Topic: Cave Story 3D Impressions

[MegaByte]

An early look at the evolution of Cave Story.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressions/25336

At NIS America's annual press event, I had a chance to take a look at Cave Story's new 3D rendition, though it was a very early version lacking stereoscopic 3D, sound, lighting, speed, and even 3D character models. The new 3D environments were available, as well as the new camera system. 

Though Cave Story's gameplay remains in 2D, the previously flat plane has been mapped onto splines, so the caves now curve as you travel through them, and the 3D capabilities should not go to waste. The new locale renditions are really beautiful. The artists took the original maps from Cave Story and drew over top of them in order to maintain the exact positions of the original, but with a vivid new look. The 3D artists have adapted this new vision into a 2.5D environment.

Underneath the shiny new skin, it's still very much Cave Story; as of now, everything other than the level environments is copied directly from the earlier versions, and behind the scenes, it's still running the old 2D engine. The one big change is that the camera is more zoomed in, in order to provide a better 3D experience. It remains to be seen how this change will affect gameplay. Though the version I played was early, most of the art and 3D modeling work is done, and the developers say they are on track for a summer 2011 release. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[Enner]

I'm going to miss the sprites.


I guess with the 3DS coming out, sprite work will become more rare in the future.

[Thaneros]

Eww.....Wasn't the main part of Cave Story's charm was its retro look?!

[cricarra]

As someone said somewhere else Cave Story wasn't meant to be "Retro" originally. When it was being worked on the type of sprites he was using were still  being used. It's just by the time it happened to be completed it wasn't normal anymore so it took on the"retro" tag.

I think this great news, since I've only played the Wiiware version for a few minutes. I can wait and get the definitive version on 3DS. For all of you complaining, it's already free on the PC and you can get it on Wiiware/DSiware so I don't see why this bothers  you. Especially since he teased a sequel

[cricarra]

I'm going to miss the sprites.


I guess with the 3DS coming out, sprite work will become more rare in the future.

Lol not a chance. People have been saying that forever. Sprites aren't going anywhere.

[circasurviver]

"I'm going to miss the sprites."
[/size]
[/size]I missed the part when they said they're not going to allow you to play the Wiiware DSIWare or PC versions anymore. Seriously whats wrong with giving the option to play the game with fully rendered 3D models if some people prefer that over the sprites.

[Enner]

I'm going to miss the sprites.

I guess with the 3DS coming out, sprite work will become more rare in the future.

Lol not a chance. People have been saying that forever. Sprites aren't going anywhere.

They're probably not going to see any more retail releases. Then again, I guess it's a good thing since I probably wouldn't shell out $50 for a box copy of a shoot'em up or platformer with sprite graphics. It's a silly thing to miss, but I'm a bit sad that there will probably less NA retail games with only sprite graphics.

"I'm going to miss the sprites."

I missed the part when they said they're not going to allow you to play the Wiiware DSIWare or PC versions anymore. Seriously whats wrong with giving the option to play the game with fully rendered 3D models if some people prefer that over the sprites.

I will explain my knee-jerk reactionary comment in that I think this game and the effort put in it is not something I desired or am going to desire. It looks beautiful and will be a good game. But I'm lead to believe so far that it will be the same game. It's still early so maybe there will be a second quest and/or new weapons that mixes things up.
Bah, maybe they're doing this as a technical exercise for future projects while giving a new look for Cave Story. I can get behind that.

[circasurviver]

It will be the same basic game, but as they said in the interview there is still a lot of people who haven't played the game, some of whom were turned off by the graphics of the original. If this gets more folks to purchase this amazing game than I'm all for it. Another cool thing is that it's a retail release, which opens the game up to a whole new audience. However it would be awesome if they announce the original game will also be included on the cartridge! (I'm sure there would be plenty of room)

[Enner]

It will be great if this introduces the game to new audiences. I didn't think of that in my selfish first comment. Certainly I'm all for Pixel and the others to get more money for the game. They could use that money to make a follow up!