Cave Story+ (Nintendo Switch) Second Opinion Review

Cave Story+ is an enhanced version of Pixel's original freeware game. Outside of a few tweaks, extra modes and graphical enhancements, this is still largely the same game that was first released in 2004. Amazingly, because Cave Story was so carefully designed over the course of about five years, the gameplay still holds up beautifully. Like the games that inspired it, this is just fun to pick up and play thanks to how well it controls and the carefully designed levels.

There will be lots of aspects from classic NES games that should be instantly familiar, such as the Metroid-like level design and health pickups. Even the protagonist shares some visual similarities to Super Mario and will be platforming like the intrepid plumber. Some aspects of classic Mega Man appear when the platforming gets tricky, and large enemies with huge attacks start showing up. All of these familiar post-modern aspects of retro love is all well and good, but where Cave Story managed to make itself stand out was its own world and personality.

Pixel crafted a story with a lot of character, from non-essential background mimigas, to the sleepy old guy, to the bullish Balrog... There is nothing quite like the setting and world in Cave Story. This is one of those rare games that was made entirely by one man who put his heart and soul into it, and it shows by how individual it feels, as if there was nothing compromised. One of the most endearing aspects of this game from the start is how it successfully can make people connect with the characters by simple little tricks in order to get the best ending. Yeah, this game has like three endings, a feature that most big-budgeted AAA games rarely commit to.

Cave Story+ has had only very slight upgrades given to it for the Switch release. It can be kind of dicey to tamper with such a carefully made game like this, so the more restrained approach is understandable. The most obvious change is the updated pixel art, which has about four times as much pixel detail now. Character art is much more defined and looks excellent; however, this new port sadly does not include Daisuke Amaya's original pixel art as an option.

There have been some changes to the gameplay, like the ability to use the left trigger to make the protagonist strafe. This is by far the biggest change to the game and it is definitely for the better since it adds more control for the many intense boss battles. Being able to keep the protagonist aiming in a fixed position allows for there to be a greater sense of control and playability, so users can focus more on evading massive flurries of enemy projectiles. It's because of the added L-strafing that the hard mode becomes a lot more playable, albeit still is unbelievably crushing.

Other than some slight adjustments to the playability, Cave Story+ has also had some minor changes to the game's structure. These changes mostly were to enhance the pacing, like how it is now possible to carry more than one jars of jelly and the ability to stack multiple puppies to reduce the amount of pointless backtracking, which does greatly help make this even more replayable than before. There are a few new visual flourishes added as well, such as character portraits being fully animated and even more expressive than before. Regrettably, Cave Story+ still does not have skippable cut-scenes, nor does this latest version have a New Game Plus feature. It has been mentioned by the publisher that there will be an update that adds two-player coop, a feature that is sure to be a real game changer. However, at the time of this review, the two-player mode has not yet been implemented.