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[[File:Cave_Story_1.jpg|frame|[[Cave Story/Characters|Meet the cast.]]]]
{{quote|''Cave Story is a jumping-and-shooting action game.''
''Explore the caves until you reach the ending.''
''You can also save your game and continue from where you left off.''
|Author's description of the game}}
{{quote|''This description is so humble that it borders on parody. Play now, laugh later.''|[http://shii.org/pixel/ Studio Pixel Fan Page]}}
[[You Wake Up in a Room|You wake up in a cave
[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Well, it's aptly named
'''''Cave Story''''' is a freeware [[Metroidvania]] game by Daisuke Amaya
This game was created entirely by one man in his spare time. Daisuke Amaya wrote the scenario, drew the artwork and scenery, animated the sprites, designed all of the levels, composed all of the music, and programmed the entire game engine, all by himself over the course of ''five years''.
Its breeding ground on the English-speaking Internet is [https://web.archive.org/web/20070831064801/http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/ here]. There have been many ports. There's a Mac OS X port available [http://www.wctc.net/~luvmimac/cavestory/ here], and a Linux port available [http://www.cavestory.org/downloads_1.php here]. A port to the original Xbox also exists, as well as a [https://web.archive.org/web/20130612155426/http://dl.qj.net/psp/homebrew-games/cave-story-psp-rc1.html PSP port, here] (requires custom firmware). There has also been ports to several other obscure systems and platforms, among them Haiku OS, AROS, [[Amiga|AmigaOS]] 4, [[Sega Genesis]], GP2X, GP2X Wiz, and the TI graphing calculator.
Also, it
Daisuke has confirmed that a sequel is
{{tropelist}}
* [[Accidental Pervert]]: The hero after finding his partner's panties, even more 'cause they have no use and just lay there in the inventory; {{spoiler|however, they unlock the owner of those panties as a playable character in the Plus version}}.
* [[Action Girl]]: Curly Brace. She's never incompetent in combat (in [[Fighting Your Friend|either]] [[Back-to-Back Badasses|sense]]). Even though she is defeated off-screen, the main character didn't fare much better [[Worf Effect|against the same foe]] on his first attempt.
* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: Misery's portrait is no longer green in the 3DS remake, much like her actual sprite.
* [[Aerith and Bob]]: The more important Mimiga have western names (Jack, King, Arthur, Igor, etc
* [[Affably Evil]]: {{spoiler|Balrog and Misery, especially in the best ending
* [[Alas, Poor Villain]]: {{spoiler|When the island crashes}}, the ending cutscene features a slow pan over the different areas over the island accompanied by slow music, featuring all the creatures who were trying to kill you, {{spoiler|as well as Curly's dead body in the Core}}. Some of the monsters, such as the Hoppers, are even cute. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice job killing them all, hero]].
** {{spoiler|This is, however, avoidable if you go through the [[Bonus Level of Hell]]}}.
* [[All Myths Are True]]: You're told that a Mimiga that eats a red flower apparently dies shortly thereafter. What ''actually'' happens is worse. [[Deadly Upgrade|Much worse]].
** {{spoiler|Remember the red flowers you see in Arthur's house, in the bottom righthand corner? Guess what probably happened to him. Plus, when you get attacked OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE}}.
* [[All There in the Manual]]: The names of many [[NPC]]s and enemies are only given in the end credits. The writing on the player character's hat (only mentioned once, by someone who doesn't understand what it says) is revealed in [https://web.archive.org/web/20141015051048/http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/info_9.php Pixel's artwork from the Beta version of the game]. And even then it doesn't seem to have an explanation. ''And that's all there is''—in spite of many clues hinting at a large, interconnected backstory, Pixel has said of everything beyond what's shown in the game: [[Shrug of God|"It is up to the player to decide."]]
* [[Almost-Dead Guy]]: The robot in the {{spoiler|Core}} chamber.
* [[Always Check Behind the Chair]]: Always Check The Map For Passages. In ''Cave Story 3D'', this map is handily always shown on the bottom screen after you get it.
* [[Ambidextrous Sprite]]: Averted with {{spoiler|Ballos}}, whose [[Mismatched Eyes|right eye is (almost) always red while his left eye is always white]]. Malco does fall for this trope though.
* [[American Kirby Is Hardcore]]: Inverted. The Japanese version of ''Cave Story 3D'''s artwork is a lot less "hardcore" and more cutsey than the North American version, which came first.
* [[Amnesiac Dissonance]]: {{spoiler|Subverted! Quote and Curly ''think'' they're robots from a past war who helped kill off the Mimigas, and their amnesia has shifted their allegiance. However, when Curly's memory returns, she remembers that their mission was to destroy the Crown; and that they didn't kill any Mimigas
* [[And I Must Scream]]: The [[True Final Boss]]. {{spoiler|Ballos. Lost control of his magic powers under torture, had to watch himself kill and destroy everything he loved, entombed inside a floating island for god-knows-how-long}}...
* [[Another Side, Another Story]]: The [[Wii Ware]] version lets you earn Curly Story, in which you play as Curly Brace and instead encounter Mr. Traveler throughout the game.
