Hey,

Since others have been recommending good games here, I figured I'd chime in with this one.

Cave Story is a very unique game written by a lone Japanese man and given away for free. It's something like a cross between Zelda and Metroid, with a compelling story, interesting characters, great music, and addicting, fun, challenging gameplay.

The graphics are a mixed bag, at times reminding of the NES, and other times surpassing many 16-bit-era games. What is consistent however is the quality of the art, which is very high. I personally find the presentation and style quite charming, though others may disagree.

It starts out a little slow, but the pace picks up fast!

Sorry to rave, but I just love this game, and if someone on another forum hadn't recommended it to me, I probably never would have found it. So, there you go.

Download the game from here: http://www.nakiwo.com/software.htm (the page is in Japanese, but the link to download says "Ver.0.0.7 download (universal binary)"). You can get the English translation patch here: http://www.wctc.net/~luvmimac/cavestory/DoukutsuEnglishPatchMacUniversal.tar.gz

Enjoy... ;)

P.S. for aquaMat: This game involves a lot of shooting, so maybe you wouldn't enjoy it. However, it is about as violent as Space Invaders (IOW, not violent at all). You never know what you may enjoy...I'm finally starting to enjoy DoD, and I never thought that would happen! ;D

Yeah I have that one.... while I liked some parts of it, after a while its "too-old-school" vintage 8-bit look got a bit on my nerves...
I also didn't like the fact you had to restart from the very beginning  too often.

But maybe I gave up too early.....  :-/

BTW: In this case the shooting didn't bug me at all ... it's only those games whose main and only purpose is the shooting or warfare etc. that I don't like !!
For example I have no problem with the "violent bits" in - say -  CaveDays, where the caveman hits all the dinosaurs over their heads.... it's so much in a "comic-strip" context that it bears no relation to any real-world violence.... just like "The Itchy & Scratchy Show" if you know what I mean...   ;) :)

???? Start over from the beginning? The game has save points you know!  :-?

Oh yeah, I forgot to give the controls (since they're not listed anywhere in the game):

Arrow keys - move
Down arrow key - Action (talk, use save point, use teleporter, etc.)
Z - jump
X - shoot
A,S - switch weapon
Q - item screen
W - map screen (once you obtain the mapper)
Tab - toggle fullscreen

Maniac and I talked about this one a bit on the old forums. Great game with tons of personality. The guy who made it just released a fun little freeware space shooter, too, but I don't know if there's a mac version anywhere yet. I'm sure somebody's working on it.

EDIT: I wasn't sold on Cave Story at first either. But it's a humble game that keeps some of its best material in reserve for later. If you're not hooked once you see the giant frog boss, it's probably not the game for you, though.

And yeah, there's save points all over the place. Little rotating disks. Stand in front of them and press up.

ryos wrote on 30.03.2007 at 23:05:16:

???? Start over from the beginning? The game has save points you know!  :-?

No, no  :D .... I meant, when you first started the game and played through the first area (I didn't get much further than that anyway), before you reached any kind of saving point....and lost your lives, you were forced to go throu some tiring start routine again and again (it's too long ago to exactly remember what it was that puzzled me) before you could continue to play where you left off.
Apart from that...I remember what puzzled me was that control was a bit akward...... so moving was a bit "stiff".

Maybe I should just retry again.... might be more fun once you've managed to get behind the first save...  :-/ ;)

Oh, heh, wow. You never made it past the first cave? No wonder you didn't like the game...

I think that first cave is sort of a forced tutorial on moving and jumping and the like. You die a few times, and then you learn! Fortunately, that part of the game is extremely short. There is sooo much content that you're missing.

Like Psychotronic, I didn't get really "hooked" on the game until I made it to the third area (Grasstown). The Balfrog was really just icing on that cake.  And, the last few areas are really the best in the game. 8-)

Yes, definitely play past the first area. I got a little lost (and very bored) here, and almost gave up, but I'm glad I didn't! The areas, and story, beyond that area are fantastic! Cave Story is really a gem of a game.

Aah...okay, I see !
I'll check it out again....later today !!
Thx.