What is your favorite platforming challenge in Cave Story?

I've been mulling over a few of the jumps that I used to find hard as a kid and what jumps stood out the most over time as I aged and got better as a gamer and from my experiences modding the game. I'm really curious to see what platforming set-pieces / segments stood out to people the most. People love to talk about iconic parts of the game but the structure of the island really aged wonderfully.

What area was it? What equipment did you have access to during it? How did that equipment matter?

I feel like a lot of those things matter a bit more in the context of the overall experience each segment offered, the game wasn't designed with that many levels but the nature of the editing software and room loading system allowed Pixel to iterate a lot on each moment of the game to make it more fitting of the roller-coaster of a game that it is, each area of the game has a pretty distinctively different feel to it even in spite of the heavy mechanical reuse, and it made traversal have a vastly different impact in different ways in different parts of the game.

What's your favorite?


I'll start with one that's probably a bit uninspired considering it's so important to one of the game's sidequests:

I know while as much as I like the hidden last cave, labyrinth, and hell for their unforgiving nature, I really found the jump to get to the little household was a really good set piece, the challenge to get there involves the tightest corridors the player can navigate, and is designed with use of the booster 0.8 and 2.0. Attempting this jump with the 2.0 is arguably harder because of the game's control scheme making it hard to switch between the type of momentum the 0.8 offers using the 2.0, As the Booster 2.0 requires you to let go of all directional inputs before you do the secondary jump input to activate the ability to air-strafe while moving upwards with it equipped.
If you hold left when falling into the hole in the corridor with the booster 2.0 equipped you'll start accelerating to the left and generally the lip at the bottom is NOT enough to save you by the time you realize what's going on, and good luck getting back up if you DO make it.

It's signaled by an innocuous, little corridor that doesn't stand out at all during a normal run of the game because of the color of the clouds making the tiles blend in. The player would generally be caught up in the emotional whiplash the early sections of the game's third act brings in and would want to get on with the main story most of the time rather than exploring, taking good advantage of the player's emotional state to sorta guide them to exactly where the level's expecting the player to go as opposed to this Little House (laugh track)
But it's one of many examples of how the game opens up significantly in the later sections by making the optional tasks a lot more obscured, forcing you to interact with more of the game's mechanics.

 

i'm going to be SUPER uninspired here and say that it's the jump over professor Booster in the labyrinth
kid me could not understand the timing despite the red line literally being RIGHT there. only after failing enough times it finally dawned on me that the line wasn't just a random part of the foreground, but actually a helping hand to make the jump consistent. i don't think i've failed that jump a single time since!

another example that i quite like is the rightmost part of grasstown. the fan jumps are quite unique, since you don't really see them anywhere else in the game, and they offer an interesting challenge, testing your jump timing. i've never actually fallen into the death spikes, but they served as a nice motivation to do well!
also the final hole right before the door got me a few times and i'm mildly embarassed to admit it

 

Thinking over it, I think my favorite platforming challenge, has to be the normal version of Last Cave. While Hidden Last Cave was also pretty good (and I think both versions you can just traverse back and forth, for whatever reason, with high risk), it must've taken Pixel quite a bit to get this one just right, to the point where it can not only be done with either Booster (given you don't have the Iron Bond in your inventory), but also with no Booster equipped at all! Even if you're not doing this just for the Mimiga Mask ending, you can still deactivate the Booster and still do this using only your platforming skills and the hidden fans within the one tile-wide pits. It really shows how far Pixel went in terms of level design, to accommodate for both platforming types, it is a bit of a shame that you can't truly go Booster-less in the entire game, all thanks to the very first jump in Outer Wall.

Only thing that probably could've enhanced it if it also took some traits from the Hidden version, at the very least add in the Red Demon to the stage. It was just a bit odd to add in a monster relating to Arthur's past in an area you unlock by rescuing my your waifu and getting her memories restored; though it makes you wonder if the fight against him would count as vengeance for a mimiga you have never met, a hit and run, or you just so happened to run into his domain and you're the monster for fighting him. Maybe the normal version of Last Cave is his home security system.

 

if remastered challenges count then i think wind fortress is fun despite being more difficult than sanctuary time attack

 

For me, the Last Cave (Hidden) stands out. That gauntlet forces you to optimize every boost, and the lack of healing makes every mistake feel huge. It’s brutal but so satisfying to nail.

 

The first room in the Labyrinth was always a fun place to practice your footwork.