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: If you haven't played the game yet, be warned that it's not as cute and innocent as it looks in the first place.
* [[Apocalypse How]]: [[Sugar Apocalypse|Never explicitly spelled out
* [[Arbitrary Gun Power]]
* [[Arc Words]]: "The surface",
* [[Artifact of Doom]]: The Demon Crown.
* [[Art Major Biology]]: As pointed out by the author of a walkthrough, the "Jellyfish Juice
* [[Assassin Outclassin']]: Balrog clumsily attempts to ambush Mr.
* [[Asteroids Monster]]: In the Sand Zone.
* [[Attack Its Weak Point]]: All of the game's nastiest bosses also happen to only be vulnerable by shooting them in the face/mouth/eyes during a specific part of their attack pattern, always the part where they are spamming a ridiculous number of bullets onto the screen. Always. [[Captain Obvious|Of course, this is]] ''[[Captain Obvious|why]]'' [[Captain Obvious|they're the game's nastiest bosses]]. Also, {{spoiler|Ballos's second and third forms}}, though they don't disappear at any point.
* [[Back-to-Back Badasses]]: Curly gets strapped to your back when raiding the [[Bonus Level of Hell]].
* [[Badass]]: Quite a few characters (specifics below), but the most noticeable being King {{spoiler|due to the fact that he takes out Balrog, a recurring midboss that's relatively tough against Quote, in a single hit in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]}}.
** {{spoiler|And even after he dies, he still kicks plenty of ass. If you level up his Blade weapon to Level 3, Quote instead throws ''King's ghost'' at enemies while he slashes away at everything}}.
* [[Badass Adorable]]:
** "Mr. Traveler"/{{spoiler|Quote}} and Curly. Heck, due to the art style, nearly all the badasses are like this, but those two really take the cake.
*** Monster X could qualify for this trope, once you see its defeated form.
* [[Bait and Switch Boss]]: After [[Robot Buddy|Malco]] is reactivated, he declares you a threat and then
** [[The Dragon|Misery]] is subject to this a LOT of times, but instead of her being upstaged, she just can't be bothered to fight you. Misery is very resourceful, and loves using resources on-hand to kill you. This includes
* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: Sue and Itoh, {{spoiler|humans whom Misery transformed into Mimiga}}. Then right before the final boss battle, the Doctor transforms {{spoiler|Sue and Misery}} into monsters to fight alongside him.
** Also Misery turning Balrog into Balfrog.
* [[Ballistic Bone]]: Some skull-type enemies shoot them. As well, you fight the [[True Final Boss]] of the game on a floor made of bones. In the first two parts of the fight, he frequently performs a [[Ground Pound]] which sends out a shock wave of bones capable of hurting you. In the third part of the fight, he drops flaming skulls on you.
* [[
* [[Battle Couple]]: {{spoiler|Curly Brace}} and {{spoiler|Mister Traveler/Quote}}.
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]:
*
** Also {{spoiler|averted in the Sand Zone: King arrives too late to save Toroko
* [[Big Entrance]]: In Balrog's first appearance, there's an ominous pounding on a door, then he smashes down the door and the wall around it, shouting (depending on the translation) either "Huzzah!" or "Oh yeah!".
* [[Big Ol' Eyebrows]]: Santa sports them in the high-resolution graphics.
* [[Black Bead Eyes]]
* [[Bleak Level]]: Mimiga Village, specifically when you return there after escaping the Labyrinth.
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** The plus version changed it to yrotS evaC.
** "It's running!"
* [[Blown Across the Room]]: King {{spoiler|in the Sand Zone, when he attempts to kill the Doctor
* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]: Balrog. [[Catch Phrase|Huzzah!]]
* [[Bonus Boss]]:
** At the end of the [[Bonus Level of Hell]].
** Wind Fortress introduces a new one
* [[Bonus Feature Failure]]: Curly mode in the WiiWare version simply changes some dialogue and the places of the main character and Curly, and Sanctuary Time Attack denies you of missiles. To be fair, Time Attack lets you use both the blade and the Nemesis, which is more than a fair trade in B3.
* [[Boss Arena Recovery]]: Due to how the game's weapon energy system works<ref>Weapons have [[Level Up|levels]]. Most defeated enemies drop energy crystals, which can -- similarly to experience points -- be picked up to level up the currently selected weapon, but if you get hit, the current weapon loses energy and, if no energy is left, is delevelled.</ref>, most '''''Cave Story''''' bosses are [[Mook Maker]]s, [[Flunky Boss]]es or have item-dropping projectiles to allow you taking the drops.
* [[Boss Corridor]]: The outdoor bridge to Ballos' room.
