Cave Story: Nostalgia, celebration, and exploitation
I have to admit that I am way behind Daniel and Gavin in my playthrough of Cave Story because I have been clocking a lot of hours into Diablo III, which actually makes for an interesting comparison. Like Cave Story, Diablo III is a game that panders to one’s nostalgia, in this case nostalgia for … Read more
Cave Story: The zig-zag world
Last week, I promised that this week’s post would be about narrative in Cave Story, but I’m going to put that off a bit, in part because the game is doing a great job of doling out the story bit by bit in ways that are keeping me interested as a player, and making me … Read more
Cave Story: Power up
I would say the key to any decent platformer is a variety of fun power ups. Be it turtle shells, rocket launchers, or leaf shields — power ups can make or break a game. And being 100 years old, I have seen quite a few in my time. Much to my delight, the weapon power-ups … Read more
Cave Story: Jumping into story
Oh, Kevin, you make me nervous when you talk about Daniel as being “100 years old.” I’m the old man of the bunch, after all, and if anyone ever goes back to those first Final Fantasy VII posts and figures out how old that actually is, I might get my game columnist license revoked. Anyway, … Read more
Cave Story: Platform mechanics
For me, platformers have always been nostalgic. Sure, my first videogame console was an NES with Super Mario Bros. 3, but I was too young in those days to have a valuable opinion about it (I know this because my favorite NES game, at the time, was Batman Returns). The first game that made a … Read more
Cave Story: Let’s get retro
I do not even want to know how many hours of my life I have spent playing platformer/side-scrolling video games. Heck, months would be a better unit of measurement. I grew up in the Golden Age of side-scrolling games and built up my thumb muscles thanks to the likes of the Mario Brothers, Mega Man, … Read more
EarthBound: The end is the beginning is the end
It took longer than I expected (I blame Thanksgiving, and Mysterious Cities of Gold being on Netflix Watch Instant), but I finished playing through EarthBound over the weekend. This was only my second time completing the entire game, and the first time since I was in my early-mid-lower-teens. Now, the big question: When will ALF … Read more
EarthBound: Location, location, location
I will say this about EarthBound, it has no shortage of curveballs and it does take you to some strange locations. In a different role-playing game (RPG), some of the locations may not stand out so much, but given the “suburban” look and feel of most of the game, the more “unique” locales can be … Read more
EarthBound: Dungeon Man in the sand
I am currently in the Egypt-themed country of Scaraba, and the story gets pretty interesting. By which I mean, strange. No surprise there, right? Upon arriving in Scaraba, I came upon an NPC on the edge of town and he informed me, “The fat kid did his business over there.” Sure enough, on the sand … Read more
EarthBound: Oh, Poo
I added the remaining player character to my party this week: Poo. Yes, that is his name. I read an article where the writer wondered why his Japanese name was not translated as Pu, but given the quirkiness of the game, along with the inclusion of characters like Master Barf, Poo fits. Poo, like Ness … Read more
