Huzzah! Let's Play Cave Story

CAN CONFIRM IT WORKS ON SWITCH.

I thought he might have been Chucky from the Child's Play series.

That would make a lot of sense, actually. He even has the right weapon for the costume!

Oh god yeah. Those are a striped long-sleeved shirt and overalls.

I loaded up the Wii version since the normal computer wasn't free, but for that one only the main character is a zombie, everyone else is normal. Boo.

Also CaveStory+ crashes on my laptop and when I did try it on the desktop it's huge and can't seem to be windowed to fit. Phooey!

A friend of mine booted up CS+ on Steam and had this problem at first; you have to turn on the Remastered graphics. It doesn't work with Original graphics.

So yep I can double-confirm that all of this amazingness is true for the Switch port. I tooled around in the boss rush mode to see some of the redesigned graphics and it's really pretty breathtaking how much effort they put into this.

Also I tweeted out a screencap of halloween mode and got retweeted by Nicalis, so that made me a very happy halloween vampire.

Samus and Audrey Two, amazing. And was that transformed Balrog supposed to be Wart?

Chapter 12: Catching Up

Part One - Brace Brace

Welcome back to Let's Play Cave Story! Today, we're starting our second run of the game
and this time, we won't settle for anything less than the BEST ENDING. Because we might
have stopped the Doctor's plans last time, but at what cost? The island ruined, our friends dead,
honestly it was kind of a downer.

So for this part of the LP, I'll be showing you how to do things right. And the single most important
part of doing it right is atoning for our past mistakes by saving Curly Brace. Because of course
there is a way to save Curly, even if it is extremely convoluted and unintuitive. What's more,
getting the good ending largely hinges on you doing just that. So are you ready to save her this
time? Are you??

Well too bad!



Because while saving Curly Brace is great, being Curly Brace is even better!



This is Curly Story, an extra mode that you can unlock is most of the commercial versions of
Cave Story. Curly Story started as a mod for the freeware game that simply swapped the sprites
of Curly and the protagonist and called it a day. Nicalis went a little farther with their take on
it, as you'll see soon enough. That said, playing as Curly doesn't change much of substance;
the plot and gameplay are all the same as before.

But you know what isn't the same?



The translation, dun dun dun. Every commercial release of Cave Story features this new translation
by Nicalis, which is pretty much reviled by the fan community. It seems to be a much more direct
and/or literal translation of the game, which lends it a kind of fan-sub-like quality. There are
awkward turns of phrase everywhere and some of the best lines have been replaced, seemingly
because it just wouldn't do to keep anything from the Aeon Genesis translation. It's not all
terrible, though, so I'll do my best to show off the best and worst of the changes. But don't
expect me to transcribe every scrap of dialogue this time around.



Aside from the translation, there are two other big changes that Cave Story+ brings to the table.
The first is pretty obvious: everything's super sharp now! Most of Nicalis' Cave Story ports feature
an (optional) set of new artwork, redrawn at stunning 640x480 resolution. That is so many pixels,
guys! The creation of the new art was apparently overseen by Pixel himself, and for the most part I
really like it. Replaying the freeware version of the game has admittedly renewed my appreciation for
the original chunky 320x240 artwork, but you can't deny that everything looks pretty crisp this way.

The other big change is one you folks can't see, but which I definitely appreciate. The original
version of Cave Story runs at 50 FPS, whereas Cave Story+ hums along at 60. That means that
everything is precisely 20% faster than it used to be, and personally I find it feels much better this
way. The funny thing is that I didn't notice the change when I first played the Wii port of the game,
but going back to the freeware port now is really tough for me. It's so slow! I honestly thought the
game wasn't working properly when I first started this LP, since I'd played the Wii version a bunch
in the last year and was used to the faster pace.

Between the graphical options, the various soundtracks and the increased framerate, I prefer the
Nicalis ports of Cave Story to the original at this point. The Steam version is aces and the Wii port
is almost as good (though it has fewer options for the graphics and sound). There's obviously
the unfortunate matter of the translation, but if you're the enterprising sort, you can hack the
Aeon Genesis translation back into the Steam version of the game and have the best of all possible
worlds. Or nearly the best; sadly, the Switch port remains the only place to go if you crave puppy
stacking (which you should).