* [[Boss Rush]]: The endgame has you fight against {{spoiler|Misery, The Doctor and his super-powered form, and then, the Undead Core, Possesed Sue and Possesed Misery at the same time}}, without any kind of checkpoint and limited ways to heal yourself (namely, [[Mook]] [[Boss Arena Recovery|drops]] and help from a certain purple Mimiga). After the endgame, {{spoiler|if you have the [[Guide Dang It|Booster 2.0 and Iron Bond in your inventory]]}}, you can {{spoiler|enter the Prefab House before leaving the island to}} find the entrance to the [[Bonus Level of Hell]]. At the end, you fight two more bosses in a [[True Final Boss]] Rush: {{spoiler|the [[King Mook|Heavy]] [[Kaizo Trap|Press]] and [[Marathon Boss|Ballos]]}}. The {{spoiler|Heavy Press}} has one form and will kill you in one hit if you do not get to the side of the room after defeating it. {{spoiler|Ballos}} has ''three'' health bars. And before you can even damage the third health bar, you need to attack eight little rock things surrounding him. That makes for a total of five parts to the fight. Oh, and healing? The {{spoiler|Heavy Press}} infinitely spawns [[Mooks]] so you can heal, but said [[Mooks]] are [[Goddamned Bats|Goddamed Butes]]. Plus, you need to deal with the [[Invincible Minor Minion|Rollings]]. Then, the healing you get in between the two bosses is a [[Luck-Based Mission]]. Healing during {{spoiler|Ballos}} is a borderline [[Suicide Mission]]. Dying will send you back to the nearest used save point, ''way'' back at the very entrance. Have fun. The Wiiware version and ''Cave Story+'' has a more traditional [[Boss Rush]] as an unlockable.
* [[Brutal Bonus Level]]: Although its official name is "Sacred Grounds" (or "Sanctuary"), a sign hidden near the entrance clearly says "Welcome to Hell!". And the ''angels'' turn into demons when they die and drop the illusion entirely when they surround the [[Bonus Boss]]. Wind Fortress is ''harder''.
* [[Bullfight Boss]]: Balrog is a ridiculously weak version, Monster X quite a threatening one. The Muscle Doctor as well.
* [[But Thou Must!]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|If you save Curly, then go to the mushroom to get his cure for her amnesia}}, he will say, "But in reality, you don't really want this, right?". Upon answering no, he'll say, "You really want it that bad?". Answer yes, and he says, "Are you sure you want it?". Answer yes, and he says, "But in reality, you don't really want this, right?". Answer no, and he'll finally give the Mushroom badge. {{spoiler|It really ''isn't'' what you want, although you still have to get it to get what you do want}}.
** Averted during the very first boss fight. Balrog asks if you want to fight him with that "pea shooter of yours". If you say no, he'll leave.
** Also played straight at a couple points.
* [[Cameo]]:
** [[Swim Ikachan|Ironhead and Ikachan]] are characters from an earlier Pixel game. Artwork of the Prinnies has been released for the 3DS version, hinting in their inclusion. Which given [[Nippon Ichi]], this is to be expected. Subverted that they didn't, {{spoiler|although there is a Prinny hat}}.
** The protagonist {{spoiler|Quote}} and Curly Brace themselves cameo as fully-playable classes (if on opposing teams) in ''Gang Garrison 2''.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Some enemies are [[Shout-Out|shout-outs]] to classic videogames. For example, Sandcrocs appeared in a ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' game, and enemies looking like Basil were found in the ''[[Metroid]]'' series. Also, the Muscle Doctor looks a lot like the Cyclops summon from ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]''.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Balrog's "Huzzah!", which got changed to a Kool-Aid Man-style "OH YEAH!" in the [[Wii Ware]] version, and can be either/or in the ''Cave Story+'' version due to a mod that returns the original [[Fan Translation]]. In the original Japanese, it's just "Heeyyyy!".
* [[Cephalothorax]]: Critters and Balrog.
* [[Chain-Reaction Destruction]]: Bosses are likely to go down with that style.
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* [[Charged Attack]]: The Spur.
* [[Climax Boss]]: {{spoiler|The Core}}.
* [[Colony Drop]]: {{spoiler|What Ballos does in his final attempt to kill himself and stop his out of control magic. In the good ending, Curly and Quote kill him and stop the island
* [[Cool Bike]]: A rather nifty hoverbike can be found in the Grasslands. At least, until Kazuma takes a crack at riding it...
* [[Crosshair Aware]]: One of the [[Bonus Boss]]'s attacks.
* [[Cute'Em Up]]: The Nemesis fires rubber duckies. It's a wonder they don't heal the enemy.
* [[Cutscene]]s: Probably the only thing you'll hate about this game is the fact that these are unskippable, and you'll have to watch them every time you [[That One Boss|retry a boss battle]]. Though at least the [[Scrolling Text]] speeds up a bit on subsequent viewings or if you hold down the Jump or Fire button.
* [[Cutscene Incompetence]]:
** "KILLER ROBOT!"
** How about the player character standing right there, with a weapon in hand, while the first boss punches Sue's lights out?
***Or when Misery kidnaps Toroko?
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]:
** In most PC games, pressing the Escape key will pause the game and bring up a save/load/quit menu or some-such, and pressing Escape again will close the menu and send you back to the game. In '''''Cave Story''''', pressing Escape brings up the menu—and pressing Escape again ''quits the program without confirmation.'' Averted in Cave Story Plus, where you would be prompted to go to the main menu instead of quitting the game (and "No" is highlighted by default).
