http://www.gameflaws.com/cavestory/
Wow. I can't believe no one's made a thread about this. I looked around, from what I understand no one's really talked about this game here.
Basically, this is Cave Story (Doukutsu Monotagari or whatever in Japanese) which is a 100% free freeware PC game made pretty much by one dude over the course of 5 years. Japanese dude, of course.
More or less, it's a Metroid-esque exploration and shooting game in which you play a little robot guy. He has a name, but one of the little challenges and story elements of the game is figuring it out.
The gameplay will probably feel more like a Mega Man game with really floaty, yet tightly-controllable jumping at first, but the further you get into it the more Metroid-esque you'll realise it is; i.e. multiple, but not a confusingly large array of, weapons, each suited to different situations. Life-up capsules. Upgrades that allow you to explore new areas and return to earlier ones easier. etc etc
The game isn't terribly long but it's chock full of all kinds of little secrets. It'll take you at the very least 3 playthroughs to get all the weapons (some of them can only be obtained once in a playthrough and disallow you to get other weapons of a similar nature for example), at least two playthroughs to experience all the useful extra items and explore every area of the cave, and any number of playthroughs to catch every single extra item (many are useless, but cute to collect; it's very easy to miss most of them); get every life-up; find every power-up; and fully grasp and understand the story. The story, while not overly complicated, is actually pretty deep, and even after you've beaten the game several times you might find yourself going "Ooohhhh, so THAAAAAT'S what that meant..." and such. Oh, and did I mention there are multiple endings?
Anyway, this game is solid, and completely free. I feel like some kind of funny 'free trial' hander-outer when I say that, but really, it's just a download away, and a very nice game. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Oh, COME ON, people. I made this like a month ago; 0 replies and 19 views, at least one of which was probably my own. I implore you to check this game out and converse about it in this thread. I thought it was dorky at first, too, but it's really a very fine game.
I'd almost never bump my own topic, especially if I was the last one who posted in it, but this just saddens me; I must.
I'll check it out sooner or later; lord knows I love me some Metroid-esque gameplay. Just too lazy to do it right now >_>;
Huh, I was just talking about this with a couple of people not only four hours ago. What a coincidence.
Ah, Cave Story is great :D
Very fun. I've got it, haven't played in a few months though.
It's very metroid-like, which is good :)