That's enough blather for now, let's get this show on the road. We pick up the Polar Star and are
treated to the next scene of Kazuma's IRC chat festival. The new text has some more of that rough
awkwardness to it, but I do appreciate that he doesn't capitalize anything in his text chat - that's
definitely more realistic.



If we're being totally honest, I think the Nicalis translation gets more flak than it deserves. It
definitely has some problems (and it definitely abuses punctuation!!!), but there are a few spots
where it shines, too. Though probably not enough to excuse "LOL just kidding!!!" if we're being
honest.



Speaking of problems, this version of Toroko has apparently forgotten about pronouns.



We fall down into the Mimiga Village and strike up a conversation with King. But this time...



...the conversation isn't completely one-sided. That's right, Curly can talk! In the Nicalis version
of Curly Story, she keeps her personality and most of her lines of dialogue - plus she gets a bunch
of new lines for when she interacts with the other characters. This is one place where I think they
did a pretty good job; most of what she says fits her character and a lot of the little quips are
pretty fun. I'll try to show off as many of her interactions with the NPCs as I can.



After a quick run-in with Toroko, we head back out of the reservoir just as King gets bowled over.



Woof. Well, let's go talk to Mahin.



We head into the shack, where Toroko assaults us with a tree branch again.



It maybe doesn't make a lot of sense for Toroko to call Curly a brat, but it is kinda cute. We
knock her down with another shot from the trusty Polar Star.





Oh what?



UGH. There's so much wrong with this version of the scene that I just don't know where to start.
Balrog's classic catch phrase has been befouled and Misery's pithy reply has lost all its punch.
I'm willing to bet that like 50% of the resentment toward this translation comes from this one
early, important scene.



Toroko's protest here is another pretty awkward line.



Mogri pointed this out way back in Chapter 1, but when Balrog asks if you want to fight him, you
can just say no and he'll leave! It's a fun little Easter egg.





Whoa there, Jack, ease up on the punctuation a little, there won't be any left for Nanami.



Here's a shot of the graveyard, just for fun. We grab the key and head to Arthur's house.
(Also I messed up my screenshots and the next batch all had to be cropped, which also made
them a little blurry. Please understand.)



Next stop, Egg Corridor! This little bit of text irks me for an extremely nitpicky reason. Basil
down there does 100 damage, which is enough to kill you no matter how many Life Capsules
you find, but that's not the deadliest attack in the game! The giant scary spikes do 128
damage, making them approximately 28% deadlier.

Although one could argue that both attacks are 100% deadly, so in fact there's no difference. BUT I STILL DON'T LIKE IT.




We catch up to Sue, who loses her confrontation with Igor once again. Curly doesn't have
anything to say about the situation, so let's move on.





Ha ha, that's such a great reply.

We school Igor and head inside to see how Sue is doing. The conversation plays out pretty
much the same as before, at least until Sue turns to leave the room.





We head back to Arthur's house. Meanwhile, Sue is chatting away with Kazuma.



There's nothing particularly interesting about this version of their conversation, but there's
something about this one line that I find pleasing.



Where now?? Of all the sins that the Nicalis translation commits, eliminating Grasstown from
the game is maybe the one that stings the most. Some people will never know it was ever
called Grasstown! My...my son thinks it's called Bushlands.

I've failed as a father. D:



Of course, before we get back to the house, King comes a-knocking.



Sue's exit is not a graceful one.



This line is actually kind of awkward in the original translation, too. This might even be an
improvement? Anyway, let's go talk to Sue.

Sue asks Curly for a favor (I forgot to screencap that specific line, oops).





aaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh



Anyway, here's Santa.



We go grab the key and Santa invites us in for presents, but first we take a detour to
go talk with the other Cthulhu up above.



I really like that Curly makes no effort to distinguish between this Cthulhu and the one in the
Egg Corridor. He doesn't have anything interesting to say, so we grab the Fireball from Santa
and head out into Grasstown. Because that's what it's called.