** Also, if you upgrade from the [[D Si]] ware version to the 3DS version, the programmers ''switched the jump and fire button'' for no apparent reason.
* [[
* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: {{spoiler|Ballos}}.
* [[Darkest Hour]]: The bit between the Iron Head fight and the Outer Wall. All your allies are either dead, kidnapped, injured and lost, or [[Despair Event Horizon|telling you that it's hopeless to keep fighting and that you should run away]]. The unexplained {{spoiler|destruction of the Egg Corridor}} (and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Zt8WJuhQY awesome music accompanying it]) certainly reinforces this.
* [[Dark Reprise]]: Compare the tempo and drumline of "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9ejJiSH2Y Mischevious Robot]" to that of "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Zt8WJuhQY Scorching Back]".
* [[Dark-Skinned Redhead|Dark Skinned Greenhead]]: {{spoiler|Sue as a human}}, as are all the Sakamotos. The Doctor falls under this one
* [[Death Seeker]]: {{spoiler|Ballos}}.
* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: For Toroko, Curly Brace
* [[Degraded Boss]]: Igor. He appears as a regular enemy at the Balcony. He's even more powerful than before, shooting more energy balls at once and having more HP. However, he never uses his punch attack, and you have more powerful weapons and more HP.
* [[Desert Skull]]: Sand Zone is full of bones... including [[Dem Bones|animated ones]].
* [[Destructible Projectiles]]: Many projectiles can be shot and drop hearts, energy crystals or ammo, allowing [[Boss Arena Recovery]].
* [[The Dev Team Thinks of
** If you beat the game with Mr. Little still in your inventory (i.e. without returning him home), then after the last cutscene, he interjects "...Aren't you forgetting something?!".
** It is possible to access the Last Cave without trading back the Mimiga Mask for your Booster jetpack. If you manage to make it ''through'' the Last Cave with the Mask instead of your jetpack, Misery will notice it when you fight her, and even the illustrations during the credits sequence will reflect your hero still wearing the mask.
** If you backtrack to earlier zones or proceed to Final Cave wearing the Mimiga Mask, you won't ever get stuck because you can traverse every zone without using the Booster {{spoiler|except for Final Cave (Hidden) and Sacred Grounds}}.
** If you try to take the sprinkler from the Mimiga Village (in order to deliver it to Momorin), you'll get the message ''"It's fixed firmly to the ground!"''.
** A small one
* [[Difficulty Spike]]: Things up to Plantation are relatively easy with save and refill points scattered around. However, Last Cave, especially if you're going for the best ending, ramps up the difficulty a lot. You do get a little breather at the Balcony (with its one save and healing point), before having to fight three bosses in a row with essentially no refills in between. This is not counting the [[Bonus Level of Hell]] and four-stage [[Bonus Boss]] that await you if you want to actually ''see'' the best ending....
* [[Disk One Nuke]]: If you remember {{spoiler|a certain fireplace}} at the beginning of the game, you can adquire the Bubbler quite early, and it is really useful all the way up to the endgame where you would obtain it if you didn't pay enough attention.
* [[Down the Drain]]: Waterway.
* [[Dracolich]]: {{spoiler|The eventual fate of some of the dragons in the Egg Corridor
* [[Dual Boss]]: The Sisters. And a trio boss, {{spoiler|Undead Core, with a mutated Misery and Sue}}.
* [[Dummied Out]]:
** There's a picture of
** One can also find the Beast Fang hidden under the [[Heart Container]] in the plantation area of Mimiga Town.
* [[Dying as Yourself]]: As if taking down Mimigas under the Red Flower's influence wasn't depressing enough, scripted battles with frenzied Mimigas (like Igor and {{spoiler|Toroko}}) end with them reverting to their normal selves right before expiring.
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: The path to the happy ending is far more hazardous than the path to the bittersweet one. If you're playing blind, you will ''not'' get the good ending on your first try unless you're clairvoyant because of some [[Guide Dang It]] moments.
* [[Easter Egg]]: An astounding number of them.
* [[Easy Mode Mockery]]: Picking easy mode will make the player character wear a yellow costume (as opposed to the normal Red), when this costume was first announced many [[Fan Dumb|fans]] cried out a lot, when they did not realize that there were various difficulty modes for the game. On the flip side of Hard Mode Badassery, picking Hard mode turns the player character into Male Curly Brace a.k.a. Beta Blue {{spoiler|Quote}}. This design is similar to the design used in the beta version of ''Cave Story'' (only differences are a lighter blue and Blond Hair with tan skin opposed to black hair and white skin) when the player character was named Curly Brace of said design; however, the name Curly Brace was transferred into the final female version of Curly Brace.
* [[Emergency Energy Tank]]: The Life Pot. You only get one over the whole game so you better make good use of it.
* [[Empathic Weapon]]: The Blade, at its maximum level, {{spoiler|summons King's spirit who slices and dices up anything near whatever it hits first}}.
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* [[Evil Albino]]: Misery.
