Cave Story+ Review Summary

An interesting well-written story with charismatic characters and multiple endings for replayability is hurt by a poor port, clunky slippery controls, and a true ending that needs a guide.

Interesting and well-written story: The narrative is frequently described as compelling, engaging, and well-executed. Reviewers find the story captivating and well-crafted.

Charismatic and memorable characters: The characters are often described as interesting, well-defined, and full of personality. Players find them easy to get attached to and memorable.

Beautiful graphics and pixel art: The visual presentation, including pixel art, is frequently praised as beautiful, gorgeous, and stylish. Reviewers appreciate both the enhanced and retro graphics.

Multiple endings boost replayability: The game features several endings that encourage multiple playthroughs and add replay value, with choices affecting the outcome. Reviewers appreciate the variation and secrets tied to different endings.

Enjoyable and fun gameplay: The core gameplay is widely praised as fun, enjoyable, and well-crafted. Many reviewers highlight the tight and satisfying gameplay loop.

True ending requires guide: The true ending is nearly impossible to unlock without a guide because its requirements are obscure and a mistake can force a full replay. Many players feel the best ending is not discoverable through normal play.

Port is poorly made: The port is poorly implemented in most respects, with no configuration providing a perfect experience. It is considered inferior to the Switch version and lacks quality-of-life features.

Hard mode is ridiculous: Hard mode is extremely difficult, removing health upgrades and the missile launcher. This makes it nearly impossible to survive and locks players out of achievements.

Slippery and clunky controls: Controls are slippery and feel clunky, making precision platforming difficult. The jump feels floaty and movement can feel unresponsive.

Steam Cloud saves missing: The port lacks Steam Cloud save support, so deleting and reinstalling the game loses save files. This remains unsupported even after updates.

Multiple endings and story paths: The game offers multiple endings, including bad, normal, and true endings, which are determined by player choices and actions. Some endings require multiple playthroughs and specific decisions to unlock.

Platformer with metroidvania elements: It is a 2D side-scrolling platformer with metroidvania-style exploration and progression, though some note it is more linear than traditional metroidvanias.

Boss fights with varied strategies: Players frequently mention boss fights, highlighting that they are a core feature and each requires different strategies. Boss fights are often preceded by cutscenes and have multiple phases.

Challenging optional content: There are challenge stages, super hard challenges, and a boss rush mode, offering additional difficulty for players seeking a test.

Weapon leveling system: Weapons gain experience and can be leveled up to level 3, increasing their strength. However, taking damage can remove progress or downgrade the weapon.

Poor performance and lag: Many reviewers mention lag, frame drops, and overall poor optimization, often in specific areas or during leaderboard display. The game is criticized as poorly optimized despite its age.

Crashes and stability issues: Frequent crashes are reported, including during leaderboard display, even though the game is lightweight. Some players also experience the game failing to launch or showing a black screen.

Severe slowdown after update: Multiple players report the game became extremely slow after the latest update, with FPS dropping from 60 to around 10. This is the most frequent performance complaint.

Resolution and display problems: Players report missing resolution options, no widescreen support, screen cutoff, and issues on modern displays. The game may not fit the screen or only display partially.

Runs well on low-end hardware: Several reviewers note the game runs smoothly on low-end hardware, including old laptops and even a Surfacebook, with low system requirements.

Highly recommended overall: Multiple reviewers strongly recommend the game and encourage others to play it. The sentiment is overwhelmingly positive.

Try free original first: Many suggest trying the freeware version at cavestory.org before purchasing, as it offers the same core experience. Some recommend source ports like doukutsu-rs instead.

Must-play classic: Reviewers consider it a must-play title that everyone should experience at least once. It is regarded as a classic that many will love.

For metroidvania and platformer fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of metroidvania and 2D platformer genres. Those who enjoy challenging platforming shoot-em-ups will appreciate it.