Let's just take a quick rest before we head back out...



Chako don't discriminate, she'll get down with any fine-lookin' robot who comes her way.



Here's a shot of one of my favorite spots in the game for sheer chaos.



We've got the juice! And now that we have it, we can go back to the Mimiga Village to pick
up the Bubbler!

Except that we totally won't, because the Bubbler kinda sucks. I mean, it's really neat and
fun, but as a weapon it's basically dead weight. We've got some very tough fights ahead of us
and I'd rather not have the Bubbler cluttering up my inventory because, no joke, it makes it
harder to remember how many times to push the "change weapon" button to go from one
(useful) weapon to another. Sorry, Bubbler!

We do grab the charcoal from Santa's fireplace, though.



Uuugggghhhh. Let's move on.



We poof a couple of ghost cacti...



...before finding Kazuma in his shelter. He gives us the key to open the door.



But of course, there's still no keyhole here. We head back to break the news to him.



Real talk, I love that last part of Kazuma's reaction. A point to House Nicalis!



Clearly, our next step is to go pay our good buddy MALCO a visit. Sadly, in this version of
the game he has been downgraded and is no longer an acronym.



Oh no.

Just what the script needed, a bit of casual sexism! -10 points to House Nicalis.

Of course, Balrog still doesn't present too much of a challenge. Shortly:



One of the rare instances where the exact same line is used by both translations (although
with more punctuation here, naturally).







Thankfully, old Mal is as enthusiastic as ever.



I find it very hard to read this as anything other than extreme sarcasm on Kazuma's part.



Sometimes Curly will say things that would have been narrated in a regular playthrough, as
in this case.



This mid-tier Mimiga still doesn't put up much of a fight, however.



Kaboom! It's bedlam!



Here's a shot of the hi-res Jumbo Jelly.



We make our way allllllll the way back to the right to the Gum warehouse.



At this point, Balrog shows up again.



We take care of this amphibian without much hassle, then bring the materials back to MALCO.



MALCO'S reaction here is totally fine, but the AG translation's version was delightful, so it's
still kind of a step down. We've no time to gripe, though, so we grab the bomb, take it over to
the shelter and...



I like that Kazuma retains his more low-key personality. Concretely, that translates into less
punctuation abuse than you get from most of the characters in Cave Story+.



Before that happens, Booster teleports in.

Booster comes over to stare blankly at Curly...



...and Curly responds in kind.



So this dialogue is totally OK, right? Right. Just wanted to show you that it's not a non-stop
trash fire. There are a few egregious spots, but for the most part it gets the job done. Although
I'll admit that "commenced snatching" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Anyway, we head outside to where the hoverbike is waiting.



I find it interesting that Kazuma and Sue are a lot less deferential towards Booster in this
version of the game. Anybody know what kind of honorifics were used in the original Japanese?



Back at the Mimiga Village, I'm starting to wonder why I ever bother defending this translation.



That's kind of a strange way to put it, but I also find this line pretty memorable, so.



Oh King. Oh buddy.

I'm getting tired of transcribing dialogue and the next scene is pretty chatty, so let's call it a
day for now. The keen-eyed among you will notice that we haven't taken any steps yet toward
saving Curly Brace that one guy - and we probably won't next time, either! We won't start down
that path for a little while yet, but don't worry, I'll find a few new things to show you as we
continue our journey into the Sand Zone. Please look forward to it next time on Let's Play
Cave Story(+)! Oh yeaaah!! No we are not doing that. Huzzah!

Were they deliberately evoking the Kool-Aid Man?

Maaaaan you're such a tease! But exploring every corner of Cave Story is a worthwhile task, so I'm excited for wherever we go next with this.

And I'll say that I can deal with the Nicalis translation if it means I get to play that beautiful high-res version on my Switcheroo.

They absolutely have to be, I think.

Especially given that it happens right as he bursts through a wall door, yes, I'm pretty sure it's a reference. Can't find any official confirmation on the internet, but who'd ever want to admit to that anyway?

