Email: Re: Why the Cave Story Bashing?

From what I read from your blog it seems you dont like Cave Story more for what it represents as opposed to the game itself.  In a way I agree.  Cave Story was the pre-cursor of the current state of indie games.  And while Cave Story was released as a free game by someone that did it as a hobby as opposed an actual product like current so called “retro” indie games. Expecting we pay money for their dull crap that wont have never sold back in the day is an insult in my opinion.

I think Cave Story is a great game, but I will never pay $30 for it to play it on the 3DS or w/e it was on the various Nintendo’s e-shops ports it had.  I think someone on Nintendo really loved Cave Story or someone at Nicallis the one that published/ported the payed versions of the game was friends with Iwata or something.

I only played the game on the PC so I dont know how it was on the Nintendo consoles.

 

While I like the look and soundtrack of the game, it really is quite short and up to the 2 last caves it wasnt that hard.  While the game has a great engine, the character feels great no issues controlling him and the weapon system was great it is really too easy.  Unless you want the secret ending you wont really break that much a sweat playing the game.

As for the Japanese part, I like Japanese games.  Heck I grew up playing them, so I dont mind Japanese games at all.  I might be a bit opposite to you actually.  For me western games have to be really good for me to immerse in them.  One of the reason I don’t like modern shooters that much.  And while I don’t hate western games, I loved Metroid Prime to death after all, Im not a fan of the burly bald space marine games.  But I agree with you that Nintendo should stop being xenophobic with their games and should try to appeal to all audiences and not just Japanese’s or people that are into Japanese products.

 
Still the game is fun for me and would love the original guy behind the game to do bigger and harder version of the game with more of a budget.

Long ago, no one could tell the difference between Japanese games and Western games. People actually thought Super Mario Brothers came from the United States because the prior video games had come from the United States or United Kingdom. When people played Mega Man, they never thought ‘Japanese’ (that is until Mega Man 6 with some of those strange robot masters).

My point is that Japanese games dominated and sold so well not because they were Japanese but because they were excellently made games. Today, my impression is that companies such as Nintendo go, ‘we must make this game more Nintendo, more Japanese…’ because heaven forbid people think the Nintendo game (if they know nothing of Nintendo) came from the West or somewhere else. It’s like they are intentionally branding it with that ‘style’. A good example of this is that atrocious Wind Waker art style. There is no confusion of anyone that the Wind Waker art style is Japanese. Try out Twilight Princess, and people might wonder if the game was made in the West. Can’t have that.

I always thought Nintendo, as a platform holder, wanted to have the best games on its platform. After all, Nintendo went to great lengths to get best games such as…

Tetris…

Shadowgate… (you know Nintendo looked the other way on their censorship because the game was so good)

M.U.L.E…. (from the PC megacompany of Electronic Arts whose president swore to never support a console)

Remember when Nintendo pulled out the stops to get Street Fighter 2 on its SNES console? That was a good move. Of course, Nintendo had a different response to Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat on the SNES had its blood replaced with ‘sweat’. And Nintendo threw Sega to the United States Senate. Sales of Mortal Kombat on the Genesis outsold the SNES version four to one. Nintendo quietly allowed the blood on the SNES version of Mortal Kombat II.

Remembering that episode of the ’16-bit war’, I forgot just how violent Street Fighter 2 is. There is no blood or fatalities, but it is certainly full of violence. “Go home and be a family man!” one contender says to the losing contender.

One angle I never looked at is that Street Fighter 2 was Japanese while Mortal Kombat was Western. Perhaps that is a reason why Nintendo treated the two differently.

I can understand Nintendo’s exclusivity deals with Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter making them push those franchises hard in the West. But I can’t understand why Nintendo never goes for exclusivity for a Western blockbuster game or at least push for a port to the Nintendo console. I’m sure Nintendo has done this for Call of Duty. But what about games like Skyrim where there are virtually no RPGs on the Nintendo consoles (Zelda used to be considered an RPG until Aonuma entered the picture)? Or how about Dark Souls 2?

And when it comes down to choosing indie games, why does Nintendo keep choosing Cave Story? We know Nintendo never made a push for Minecraft or Notch would have said so. What I see is that Cave Story is Japanese made which fits a very disappointing pattern for Nintendo. (Of course, now Western indies will be ‘favored’ but only because the ‘real’ Western third party companies have abandoned the Nintendo system.)

I want the console with THE BEST GAMES. The BEST games are defined by the gamers, not by Nintendo. But a purchase of a Nintendo console means you are stuck with only what Nintendo decides is ‘the best’.

“Don’t say that, Malstrom! You over-exaggerate!”

Look at the Virtual Console. I rest my case.