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[Supermini_man]

Point taken there,I forgot there was a mistranslation (Aeon Genesis was translating from a diferent kind of Japanese than Pixel's) and that Nicalis just wanted to do Cave Story just like Pixel wanted to. Even that the new translation doesn't effect me I'm also glad that it follows Pixel's vision.

[thewojnartist]

Wow, I played Cave Story a long time ago and thought it was awesome...until the Final Cave. It was so impossible for me and I couldn't go back. I eventually started over, and eventually quit. However, I was playing with my old monitor which would for some reason turn red into black. I didn't learn until recently that the spikes were actually red at the tips (as I did have trouble avoiding them in the final cave) and so I'm thinking of trying it again, possibly on the Wii (if I find the money (I know its not that much but I'm cheap ))

Sorry to quote myself, but I need to know. Is it a worthwhile buy or should I get back to the freeware version instead?

[TwilightVulpine]

The Wiiware version has better graphics, new music, difficulty settings and some extra modes. I recommend buying.

[mcc]

Wow, I played Cave Story a long time ago and thought it was awesome...until the Final Cave. It was so impossible for me and I couldn't go back. I eventually started over, and eventually quit. However, I was playing with my old monitor which would for some reason turn red into black. I didn't learn until recently that the spikes were actually red at the tips (as I did have trouble avoiding them in the final cave) and so I'm thinking of trying it again, possibly on the Wii (if I find the money (I know its not that much but I'm cheap ))

Sorry to quote myself, but I need to know. Is it a worthwhile buy or should I get back to the freeware version instead?

Definitely buy the wii ware version (but switch from the buggy new music to the original). It's just a much more enjoyable experience.

[JackieJay]

Well the new music is pretty much the same as the original, but less 16bit-ish so to say. While I prefer the older soundtrack because I'm more used to it, I always play with the new music on because switching to the old one causes some problems and also because it's refreshing to play the game all over again but with slightly different music. Also the differences between the old and new graphics aren't all that noticeable, except for the characters sprites. BUT if you haven't finished the freeware version yet, I highly recommend you the wii version. 

[mcc]

Well the new music is pretty much the same as the original, but less 16bit-ish so to say.

Well... the new music is missing a lot of stuff. Like entire instruments. For example in the title screen music there are no drums. Someone was explaining earlier in this thread that there is some sort of a bug in the sound code.

To me the new music takes a lot out of the game, not necessarily because I miss the chip-tune-y-ness but just because (due to the bug?) the songs seem much simpler and less intense and epic.

[JackieJay]

Well I always assumed the music was supposed to sound like that, to be honest I hadn't noticed. 

[Akari]

So I got to play this today.

The good
+ New graphics are great!
+ The new game modes are a nice addition and great added value.

The bad
- The new music (in its bugged state atleast) is horrible.
- The translation is crap.
- Why did they release this game in such an awfully bugged state?
- Why is this only on the Wii?

Now to elaborate on the bad things:

The music. Overall they sound totally lacking, which is most likely due to the missing instruments bug. As a result, the tracks don't seem to fit into the game at all. Like for example the standard boss battle music doesn't have any sense of danger to it, or sense of action. It's sounds like completely anti-boss music as it is, and it's annoying as crap. Some of the new songs are pretty good and I have no problem listening to them, but overall the new soundtrack feels less catchy than the original. Could be that the originals have stuck to my mind so well, but still.

The translation. Now this is just completely ridiculous. Simply put, the English is crap. Sentences don't flow well and the editing is awful. This looks like it was translated by a very literal translator who doesn't know too much English and was left as-is. Sure, in a technical sense it might be more "correct" than the Aeon Genesis translation, but frankly Japanese and English are such different languages that literal translation will just result in crap English. Aeon Genesis might have changed some words and sentences around, but I doubt they lost any meaning. In the process, they also made the text actually English.

Also, to everyone supporting "Pixel's original vision": I'd just like to remind that the Japanese generally suck at English. If you watch any anime or follow what happens around it, you'd know this too. Sometimes when things are done in a "totally official way" the original Japanese authors might insist on some specific translations of something and more often than not they're horrible compared to what a good translator could come up with. Sadly, it still happens, and seems to have happened here too. Still, I'm glad that with video game translations we still have more sensible persons than horrible weeaboos who insist on overliteral translations that sound like crap.