Yay glad to see new content, MCBanjoMike!

AW YEAH CAVE STORY'S BACK

Chapter 12: Catching Up

Part Two - Same same, but different

Welcome back to Let's Play Cave Story! We left off just as we returned from our trip to Bushlands
you know where. Kazuma and Booster materialize inside Arthur's house after their wild ride, only
to be greeted by Sue.





King shows up, followed shortly by Curly. This is the bit where we're supposed to talk to Sue
and get pointed toward the Sand Zone, but of course we're going to do a lap of the village first
to talk to some folks.



Curly doesn't have a cutesy comeback to this one, so let's go hear Jack's speech about Arthur again.



So I guess I read this wrong back when I first discovered it. I figured that Jack was talking about
SUPER SECRET FINAL BOSS, who lives in a room filled with bones, but in fact he seems to be
referring to the Red Ogre, who we'll be seeing in the Final Cave later on. Either way, props to
Arthur for taking care of the village, even if the enemy he went up against wasn't quite as scary
as I initially thought.

Anyway, time to transcribe a bunch of dialogue!





And we will! Thankfully, the place that we're going to still has its proper name, so I won't have
to tiptoe around that for the next section.

We teleport into the Sand Zone, where of course we see...



...our old protagonist! In this version of Curly Story, he is as talkative as ever, which is to say
he pretty much never talks. It's kind of cute, because Curly just speaks in his place, resulting in
conversations that can be pretty awkward. Except, in a good way for once.

We follow him up to the orphanage. As a cocktail nerd, I should point out that the sign over the
door no longer shows a triangular martini glass, but a more rounded glass filled with a bubbly
red liquid. Maybe they decided to add a bit of plausible deniability to the game for the commercial
release? It's not out of the question, considering the first place the game was ported to was a
Nintendo console. The whole thing's a little weird, because it's not like you see anyone drinking
in this place anyway.





He brandishes the machine gun against us, but we put him down pretty quickly.



This is probably the most ridiculous exchange in the game and I kind of love it. If you answer
in the affirmative...



You then have to go back and talk to him again to tell him that he DOESN'T think you want to kill
the kids. It's a very literal version of the saying "when I want you're opinion, I'll give it to you."

Returning to ask(?) the question again yields:

Of course we aren't going to, so this time we answer no.



BOOM, LATE TITLE CARD

You don't have to describe something as so-called when you immediately explain the thing in
plain language! "Huh, it's getting cloudy. Better watch out for so-called water droplets falling
from the sky!"



You know, I'm sure this guy already feels bad enough about losing all his memories, maybe don't
guilt him over a theoretical mass slaughter of innocent bunny people.



Oh hell naw! The Machine Gun is a fine weapon, but holding on to the Polar Star opens up some
other possibilities for us, including one that is handily the best weapon in the game. So we'll
keep the pea shooter for now, even if that will lead to some gameplay consequences shortly.
Refusing the offer(?) leads to another entertaining bit of conversational nonsense:

You sure can, Curly. You sure can.



Our next task is to go find Jenka, so we pick up her pup before heading out. The names for the
dogs are the same as before, but the descriptions have been rewritten. This one is Hajime.

Jenka's pet dog and leader of the bunch.

While we're here, let's go check on the secret item stashed in the walls...



Nothing is different about these, but it makes even less sense for them to be here in this version
of the game, since Curly hasn't been living here. Unless the robot dude and robot lady were getting
up to something before they lost their memories? Nah, that couldn't be true, the internet would
have told me if that sort of thing were possible.

Note that finding these on a normal playthrough is apparently the way that you unlock Curly
Story in the Nicalis ports of Cave Story. So you have to be a creepazoid if you want to play the
game from her point of view. Thanks, video games.

To get to Jenka, we have to unseal the Sun Stones. So we head off to the right, where we find...



...a really bad translation! Guys, the word you're looking for is "again". Say it with me. "Again."

Yes, it's true. I have spirit, how about you?





Curly is always ready to rumble.