* [[Evolving Weapon]]: Every weapon (except the Spur) changes slightly as it collects experience points, especially the Blade and the Bubbler.
* [[Eyes Always Shut]]: Kazuma. The Sky Dragon as well.
* [[Faux Action Girl]]: Sue. She's convinced that she's a fighter, and claims to never have lost in a fight with her brother ([[Non-Action Guy|which isn't saying much]]). In the first (of three) times that [[Damsel in Distress|you have to rescue her]], she grossly overestimates her fighting abilities, and [[Too Dumb to Live|grossly underestimates]] those of a frenzied Mimiga four times her size. ''[[What an Idiot!|In a fist fight]]''. [[Tsundere|Then she gets rather pissed if you admit that you rescued her]].
* [[Fetch Quest]]: Several, including [[Stealth Pun|puppies]].
* [[Fireballs]]: You can fire them
* [[Fission Mailed]]: After the fight against the first [[Load-Bearing Boss]], the room is flooded, leaving you trapped underwater with your [[Air Meter]] ticking down to [[Game Over|zero]].
* [[Flash of Pain]]
* [[Floating Continent]]: The cave you wake up in at the beginning of the game is part of an interconnected series of caves inside a floating island: the setting for the adventure.
** The game actually does a fairly good job of hiding the fact that the island's floating for quite some time. It's easy to assume that you're in an ''underground'' network of caves until the nature of the island is spelled out for you.
* [[Floating in A Bubble]]: Misery's (and the Doctor's)
* [[Flunky Boss]]: Many, many boss battles are of this type, primarily because your weapons lose experience points each time you take damage: destroy the flunkies, collect experience crystals, keep your weapons up to level.
** The battle with the Undead Core actually has two levels of this, as one of the flunkies is itself a [[Mook Maker]]. This is because, with the weapon level system, the game works better if there is almost always something you can shoot to get power crystals back if you get hurt. Most of the bosses which don't actually summon minions have projectiles which can be shot and drop powerups anyway.
** Special mention goes to {{spoiler|G-CLONE from the [[Secret Level]], Wind Fortress, in ''Cave Story Plus''. The battle consists of a stationary computer that does nothing but sporadically shoot bullets and send naked Curly clones to do most of its dirty work. Of course, you have to focus on attacking the computer to do damage}}.
* [[Foe-Tossing Charge]]: Mimigas (especially the ones mutated by the demon flowers) and Balrog love to do this.
* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: The Spur, and ''only'' when it is fired between Level 2 and 3. Firing it with a MAX charge unleashes a blast of [[Wave Motion Gun]] proportions.
* [[Fungus Humongous]]: Mimiga Graveyard.
* [[Funny Animal]]: The Mimigas.
* [[Furry Fandom]]: Oddly enough, most of the "art" out there is of Sue or [[Optional Sexual Encounter|a certain "purple rabbit"
* [[Game Mod]]: The original PC freeware version became (somewhat) easy to mod once the tools were developed. Also, Curly Mode in the Wii version is based off a well-known sprite hack for the PC version.
** A fan recently [[Fan Remake|recoded the entire engine from scratch]] and [http://nxengine.sourceforge.net/ released it open-source], opening up the door for even more advanced mods to be made.
* [[Gameplay Ally Immortality]]: When you tag-team with Curly deep in the Labyrinth, Curly takes no damage whatsoever from enemies or spikes. The same also applies in the [[Bonus Level of Hell]], with Curly strapped to the player's back.
* [[Giant Mook]]: Giant Pingon, Basu (Giant beetle), Large Power critter and Kulala (Giant Jellyfish).
* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]: Pooh Black, Monster X, Ironhead
* [[Glass Cannon]]: King. {{spoiler|He defeats Balrog in a single slash, but gets defeated himself with a single attack and bleeds out several minutes later. Considering that Misery's thunder blasted him across the room, you'd expect him to be at least very screwed
** Curly Brace, to a degree. In actual gameplay, she is [[Gameplay Ally Immortality|literally invincible]], but she has ''no'' [[Plot Armor]].
* [[Goldfish Poop Gang]]: [[Dark Chick|Misery]] and [[The Brute|Balrog]].
* [[Graphics Induced Super Deformed]]: Somewhat exacerbated by the color scheme of the protagonist's head, which, to the untrained eye, may appear as a sideburn, an eye
** This is even preserved with the 3D models of the 3DS remake.
* [[Great Offscreen War]]
* [[Green Hill Zone]]: Grasstown.
* [[Guest Star Party Member]]: Curly accompanies you like an [[Attack Drone]] throughout Labyrinth M. {{spoiler|If you save her life and restore her memory, she will rejoin you in Sacred Ground
* [[Guide Dang It]]:
** You will not get the best ending on your first playthrough. Accept this fact and enjoy the game.
** In short: go to the Balcony, {{spoiler|go to the bookshelf in the Prefab Building}}, and [[Face Palm|smack your forehead]].
** The Spur. Even if you DID reject the various replacements to the Polar Star, by the time you can access the area again, you may have either forgotten or not realized you could get back to that first area again.
