Cave story is fantastic, simple as that.
I have never seen a game so perfectly balanced in every way.
Also, I believe the 2010 edition has been nominated for the IGFs award for Excellence in Visual Art.

Alas, I've finally got to play it and, well, it's all nice and dandy, but not the indie masterpiece most people claim it to be, at least IMO. I found the story lacked a bit of exposition, and some of the parts were so difficult that it was just plain evil. On the upside, the graphics were just adorable, and all the platforming was really really smooth.

Yet, I'd have an Iji over this any day of the week.

Sigh.
How can you say the story lacks exposition?!

Also: If you find Cave Story particularly hard, then you've not played enough games on more than the easy difficulty setting.

Dead Space on Insane. Civ4 on deity. 100% OCD World of Goo. CoD4 on veteran. DF2010 loincloth challenge. GODDANG NETHACK.

But well, I didn't say the game as a whole was that hard. Some parts, like, say, Monster X, were pretty mean, however, specially since the lack of save points made you need to redo half an hour of play at every try.




Well, they do clear things up in the end. However, only after Sanctuary, and most players never even got to know that level existed. Before that, all you get to know is that the Doctor is a bad guy, mimigas are rabbit counterpart to Hulk and Curly's panties are green. Oh, and that Jenka, somehow, gave birth to a giant rectangle with a face.

I'm not saying the story's bad or anything, just that the game could do with a bit more dialog.

Cave story never struck as 'hard' to me. Its not ♥♥♥♥ like a certain game about a kid,
or a cavalcade of mathematical sadism in sawblade form. (IWBTG and SMB, respectively)

That said, I might've had hit some spikes in a cave of certain order or an arrow or two in some sort of bute-filled place.
Once or twice or onehundredthousand times but still I tend to forget all failures of mechanical repetition and just remember the time I did it right.
The time(s) I did it wrong melt into one.

But uh yeah, I thought the story is pretty uh, in a word, good. It works.

Shame that in order to comperhend it fully you have to follow a trail of illogical conscious choices over the game.
I felt that the game did have replay value, partly thanks to the challenge. Do it a few times, if you're still interested, internet will surely aid you in achieving a "hard mode" playthrough.

Then it's time to start not picking up healt pods, if you're still looking for more.

Also, the thing is on Wii. Is that any good? The game I mean. The console... err yeah.
Specifically the higher res sprites and the extras and whatnot.

Lastly, I think it's a bold move to finish your game like that. I mean, the 'first' ending, all that without checkpoints, and uh, yeah.

It's a good game.

Cave Story Wii can be argued as "worse" than the original Cave Story for its awkward controls due to the Wii-mote and for its music, which a majority of people critique as too weak or whatnot.

On a positive note, however, the game does have better graphics, and it's certainly not at all a bad remake of the excellent original.

No, the process of getting all of the "good" weapons is straightforward and is usually evident in the game's path, with perhaps the exception of Spur, which you have to jetpack back to the first cave and interact with the Hermit to get.

IWBTG FTW!
...You can take the FTW either way and it still works!

Personally, I wouldn't want the story any other way, as I get bored by games that give away all the interesting bits too early on.
And yes, Monster X is pretty tricky until you've got the hang of it.
I don't tend to get bored by repeating sections of the game, as you have to do that alot in IWBTG, assuming you're not playing it on moderate.