Controls that seem stiff at first eventually reveal themselves to be perfectly calibrated as you upgrade your weapons and obtain new equipment that will soon have you zipping your way back through areas that kicked your ass the first time through.
Don’t let Cave Story’s super simple graphics fool you—this game is no relic of the 8-bit era, but a loving tribute to (and arguable improvement upon) old school adventure platformers like Metroid and Castlevania— and, like Stardew Valley and Iconoclasts, it was developed and programmed over five years by a single game designer, Daisuke Amaya. You play as a robot that has lost his memory, and you must travel through an underground landscape seeking an escape, and to solve the mystery of your origins along the way. Controls that seem stiff at first eventually reveal themselves to be perfectly calibrated as you upgrade your weapons and obtain new equipment that will soon have you zipping your way back through areas that kicked your ass the first time through.