Critical Hit's Freeware Gems (Pilot) : Cave Story/Doukutsu Monogatari

Cave Story is a jumping-and-shooting action game.
Explore the caves until you reach the ending.
You can also save your game and continue from where you left off.
— Author's description of the game

"This description is so humble that it borders on parody. Play now, laugh later."
—Studio Pixel Fan Page

Even if I had the time, I couldn't praise Cave Story enough.

What is it, exactly?

You.. go from room to room, destroying the enemies in your path and doing a bit of platforming, searching for the next weapon, piece of equipment, or cutscene.

It's much better than it sounds, due to the agreeable controls, loveable characters, awesome music, wonderful plot, tons of replay value, and, most importantly, fun, simple, classic 2-d gameplay.

Huge bosses, tons of stuff to collect and try out, secrets, multiple endings... and a brutal bonus level of hell.

Cave Story probably has the perfect balance of platforming, fighting, searching, story, gameplay, and story that many commercial games would love to have.

And it was made by only one guy, too.

Err. Enough gushing.

You can find the game and its English patch on
this fansite. (directly linked to the Download section)

Have fun!

_____________________________________
Since I know a lot of VERY nice freeware games, I'll try telling you regularly about the best ones, if you liked this "Pilot".

Well, other than this, Kwyjibo. K-W-Y-J-I-B-O. Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game's over, my work is done. See ya next issue, if there is one!

Oh, it's an RPG Maker-style game?

Not a RPG at all, Will. The gameplay is more like a mix of Megaman and Metroid.

I mean the graphics and such, by the look of the website

Oh. Well, the graphics ARE super-deformed... Dunno why. Maybe it was more easy for Pixel this way.. Still, some later bosses are really, REALLY detailled. And tough. And awesome.