Cave Story 3D release date announced

By Fred Dutton Published 29 April, 2011

First gameplay screens shown.

The 3DS revamp of cult indie platformer Cave Story tunnels its way into European stores this September, publisher NIS has announced.

US gamers will get the game first, with a 9th August release date confirmed there.

It's the same basic game as you might have played as a free PC download or upscaled WiiWare title, though with new 3D visuals (which you can inspect below) and a remixed soundtrack.

"Making the transition from 2D to 3D has been a challenge, but it has allowed us to further expand the Cave Story universe envisioned by Daisuke Amaya," commented Victor Rodriguez, CEO of developer Nicalis.

"I think fans will have a great time with the expanded world and characters brought to life in 3D."

The WiiWare version of the game scored an impressive 9/10 last year from Eurogamer's John Teti.

"If this game had been released on the NES 20 years ago, it would be recalled by a generation of players as a high point of the 8-bit era," he wrote.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (11) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • menage #1 1 year ago

    Meh, I really liked it better before they added the new visuals. Why the hell did they need to make such a huge change to something which worked fine the way it was. Just to add 3D, more like adding less style and more gimmicks but I guess that's what 3D is all about. Since the game was never meant for it's ading nothing imo.

    Sprites FTW.

    The old version needs a proper XBLA/PSN release.
    Edited by menage at 29/04/11 @ 18:05

  • BonzoBanana #2 1 year ago

    Isn't this is a free homebrew game for the psp? Also isn't it available for DSi?

    I really don't want to appear negative all the time about the 3DS but normally a console comes out and there is some effort to write games that actually use the console to its best abilities. When the playstation 2 came out did we have 8 bit game conversions like Manic Miner making up 95% of all the releases? There is even a conversion of Cave Story for a texas instrument calculator.

    Ping Pong the 3DS version announcement expected any day now.

    It says available in stores and there is no mention of budget cartridge range so I can only guess £40 again.

    The game is 2 meg on the psp. Didn't Nintendo claim the carts were going to be 2 gigabytes and later games maybe 8 gigabytes and this game cart will probably be 8 megabytes tops.

    I thought Sony were worst when it came to dismal software releases early in a console's life but Nintendo have beaten them with the 3DS.

    When the 3DS was announced I was expecting original games, great conversions from dreamcast, ps2, gamecube and even wii made available for the first time on a portable. The dreamcast was only 360 dmips, the gamecube 1200 dmips, it seems reasonable that a 600 dmip portable with a low resolution could fulfill that quite easily even in 3D. Dreamcast and ps2 conversions easily and gamecube and wii conversions requiring a bit more effort but possible. Instead we get primitive game engines with upgraded graphics.



  • Alatair #3 1 year ago

    Looks bloody awful graphically compared to the original.

  • feline #4 1 year ago

    3D can be great when a game is designed for it, but what's with the obsession with converting old games to 3D? The pixel art style was part of the charm of Cave Story and it feels like something's been lost with the conversion to 3D; it just lacks the soul of the original. But hey I guess I'll have to reserve judgement till I play it.

  • spaceburge #5 1 year ago

    @feline good call. The 3DS has some great features to take advantage of. Revamping a 2D platformer with 3D visuals is a waste.

  • Raiko101 #6 1 year ago

    I must admit, those screen shots don't look all that amazing. The 2D visuals definately have some real charm. I've not yet played this game and I was holding out for this version in particular, but I think i'll be waiting for some hands-on articles and videos before making a decision. I've still have some Wii points in reserve, so might end up getting this for the Wii instead.

  • Kaprikawn #7 1 year ago

    The only recent handheld people should be playing Cave Story on is the <a href="http://www.openpandora.org/">Open Pandora.

  • L0cky #8 1 year ago

    I'm been getting the blood draining feeling that Hollywood's 'stick 3D on it' shovelware approach to cinema is going to be the same approach that will decimate the 3DS :/

    Please don't let it be so!

  • Z101 #9 1 year ago

    @Bonzo: "When the playstation 2 came out did we have 8 bit game conversions like Manic Miner making up 95% of all the releases?"

    The 3DS hat super-core games like Street Fighter 4, Ridge Racer, Samurai Warriors (by the way: great game!) or Shadow Wars at launch. On top of that games like Pilotwings, Nintendogs, Splinter Cell or PES 2011.

    The next games will be Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Dead or Alive: Dimensions, Steel Diver and so on.

    I think the 3DS had the most "core" launch lineup a handheld ever had. Only the big first party nintendo game was missing but they will come for sure.

    Cave Story 3D will be a flop: I think a great deal of the appeal of Cave Story came from it old fashioned 2D visuals. This new visuals look like crap. Because I don't own the Wii version I planned to buy the 3DS Cave Story. But this graphic style does not fit. There are so many options for great visuals with 2D graphics and 3DS 3D. The developer chooses clearly the wrong way when they dropped the 2D visuals.
    Edited by Z101 at 02/05/11 @ 09:48

  • Der_tolle_Emil #10 1 year ago

    Maybe we are lucky and the game features an option to switch between the new and the older graphics. If not then maybe someone at Nintendo will finally decide to bring the DSiWare version to Europe.

  • BonzoBanana #11 1 year ago

    @Z101

    For me of those games listed only Streetfighter and Pilotwings are worth buying. Neither are triple A. For the other games they are either conversions of existing games often to a lower standard or games from very outdated hardware with little enhancement.

    You may be satisfied with what the 3DS is delivering but I am not. Its a very weak line up for me that looks technically weaker than psp most of the time and when it reaches psp levels graphically or a bit beyond like PES it seems like half the game is missing. I don't believe 3DS cartridges are very big and I don't believe the console is particularly powerful except it has a better gpu and the 3D effect. It seems to me at the moment at least 3DS games are constrained by very small cartridges.

    From what I've recently read one of the arm chips is totally dedicated to background tasks as is 32meg of memory. This leaves a generous 96meg of memory but only a single 266mhz core of about 300 dmips. With the 3D effect on it doesn't leave much cpu power for much else. I struggle to see the point of the 3DS when the PSP exists. I was expecting the 3DS to be about 3x the power of what it is and the cartridges to actually be the claimed capacity of 2GB. Instead the hardware is horribly compromised and barely even able to cope at its 400x240 resolution.

    Is this going to be another Nintendo console with about 5 great games over its lifetime?

    I think I'm going to have a long session on Windwaker on the gamecube at the weekend to remind me when Nintendo cared about the hardware and the software they created and not just the bottom line.