a boss, and it was the final boss. And more specifically it was three bosses in a row. When you finally get through that, you feel great.

Maybe I'm just a fan of the old-school sensibilities, but I had a lot more fun with Cave Story then I do with games that hold my hand the entire time. It felt like a game that would have easily fit into the Genesis or SNES library. It still had some of the difficulty of NES games but it threw you a couple bones to help along. And really that's how I want all of my games, just like my women, a tough nut to crack, but the inside tastes soooo much sweeter once you finally do (that one was meant to be perverted).

Cave Story is a marvel for having been designed by just one man. When it found a cult following, the loyal fans worked tirelessly to translate it to English. Now it is on it's way to WiiWare, where it can be purchased for the first time. I'd highly recommend playing it, whether it be the free PC and Mac versions located HERE, or by buying a copy from WiiWare when it comes out.