** The Curly sidequest. Just to get the item that starts it, you have to ignore a very attention grabbing event that gives you an important item early right before a boss battle
** The [[Bonus Boss]]'s
* [[Hate Plague]]:
* [[Hat of Power]]: The Demon Crown, the source of the Doctor's power.
* [[Head Pet]]: The [[Fetch Quest]] to collect Jenka's dogs. [[Deceased Crab|"Puppyhat!"]]
* [[Healing Checkpoint]]: Most save points are accompanied by life refills or beds.
* [[Heartbeat Soundtrack]]: The song "Pulse".
* [[Heart Container]]: Although could be changed to Energy Tank, considering its appearance and the awesome ''Metroid''-style riff that plays when you pick it up.
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|Balrog, and Misery as well. Balrog reveals that she was the one who sent him to rescue you after you defeat Ballos
* [[Heli Critter]]: Flying Critters.
* [[Heroic Albino]]: Curly Brace and the protagonist. {{spoiler|Probably due to their robotic nature
** The Wiiware version [[Palette Swap]]s the protagonist if you play a difficulty level other than
* [[Heroic Mime]]: From context, it can be induced that the protagonist is speaking, but the player isn't privy to most of his lines.
** And in [[Another Side, Another Story|Curly Story]] mode, in the scene where the two meet, he is STILL a heroic mime, while Curly says what our hero presumably said originally. {{spoiler|Except when you force-feed him the Ma Pignon
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Quote'''}}: {{spoiler|Curly? It's me! Quote
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|After the fight with the Core, you drown. Curly gives you her oxygen tank to save you, drowning in your place. You do have a chance to save her, however. It's a remarkably sad moment if you fail to save her, and as you leave the room where she lies the door clangs ominously shut behind, while some of the game's saddest music plays
* [[He Was Right There All Along]]: Monster X and the Core are completely inert and harmless until the boss music kicks in.
* [[Holiday Mode]]: Playing on Christmas or Halloween in the [[Wii]] version will change your sprite.
** The [[Holiday Mode]] for the PC versions is frankly ''insane''. Nearly every asset in the game is altered, including the music, sprites, backgrounds, and enemies.
* [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]: "Humans can be terrible creatures indeed..." {{spoiler|Just to make it clear it was the jealousy of a king over Ballos that made him go under prison and, according the game, a very, ''very'', cruel torture leading him to insanity and making his magic go crazy
* [[I Cannot Self-Terminate]]: {{spoiler|Ballos}}.
* [[I'll Kill You!]]: {{spoiler|What King vows to the Doctor, just after finding that Toroko has been force-fed red flowers}}... Also what {{spoiler|Ballos says before fighting you}}.
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Ballos'''}} {{spoiler|Long, long have I waited... Waited for the one who would finally subdue my magic's fury. Now, kill me! Or I -- shall kill YOU}}!!}}
* [[Impossible Item Drop]]: Monsters of all kind tend to drop experience crystals, floating hearts and missiles.
* [[Incoming Ham]]: Everytime Balrog appe- '''HUZZAH!'''.
* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]: Balrog, again.
{{quote|"Are YOU even listening to ME?"}}
* [[Inexplicable Treasure Chests]]: There are treasure chests scattered all over the place, including inside a few monsters. Why they aren't opened already, is up to imagination. [[Fridge Logic|The most sentient creatures on the island, the Mimiga, seem to not have any opposable thumbs]] (though that may just be the 8-bit graphical style).
* [[Infant Immortality]]: The Mimiga children fighting you alongside Curly can't be killed or permanently disabled; shots only stun them for a period of time. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, Toroko was out of such luck, sadly foreshadowed by the death of Igor}}. {{spoiler|It's foreshadowed earlier than that, when you first meet Toroko in the shack. After she freaks out, you have to shoot her to calm her down}}. {{spoiler|Sue in the fight against the Undead Core. You can knock her down with sustained fire, and knock her out with enough damage, but she gets back up after the fight ends}}.
* [[Infinity+1 Sword]]: The Spur.
* [[Informed Ability]]: Supposedly, the Demon Crown is a magical artifact so powerful that entire armies have to be used to defeat any given wearer of it. The only powers we see the Doctor using with it in-game are teleportation and, er, floating.
** Of course, the reason the Crown's so powerful is that it allows one to [[Mind Control]]
* [[Interface Spoiler]]: The number of puppies you bring back is one more than the number that would fit between Jenka and the door.
* [[Invincible Minor Minion]]: Basil and Rolling.
* [[It Amused Me]]: Presumably the reason why Misery {{spoiler|also banished Balrog to the Labyrinth}}.
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Balrog, after you defeat him {{spoiler|and after you defeat Ballos}}.
** While he has the credentials, fans' affection for Balrog involves quite a bit of [[Draco in Leather Pants|ignoring his misdeeds]] considering he {{spoiler|gloatingly force-fed Toroko the red flowers; possibly the most horrifically palpable part of the game's [[Sugar Apocalypse]]. In his defense, he was forced to do it due to a curse, and the Demon Crown may have been inflicting [[More Than Mind Control]]
* [[Jump Physics]]: Really weird ones at that, but they're wonderfully intuitive. You more glide than jump. Which is what prevents some new players that are used to NES-style platformers from [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!|even leaving the first cave]].