It's a minor thing, but tacking the "bye now" onto the end of the previous sentence makes it
sound like Misery is speaking hurriedly, which doesn't really fit with her character.



Anyway, here's Omega. This is still a pretty easy fight. We finish it off and head back to the left.



AAAAAAAAH! SANDCROC!



OH COME ON.

Significantly worse for wear, we make it to Jenka's house.



There are still a few conversations where the NPCs hold up both ends, like in this one. I'm not
sure why they didn't have Curly ask a question about the flowers here. Honestly, she doesn't
talk all that much for the most part, just one or two interjections during most conversations.
It's probably for the best, as her brand of oblivious enthusiasm is best enjoyed in small doses
(and it would seriously undercut some of the more somber story beats if overused).



Oh for the love of-

I'm pretty sure Jenka and Balrog aren't biologically related. She's more of a family friend.
Also note that this translation is blunter than AG's, where Misery was Jenka's "halfwit of a
daughter". Keep it classy, Nicalis.

That combination of dialogue, expression and punctation just doesn't sit right with me.

Well, I do love a good pupper chase. Let's go!



This time, I head to the spooky house first.



Yeah, you know. A few pounds lighter, we recover Shinobu.

Another of Jenka's lovable puppies. This poor one suffers from bad vision so he sticks to dark places.

Anyway, the reason I went for Shinobu first was...



...to see if it changed Jenka's reaction. There's a pupper right outside of her house, so 9 times
out of 10 that's the one I grab first. The round trip takes about 30 seconds, so I was wondering
if her reaction was based on how quickly you came back with another dog. It is not!



Next we rescue Kakeru, not that he seems to be in any hurry to come with us. Dangit, hold still!

Best with a bone, Jenka's pet hides so many bones in so many places it's hard to keep track of them.

Best with a bone? Like, does he use one as a tool, or a weapon? Or is this a suggestion as to
how we should cook him??



There's nothing particularly noteworthy about Jenka's history lessons in this version of the game,
but it's some pretty important text, so I've been transcribing it to give you a feel for how Nicalis
treats these chunks of the backstory. It's fine... for the most part... I'd say...



We go grab the closest dog, who is Mick.

Jenka's pet and an adept treasure hunter who loves chests. He LOVES sleeping inside any chest
he can find.



Guess again, grandma! Curly is many things, and troublemaker is probably foremost among them.



Finally, Curly says something to Jenka.





So you remember how we didn't take the machine gun earlier? Well guess what - now we have
to actually platform our way across this area to get to the flower warehouse.



There are some reasonably tricky jumps, and falling down anywhere means going all the way
back to the left to start over. I've cleared out all the parrots and croc skulls, otherwise this
would be pretty dicey.



When you finally make it to the warehouse, you still have to carefully jump across these blocks
to reach Nene.

A beautiful dog that belongs to Jenka. This one dreams the days away with long, long naps.

Hauling her back is easier, at least, since we're mostly going downhill this time and slipping off
a platform doesn't necessitate any backtracking. Of course, we're going to have to come back
here in just a minute...



Balrog does not wait.



This is how they translated Nene's whine and I can't decide if it's adorable or terrible. Adorrible?

Well, now we have to hoof it allllllllll the way back to the warehouse. It's times like these that
I really miss that machine gun.





So do you remember this bit from last time? In the AG translation, Misery asks the Doctor if he
would like her to eat a flower, whereas now she's offering it to him instead. This version makes
it seem like she's trying to trick him, whereas in the original she seems completely subservient.
I don't know how the original Japanese dialogue reads, but it's an interesting distinction.

Anyway, the Doctor suggests testing the flowers on a Mimiga, so Toroko is summoned again.



King busts in to save the day, but once again...



...he's too late. Sorry to anyone who thought getting the good ending might result in a better
outcome for Toroko and King, because it totally doesn't. Even the happy version of Cave Story
is still pretty sad at times.

Once again, King charges in and gets zapped by Misery. There's an old saying kings and missing,
which Misery clearly took to heart. King crashes to the ground just as we arrive on the scene.