Then finally there's the fact that this is Wii-only and damn buggy. They delayed this so much and this is what we get? I'm sad. Also, the fact that I don't own a Wii means that I can't actually buy this. Though to be honest, in the current state I wouldn't either; I'd wait for them to fix the bugs in the music (and do some tuning for the SFX too) since as it is the audio department is pretty much completely fucked up. Oh, and obviously I'd have to wait for a PC port too... which'll probably never happen. Then again I have this bad feeling that they won't fix the bugs either, but we'll see. I hope I'll be surprised positively in this regard.

[JackieJay]

awfully bugged state?
Other than the music problems, what are the other bugs you're talking about ?
Because I've been playing it almost every day since I got it and I haven't encountered any other bugs.

[Akari]

When pretty much the whole audio side of the game is fucked up, I'd say it's pretty awfully bugged. I didn't mention this in the previous post, but the sound effects seem to have balance problems too. Besides that, I think the new sounds effect are quite badly mixed in general and they gather some negative attention ever so often while playing, which didn't happen with the original. Also, I don't remember whether this was in the original or not, but for example the XP triangle bouncing sounds don't stop playing no matter how far you are from them. Like if there's some bouncing triangles on the far right side of the Egg Corridor and you're in the far left side, you still hear the bouncing sound effects. Add to that how icky the bouncing sound is in this version, it's quite annoying.

Then there's also the crashing problems people are having in the Balcony, but I haven't played that far in the Wii version.

EDIT: Jesus the English is fucking horrible in this!

[JackieJay]

Badly balanced sfx volume + some missing instruments=awfully bugged game ?
Okaaaay

[Akari]

Like I said, the whole audio side of the game is fucked up. At least I'd call that quite a major issue considering that games are an AUDIOvisual form of entertainment.

[Tanner]

I agree with Daiz. To the player there are three main components to a game: the gameplay (what they do), the graphics (what they see), and the sound (what they hear). When the sound is as messed up as it is, that's a third of the experience that's mostly shot. (With the crash bugs there's possibly more than a third. I haven't experienced it but others have.) I would consider that to be "awfully bugged." I'm not really bothered by the translation though.


EDIT: dangit, got beat to the punch by Daiz.

[Valter]

Saying that sound is as important as gameplay and graphics is laughable at best.

First I would like to clarify that music is one of the primary criteria I use for deciding my favorite games. Excellent music will make the game better.

On the other hand, music you don't like doesn't make the game worse. If you are in any way fed up with the music of the game you're playing, you have the option of turning off the sound, plugging in your iPod, and then listening to your favorite album while you play. There are no options for turning off the graphics (although I suppose that has been experimented with, like in Gears of War's "no-gore mode"), and you can't turn off the gameplay ().

[TwilightVulpine]

While I agree audio is not as important as graphics in most games (and this one too), having no sound or problematic sound effects detracts from the experience. You can easily replace a game's music, but without sound effects, it's more difficult to get immersed.

[JackieJay]

geez I dont believe we're even having this discussion.
Look at any crappy game and imagine it had the best music and sound effects ever.
Is it a great game now ? I don't think so, and I don't even know which game you thought of.

And no, the whole audio side of Cave Story isn't busted. There are some problems, true, but that doesn't make the whole game broken, at all.

The audio component matters, obviously, some games are more reliable on it than others but I very much doubt it was what made Cave Story stand out as a freeware game. It wasn't then and it was never going to be now.

[Tanner]

I'm not saying that it's a horrible game, and I'm not saying that sound is as important as gameplay. I'm saying that the sound not working is a pretty huge bug.

[falsion]

I very much doubt it was what made Cave Story stand out as a freeware game. It wasn't then and it was never going to be now.

I can disprove this with only two words: Outer Wall.

Without the BGM music, it'd just be a generic night time level, rather than a moody forbidding one.  One of the most memorable things about CS is the music, if anything (especially in scenes such as the Outer Wall).

[JackieJay]

The sound isn't a bug itself, it's buggy yes.
But Cave Story isn't a broken game just because of a few bugs in a minor component(in comparison with the other two I mentioned) of the game .

edit @falsion that's only a (small) part of the game, not the entire game. And to be entirely honest, I don't see what so special about the music in there. IMO the only thing that makes it stand it out from the other parts of the game is the clouds and the feeling you have of being above everything. If anything I find the new music in that part to be a lot more atmospheric than the original one.

[falsion]

What about all the reported crashes then?

http://wcfcourier.com/entertainment/games/article_46dbf7b8-3da5-11df-9aaa-001cc4c002e0.html
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=954432&topic=54073576

Also missing percussion tracks and messed up mastering is still pretty bad, especially considering that the guy who composed the music even complained about it.