* [[Kaizo Trap]]:
** {{spoiler|The Heavy Press boss in the final zone will fall through the floor after it's defeated. Better not be in the way when it does}}. It's fairly obvious if you've met a similar fate from its smaller brethren.
** Minor example: contact with Puu Black still damages you after it's defeated.
* [[Kill'Em All]]: {{spoiler|By the end of the regular ending, there are more dead supporting characters than live ones, not counting the ones presumed dead after the island crashes}}.
* [[Killer Rabbit]]: Mimigas dosed with the red flowers. Literally!
* [[Kill the Cutie]]: {{spoiler|Toroko, after [[Corrupt the Cutie|she is fed a red flower
* [[King Mook]]: The Heavy Press.
* [[Kleptomaniac Hero]]: At the beginning with the Polar Star and later with the Bubbler, and later on with {{spoiler|[[Kleptomaniac Hero, Found Underwear|Curly's panties]]}}.
* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: Some sources that refer to Cave Story apparently don't understand that the protagonist's name is supposed to be a spoiler, and therefore throw the name about regardless. {{spoiler|If you haven't read it already on this page, it's Quote
* [[Leitmotif]]: Balrog, the Doctor and {{spoiler|Ballos}} have them.
* [[Lethal Joke Weapon]]: The Nemesis. On its lowest power level, it fires devastating bolts at very high speed. But as it gets powered up, it gets weaker! On its highest setting? It shoots rubber duckies. To add insult to injury, to get it you have to trade a powerful weapon that has sentimental value to the player character. On the other hand, it's [[Lethal Joke Item|quite powerful]] as long as you DON'T power it up. Gets quite tricky when one crystal is enough to take it up a level, and you're paying attention to things other than the swarms of little bouncing triangles. Which is all the time.
** The Bubbler. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|It shoots bubbles]], producing four shots at
* [[Let's Meet the Meat]]: Ma Pignon doesn't want to be eaten. Thankfully, he's a complete prick about it, so most won't feel too bad about
* [[Let's Play]]: Several, by [[Deceased Crab]] among others.
* [[Let's You and Him Fight]]: Curly assumes you're there to kill the Mimigas, and attacks you before you have a chance to explain yourself.
* [[Level Map Display]]: There's a map item that can be acquired early and can be handy as it shows all hidden passages.
* [[Lift of Doom]]: Two are present in the Labyrinth: the first requires utilization of the hovering [[Jump Physics]] to avoid either death by spikes or death by falling platform; the second, arguably simpler lift comes immediately after, and only needs to be tricked into rising without you in its path.
** Also present when ascending to the Final Cave, though in a much more deadly fashion: watch out for those Presses!
* [[Like a Badass Out of Hell]]: Inversion. First, you fight your way through hell/the sacred grounds, then once you {{spoiler|kill Ballos
* [[Load-Bearing Boss]]: The Core. {{spoiler|When it is almost completely defeated, the villains swoop in and inform you that it's the only thing keeping the island airborne; they then zombify the Core to save the island. Near the end of the game, when the Doctor possesses the Undead Core, you're forced to destroy it for good, and the island begins falling. Then Ballos inverts this; since Ballos was the one pulling the island down, defeating him ''saves'' the island from destruction
* [[Lost Forever]]: Aside from the [[Mutually Exclusive Powerups]], there are several items that you only ever get one chance to collect. Most of them (such as the Tow Rope) are necessary only to get the best ending, while others (such as Chaco's lipstick and the Alien Badge) don't do anything and seem to only be there for the sake of [[100% Completion]]. Some of them actually ''say'' how they don't do anything.
**
* [[Low Level Advantage]]: The Nemesis actually ''weakens'' if you level it up. At Level 3, it shoots rubber ducks instead of lightning bolts. The Level 2 Blade can deal ''more'' damage than the Level 3 Blade if you [[Spam Attack|spam it]] [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|in your enemy's face]].
* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: There's a corridor in the
* [[MacGuffin]]: {{spoiler|The Demon Crown (before the game starts)}}, and the red flowers.
* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: Balrog uses this in one of the fights with him, and you can get a miniaturized one of your own via the level 3 Missile Launcher.
* [[Mad Doctor]]: The Doctor, natch.
* [[Magikarp Power]]: The very first weapon. You have two opportunities to trade or upgrade it into something better: if you refuse both of them, you can get it remodeled into the game's most useful gun... hey! [[Lost Forever|Why are you kicking yourself all of a sudden]]?
** The Bubbler, which at the first level shoots pathetically weak bubbles at short range. It upgrades to a moderately useful rapid-fire stream of bubbles, and upgrades again into an awesome all-rounder weapon which can hit at long range, shield you from enemies, and charge up for a hail of bullets.