The Rabid Toroko fight is the same as before, but this time I handle it much more gracefully.
So you can add "really good at killing innocent, adorable bunnies" to my resume now.



King hands over the Blade before checking out.

A one-hit projectile. It contains the spirit of King.



SON OF A--



I'll admit, I kind of like the way Misery expresses her exasperation in this translation, it's almost
palpable. Also, did I point out that her portrait hair color now matches her sprite hair color? I think
that might have gotten lost in all the complaining when she first showed up back at the village.

Misery zaps us both away.



Here's another spot where the slightly looser translation by Nicalis is a little better than AG's.
Misery's delight at ridding herself of Balrog is infectious. Heck, I'm almost looking forward to
being stuck in the Labyrinth now! But we'll save that for another day, I'm all tuckered out from
transcribing all this dialogue. Next time on Let's Play Cave Story: something actually new!
And we might just start saving Curly Brace, too! Huzzah!

I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE ARTHUR WENT TOE-TO-TOE WITH [SUPER SPOILER SECRET].

MY MIND WILL NOT BE CHANGED ON THIS MATTER.

Nicalis' choice to lock Curly Story to her fucking panties still ruffles my feathers. And I had hoped that they would have swapped them for Quote's boxers or something, but nope, guess not.

(PS I am otherwise adoring this LP so much)

I didn't know they did that, I just thought that it was something unlocked by default, or by beating the game or something.

Nicalis, stop being bad.

For what it's worth, I THINK curly mode is available from the start in the switch version.

I can also confirm that the switch version features dog stacking.

Running around with a pile of dogs five high is WONDERFUL even if 30 bucks is a little much to ask for a game that's been free for 13 years.

It's not, and the manual has a little hint at how to unlock her (it's the same as has been discussed)

This means that I'm so used to stealing Curly's underwear that I don't even realize I'm doing it.

I'm not proud.

Well I mean they're right there. What are you gonna do, not take them?

Who among us has not stolen a female robot's underwear?

...

I've said too much.

Oh hello there, good readers! It's time for more Let's Play Cave Story, so pour yourself a
glass of Jellyfish Juice, pull up by Chako's fire and let's--



Well ho-ho-hold on a second! It looks like we've stumbled onto another holiday-themed
reskin of our favorite game! That's right, it's time for an...

Interlude: Winter Wonderland

If you should fire up Cave Story+ between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, you will be
treated to this extemely cheery overhaul of the game's graphics. It isn't quite as decadent
as the Halloween sprite swap, but it's still pretty thorough.

If we're being completely honest, I wasn't looking forward to doing this update for the simple
reason that I'm getting super tired of playing the first half of this game over and over and
over again. But then I remembered something: I still have my save from the Halloween update!
It's a Festivus Miracle! So I picked this up from there, which is doubly nice because a few of
the teleporter destinations have already been unlocked in this save, meaning we can do a
quick tour of the different locations. Also, if this is anything like the Halloween sprite set,
playing as Curly would have resulted in a bunch of graphical glitches. So we'll be sticking
with Rudolph for today.

Anyway, let's go see what's new in the wintery world of Cave Story!



To start with, pretty much every single portrait has been redone (with a handful of exceptions).
Here's King rocking a holiday wreath.



Sue is looking seasonal in this lovely red and white number.



I cut him off mid-sentence, but Booster is simply adorable as one of Santa's elves.



Stepping outside, we can see that the whole village has gotten the festive treatment. I really
like the abundance of Christmas lights.



Mahin's a snowman!



Jack is...Jack. They cut a few corners this time around, so not everyone gets a makeover. The
stockings and garlands by the fireplace are a nice touch, though.



What a heartwarming graveyard!



Kanpachi is fishing with a candy cane, and Chinfish seems to have a bit of mistletoe suspended
from its hat?



We zip over to the Egg Corridor, but sadly not much here has changed. The little blue robot
has turned into a little white snowman, but that's about it.



Some of the drops from the enemies are different, though! The weapon triangles are now bells
(which is really hard to discern when they're in motion) and the missiles have been gift-wrapped.
Aww.



