On the issue of price, he explained that"the prospect of Amaya finally earning a little something for the hard work he invested in this masterpiece strikes meas satisfyingly poetic" and "absolutely worth your money".
He also remarked that the Classic controller and Wii Remote are superior to the keyboard input of the PC original. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com commended the graphical update, which "sacrifices none of classic-influenced charm".
The WiiWare version has received mostly positive reviews, with the central criticism being the 1200 Wii Point price tag (US$12,£10), after years of free play. In July 2006, Cave Story earned 1st place in Super PLAY's list of the 50 best freeware games of all time. He also compares the game design to that of Shigeru Miyamoto in its ability to teach without tutorials, like at the beginning of Super Mario Bros. Jonathan Holmes of Destructoid called Cave Storyan "important game", observing its influence on artistic indie games like Braid, as well as the continued relevance of 2D game design(cf.Capcom's Mega Man 9). Electronic Gaming Monthly stated that "the burgeoning Western indie game scene owes a tremendous debt to Japanese pioneers like Studio Pixel, whose freeware hit Cave Story proved that with sufficient vision, skill, and passion, a single developer can still craft a deep, compelling action game". Inside Mac Games ascribed the game's popularity to its "polished feel, engaging storyline, and compelling artwork". The original Cave Storyearned widespread critical described it as "so massive that it rivals modern Castlevania and Metroid games in terms of scope and play time".Matt Miller of Game Informer observed thatCave Story combines elements ofMetroid,Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man,The Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania into an "engrossing, challenging, and quite lengthy" whole. And it makes Cave Story’s achievement even more impressive. It was very hard to get people to know your game. Just imagine! There was no Twitter, YouTube, Twitch these days. He just quietly released his game and it was later discovered by lots of gamers getting its popularity because of its greatness.
Indie developers spend lots of time today trying to get as much people as possible to know about their game using social networks.