Buy only on sale: Reviewers advise purchasing the game at a discounted price rather than full price, noting frequent sales. It is considered worth it at a lower cost.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00.

Game completion: 7.0h.

Story completion: 8.0h.

Endgame: 20.0h.

Cave Story+ is widely described as fun and addictive from the start, with tight controls, catchy music, and satisfying weapon progression. A minority report a slow start, floaty movement before upgrades, or an endgame drop, but these do not outweigh the immediate-fun reports.

Friction: Slow start; Floaty, slippery movement before upgrades; Backtracking and fetch quests; Annoying UI and weapon switching; Tedious dialogue and boss retry paths; Harsh death traps and inconsistent save-point spacing.

Unlock drivers: Movement upgrade makes traversal fun; Generous save points reduce death frustration; Weapon leveling improves damage and playstyle; Switch version fixes the tedious dog fetch quest.

Nostalgic Old-School Platformer Veteran: Plays for retro challenge and atmosphere, often replaying, comparing versions, and seeking secrets and endings. Motivation: Reliving and celebrating the old-school platformer era through a classic they grew up with or recognize as foundational. Stance: buy.

First-Time Indie/Metroidvania Explorer: Goes in blind, explores slowly, tries multiple endings, and avoids guides or spoilers. Motivation: Discovering an influential indie classic through its story, atmosphere, and exploration. Stance: buy.

Hardcore Challenge and Achievement Completionist: Grinds tough bosses and challenge modes, hunts achievements, and pushes for the best or secret endings. Motivation: Mastering difficult content and completing every ending, secret, and achievement. Stance: buy.

The Windows cohort with under 8 GB VRAM mainly reports severe performance problems, including major FPS drops after an update and poor optimization, though one user reports no issues.

Windows <8GB VRAM: negative. Users report severe slowdowns, dropping from 60 FPS to around 10 FPS after an update, and poor optimization, with only one user reporting no performance issues.

Steam Deck: The Steam Deck audit shows high friction: the native Linux build was removed, Proton is required, launch and crash issues are reported, controller detection and mapping need manual work, display scaling is limited, and cloud saves are missing or unstable. Some users report the game runs well under Proton, but hard launch failures and repeatable crashes prevent a seamless Deck experience. No direct battery-drain evidence appeared in the sampled reviews.

Linux and Proton: Linux support for this release is mixed and currently rough. The native Linux build was removed, forcing users toward Proton, and some Linux users report launch failures with no fix, broken achievements, tearing, and other bugs. At the same time, several users say the game runs well under Proton, including Proton Hotfix, so the game is not completely broken on Linux. The combination of removal of native support, launch reliability problems, and required graphical workarounds places the experience in the barely playable range.

Monetization: The reviews consistently criticize Cave Story+ for being overpriced, especially as a port, and reference publisher reputation/legal controversy. They do not provide direct evidence of real-money microtransactions, loot boxes, gacha, paid power, or a cash shop. Under the scoring rules, the complaints are base-price and publisher-reputation issues, which cap the score at 20.

External guides: The reviews are dominated by complaints that Cave Story's best/true ending and hidden secrets are extremely difficult to discover without an external guide or wiki. Players describe missable content, counterintuitive requirements, and occasional navigation confusion. There is no meaningful evidence of farming, drop-rate, loot-table, inventory, crafting, or blueprint dependency; technical issues are isolated.

Pioneering indie game: The game is widely regarded as one of the first and most influential indie games, credited with sparking the modern PC indie gaming scene.

Freeware original available: The original freeware version of the game is still available for free download, often from the developer's official website.

Created by one person: The game was developed entirely by a single person, Daisuke 'Pixel' Amaya, over several years before modern game-making tools were common.

Steam updated with Switch content: The Steam version received a major update that added all content from the Switch version, including mod support and quality-of-life features.

Available on many platforms: The game has been ported to numerous platforms, including PC, Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U, and Switch.