Joystiq impressions: Cave Story (WiiWare)
click to enlarge
We played Cave Story at the Nintendo Media Summit, and other than controlling the game with the Wii Remote – old-school sideways, natch' – it's nearly the same as the free PC and Mac game. The retro look and gameplay make this seem like an overlooked garage-sale find, for good or bad. (Usually good.)
%Gallery-33743%
Your adventurer plugs along side-scrolling areas shooting vertically or horizontally to clear enemies. In between firefights, he'll meet other characters and run errands while learning about his forgotten history.
The WiiWare port will include remastered graphics and sounds, plus the same original story from the PC. Think of the WiiWare graphics as "16-bit" to the original's "8-bit" style. New content will be added to make it worth about five or ten dollars, according to its developer, although we couldn't get any more specifics on the update. The game will clock in between about five to eight hours of play.
We enjoyed hopping around and blasting baddies, usually skipping quickly through the story, given the press-event atmosphere. A handful of progressive weapons should keep things fresh through the adventure. The game was running at 480p, in a 4:3 aspect ratio, and the developer is facing some technical hurdles to add a 16:9 option. That wide perspective is the current goal, although no final decision has been made.
Cave Story will be out this "holiday season."
