As we noted last week during Nintendo’s media event here in San Francisco, Nintendo had a number of exciting announcements to make — not the least exciting of which was the appearance of Cave Story on WiiWare. Cave Story, for the woefully uninitiated, is a one-man masterpiece of metroidvania-style action platforming, available on the PC for free. As Cave Story fans who are delighted to see one of gaming’s hidden treasures getting a new public platform, naturally we had quite a few questions for Tyrone Rodriguez, a producer at Nicalis, the company which is making the WiiWare version of Cave Story a reality. Mr. Rodriguez was gracious enough to answer quite a few of our pressing queries, and it sounds like longtime fans will be well-served by this new version.
At the top of our list, naturally, was the question of what’s new for the WiiWare incarnation of Cave Story. Rodriguez informed us that we can look forward to new artwork, new music, and they’re “working on” a lovely new 16:9 presentation. Rodriguez also alluded to some “new content” which had to stay secret for now, but assured us it wouldn’t detract from or change the original game. “Can’t say how much we’re going to have but it won’t affect the original game,” said Rodriguez, “any new content that we put in above and beyond the original will be separate.” This means there will be no changed items or weapons, no new levels, no changed level layouts, nothing that would alter the experience for expert players. Cave Story on WiiWare is going to be “100% authentic.” Even the translation will be the currently utilized one from Aeon Genesis.
With the artwork and music seeing some new changes, we asked whether or not Cave Story will remain true to Pixel’s original creation. Rodriguez reassured us that Pixel himself is deeply involved with every new inclusion. “He redid all of the character artwork; we’re redoing backgrounds. Any artwork that we do, we send to him; same goes for the music. Anything we’re changing, we say, ‘What do you think, is this okay?’ and he’ll say yea or nay, or fix it himself and send it back. Everything goes past him.” Rodriguez summed up the relationship: “It’s his game; we’re just facilitating bringing it to Wii for him, the fans, and hopefully you to play it.”
The music may see the biggest change, overall; we asked Rodriguez about the original chiptune-esque tracks, to which he replied, “We’re probably not going to leave them out, but we’re keeping in mind that they might not be relevant to people who aren’t fans of chiptunes.” Nicalis is still deciding what do with the original music in terms of its inclusion.
How did Cave Story wind up on WiiWare to begin with? Rodriguez claimed to personally be a big Cave Story fan, and he began talks with Pixel right around the time that Nintendo originally announced WiiWare. “Both to me and Pixel, it seems like a game that belongs on a Nintendo system,” said Rodriguez, confirming that we shouldn’t expect to see Cave Story on PSN or XBLA. Nicalis is expecting the title to cost between $5 and $10, and assured us that “Pixel directly benefits from the sales of this game.” For fans who have long desired a way to repay the game’s creator through actual money, this is a good opportunity.
The current version of Cave Story, however, will still be freely available on PC; that won’t change. “If people are really fans of this game, they’re going to want to download it again to the new artwork and the new music.” Of course, Nicalis is hoping to entice new players, as well: “If you’re not a fan or if you’ve never played it, it looks classic enough but not so outdated that you wouldn’t get it.” That said, Rodriguez has promised that longtime fans will notice a significant difference in the new version.
Will there still be multiple endings? Yes, all three.
Will the big secret super-hard level still be present? Hell yes.
We would like to thank Mr. Rodriguez for being so forthright about Cave Story and for answering our questions. Be sure to stay tuned for further announcements about Cave Story’s release date and new content.
0 Comments For This Post
1 Trackbacks For This Post
October 6th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
[...] Link // Cache-busting and pageid values var random = Math.round(Math.random() * 100000000); if (!pageNum) var pageNum = Math.round(Math.random() * 100000000); document.write(”); document.write(”); [...]
Leave a Reply