Heading over to Snowtown, we see that Cthulhu is getting into the spirit of things.



Santa is wearing the same getup that he had back in October, although I guess it's hard to
fault him. Also, I'd never seen this bit of dialogue before - this is post hovercycle crash.



Sadly, the enemies are mostly unchanged. Not quite sure how you make a flying jellyfish
Christmassy, but I would have liked to see them try.



Chako seems to have a wreath or a necklace of some kind around her neck. And is that a sprig
of holly in her hair?



It's easy to miss, but when you leave a building, you can briefly glimpse a bit of mistletoe
hanging from the doorway. At first I thought this only happened in Chako's house (for obvious
reasons), but later I realized it was pretty much everywhere.



Next stop: Snow Zone! Curly is wearing a pretty straighforward Santa getup.



I brought up the change to the cocktail glass in my last post without actually showing it, so
consider this apology screenshot to be my GIFT to you all.



The colons all have little reindeer antlers!



So do the puppies! They're also a different color, for some reason. I also really appreciate the
morbid touch of adding Santa hats to the skulls in the Sandcroc pits.



You might even call it



vv



CHRISTMAS SPIRIT.



Omega is vaguely snow-themed now.

Jenka is rocking a nice candy cane, but her portrait is unchanged. Seems like a missed
opportunity to me, she would have made a pretty killer Mrs. Claus. Then again, like 40%
of the characters are dressed as some variation on Santa - I think they had more trouble
coming up with holiday costume ideas than they did for Halloween.



Here's Balrog! Not much to his costume, just a few ribbons in the right places.



I like that Shinobu's house is all decked out in Christmas lights. Also, you will notice that I
picked him up without getting bitten by the croc for once. It's another Festivus Miracle!



The hidden passage paw prints have been replaced by wreaths and the treasure chests are, of
course, presents waiting to be unwrapped.



Not really related the holiday theme, but there's a little difference in what the dogs say in Cave
Story+ that I thought was cute. In the AG translation, the first three say "Arf!", "Arf arf!" and
"Arf arf arf!" respectively, while the fourth inexplicably says "Booop." In this version, each one
speaks once more than the last, but the responses vary between arfs, bow wow wows, and woofs.
I can't be more specific, because I managed to screw up the timing of my screengrabs and I
didn't get the first couple.



The birds and bones don't get a reskin, but the missile bundles are cute.



Doc, it's pretty hard to take you seriously with that box on your head.



Toroko has traded in her puffy green jacket for this more seasonal one.



Hmm, maybe a little disturbing to mix the Christmas tree jacket with the evil eyes?



Rabid Toroko keeps the jacket, which is a nice touch. It makes me wonder what they did with
Balfrog, but alas, he was already out of the picture when I started playing this version of
the game.



Again, not related to the holiday themed stuff, but I find it interesting that Misery responds
differently when you aren't playing as Curly. She seems a lot less flustered, for some reason.



Misery is feeling extra jolly!



Not much to see in Labyrinth I, just some more of the robo snowmen.



The Gaudi are all set for winter in their stylish candy cane scarves, however.



The physician (not to be confused with The Doctor) and the nurse (I'm a nurse!) are all kitted out.
Since I was replaying this part for the umpteenth time, I decided to perform an experiment by
NOT giving the Cure-All to the physician. What do you think will happen?



The cat tank is looking very festive! I can only imagine the extra humiliation for new players of
the game as they get completely stomped by this delightful thing.



Even Monster X is getting into the spirit! Apologies for not getting a perfectly clean screenshot,
but I think a cat in an argyle sweater makes up for a lot.



Finally, we make it to the Boulder Chamber. And guess what - no Curly! Yup, she's still sick in
bed, waiting for me to hand over the medicine before (presumably) sprinting all the way here to
arrive before us.

Well kids, that's going to be it for this update. Like the frog says, if you want any more, you can
sing it yourself. And why not give this version of the game a try, too? It'll fill the time until the
next update, which probably won't arrive until some time in January. Ho ho huzzah!

... one of the only characters who didn't dress up for Christmas...

... is the one named Santa.