In 50 days will be my 10 year anniversary of making my forum account and creating the Cavern Tale thread. That's... hard to wrap my head around. 10 years of modding Cave Story and being a part of the wider CS fandom/community.
I've had plans for that date for awhile now, but it's been pretty busy this year so far with work/school and it felt like a couple weeks ago it said there were 100 days left. You'll know if I make the deadline come April 22nd.
I'll list 'em for both games. So this may be a wall of text, haha.
I'll spoiler 'em for that reason.
Favourite areas:
For the second game, definitely Icefire Treetop (I like how it's got fire on one side and ice on the other, plus its theme "Muspell and Niflheim" is stuck in my head) and the Tower of Oannes (I like both of its themes, plus there are a LOT of diabolical traps and stuff that caught me off-guard, its "Guardian" included, though unlocking it is a total pain). Honorable mentions to both the Eternal Prison areas (Eternal Prison - Doom and Eternal Prison - Gloom has a nice theme and atmosphere, though that Seven Gates of the Underworld puzzle really tried my patience, haha) and the Hall of Malice (I like one of its themes, "Death Gene", plus there's the minibosses thing again).
Favourite bosses:
For the second game, Jormungand ("Twined Malice" is awesome and I like how it's fast-paced, considering you're on a motorbike while the Guardian's riding a serpentine war machine) and Echidna ("Reproduction of Power" is neat, but I like her unique "gimmick"; the later you fight her, the stronger she is). Honorable mention again, this time to Anu ("From Nibiru" sounds cool to me, and parts of it remind me of the original's save-game song thing).