You guys gotta try this game!

It's called Cave Story.

And no, it's is not about cavemen any more than Donkey Kong is about donkeys. :-)

It is a platformer/rpg where you shoot stuff a lot.

It feels a bit like Metroid. You're a "soldier" that looks like a kid in a baseball cap, and it is set underground in caves. In fact, there is an enemy in the game which looks almost exactly like a metroid, and the music they play when you find items sounds very much like the music in metroid when you get a new powerup.

Unlike metroid though, you meet lots of characters underground, and talk to them and go in their houses and stuff, just like an rpg.

As a result it's quite an interesting and fun little game, taking the best elements of both genres, and it's free to boot.

Here's the link. You'll want to make sure to grab the english version at the bottom of the page:

http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1699.html

Yes, this game is great! And it's retro style too!

Played it about 6 months ago. It's free and it's really good. Every part is well made, I loved it!! The weapon upgrade system is particularly cool.

Very cool,... looks like I'm going to have a bit less free time for a bit.

I really miss this style of platformer. The good ones at least,... there were far too many bad ones to count as well.

Hmm, first all the links to the game were dead, now I get a 403 error from the page itself, tried searching for mirrors via Google, no luck. Will continue looking though...

Go here fro Original JP Version:
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA022293/storehouse.html

Clcik on little icon...

Here for English Patch:
http://agtp.romhack.net/doukutsu.html

Sould work.

Reminds me quite a bit of dizzy, platform/rpg style. Great game.

@ENAY:

your "Eacape from Reality" looks pretty nice, could you release a demo to leeme play?

Very fun!

I've only managed to find two of the three endings though. Time to replay it! :D

its pretty cool,

I cant seem to pass the 'find the dogs' part.. I've got 4 dogs, where is the other one??? I remember the old lady saying 4 dogs... but... she keeps saying there's another

EDIT: replaced spoilers with link to walkthroughs

Cool retro style game....kinda reminds me of zelda/megamanish type game.

i like it, a lot. but the screenupdate should be v'synched... :|

Thanks for the link!

Holy smokes! The third way to beat the game is impossibly difficult! Great replayability with the alternate (hard) ending.

follow-up: Awesome find! This game is hella fun. I was totally planning to do some coding yesterday, but got sucked into this instead. This is a great example of integrating story with gameplay.

ADDITION: Actually, not just the story. The game design is really solid overall. For example, the level design in many sections (eg. the egg corridor near the beginning) leaves me gobsmacked by its cleverness.

yeah it's really good. The story is well done with little anims etc and the gameplay is really good fun.

Wow, this is a real time eater. I had difficulty putting it down. Great for retro fans, although, i found the music does grate a bit in some areas.

I particularly enjoyed the sprite characters and animation, although fairly simple. Those Japanese do characterization so well, damn them! :P

Man, sucks that you cant get the better/harder endings if you choose to swap in yer Blaster for Machine Gun, blasting yerself up into the air with the Machine Gun @ Lvl3 is the most fun I've had in a platforming game in years...

Eeep. I'm still stuck trying to kill the boss in the power switch room where the eggs are. I really should play more games - I'm out of practice. *grin*