** The Machine gun, one of the possible trades for the Polar Star, is nothing to get excited about when you first take it (although the damage output is better than the Polar Star, given the continuous fire). When fully upgraded, firing it downwards ''propels you into the air'', and you can use it as a limited form of ''flight''; later on, when you get an upgrade that speeds up your ammo recovery, you can stay airborne almost indefinitely. The downside is that if you get used to moving around like this, [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!|doing a run with the Snake or the Spur is so much harder]].
* [[Malevolent Architecture]]: Of course. And Chaco's fireplace as a passageway in Grasstown. And why does Santa have a deathtrap in his house?
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Misery sure loves making others... well, miserable.
** Throughout the game, Professor Booster provides you with special jetpacks called... Boosters.
* [[Metroidvania]]: Definitely influenced by this genre, but it's actually fairly linear with very few sidequests, and contains at least four distinct areas that don't obviously interact other than via teleporter
* [[Mismatched Eyes]]: Ballos.
* [[Missing Secret]]: In the inventory screen, there are six spaces for weapons, yet the most weapons you can have in the game at one time is five; this could probably be explained by saying that there was supposed to be another weapon originally, but it was [[Dummied Out]].
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* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate]]: The Doctor. Clearly, the Hippocratic Oath means nothing to him.
* [[Most Gamers Are Male]]:
** If you sleep in the bed of Chaco, at the right time, you'll get her lipstick and awake to see her sleeping in the same bed too. Note that this happens right after she asks you if you want to "go through" her "fireplace
** Later on, you can acquire {{spoiler|your new female partner's panties}}. They don't actually do anything
** In the WiiWare version's Curly Story mode, you can still pull off the Chaco's Lipstick easter egg. [[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot|Yeah
* [[Multiple Endings]]: Several characters may die or survive depending on your actions, and the results will be reflected in the cut-scene at the standard ending. It's even possible to get a [[Bad Ending]] by {{spoiler|accepting one character's offer to run away in the middle of the game
** One variation is beating the game while still wearing the Mimiga Mask. Misery comments about how ridiculous the character looks, and the end credit illustrations are tweaked to reflect the character wearing the mask.
* [[Mutually Exclusive Powerups]]: There are three possible upgrades to the Polar Star, your first weapon: the Machine Gun, the Snake
** If you can locate a certain NPC, he'll offer to exchange your King's Sword for his Nemesis gun.
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Misery, Balrog
* [[Nice Hat]]: The protagonist, who miraculously keeps it on throughout the entire game. According to official art, it has
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: After defeating {{spoiler|the Core}} near the middle of the game, the protagonist discovers that its main purpose was {{spoiler|to keep the floating island afloat... Thankfully, [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|Misery and the Doctor swoop in to save the Core and zombify it
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: Things are quite bearable until you get to {{spoiler|Misery or Last Cave, depending on your booster version}} in which case it becomes [[Nintendo Hard]]. And then there's {{spoiler|the [[Bonus Level of Hell]] and Ballos. UGH
* [[No-Gear Level]]: Oddly averted. When the protagonist is captured in the Plantation, he gets thrown in jail at one point, but his captors don't bother to take any of his weapons away. But they didn't need to. He apparently couldn't find a way out before reading the note. If anything, it's THAT they should have taken away.
* [[No Name Given]]: The protagonist. Also, the Doctor. {{spoiler|However, if you restore Curly's memory, you learn your name is Quote. And, later, you find out that the Doctor's name is Fuyuhiko Date}}.
* [[Nonstandard Game Over]]: A simple "You were never seen again." if you fall off the Outer Wall. The worst ending can be considered a [[Nonstandard Game Over]], since rather than a series of scenes followed by credits, there's one scene, narrated with a "You have died"-like box, followed by nothing.
* [[Noob Cave]]: First Cave.
* [[No Plot, No Problem]]: Subverted. The game starts in a typical platform cave with no plot information given, and even the author's description of the game (see quote at the top) seems to be written with the purpose of making people believe it has no actual plot. Then the player encounters more and more actual characters and exposition, until you have a detailed story.
* [[Novelization]]: A fan-made one [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5733045/1/Cave_Story_A_Novelization here].
* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: Common in this game, especially with Curly.
* [[Oh Crap]]: The dying robot tells you and Curly: "Current forces insufficient. Retreat! RETREAT!" [[Inescapable Ambush|Then the door slams shut, and the boss wakes up
* [[One-Hit Kill]]: The Blade (again), which is strong enough to one-shot most enemies, even at its Level 1 strength.
* [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]]: Hard mode removes all [[Heart Container]]s from the entire game, forcing you to survive with only 3 HP. Against enemies and bosses that frequently do much more damage per hit.
* [[One-Hit Polykill]]: A [[Charged Attack|charged-up Spur attack]] can pass through numerous [[Mooks]], though most bosses stop the shot after one hit. The Fireball can hit two targets, and Blade
* [[One-Winged Angel]]: Happens a hell of a lot, sometimes in multiple phases.
* [[One Bullet At a Time]]: Most weapons have a certain limit on the maximum amount of shots—three polar star bullets, four Snake shots, two Nemesis bolts or one high-level Spur laser can exist at once. Only one Blade shot can exist at a time, but each blade deals a great amount of damage and (unless on level 3) the shot disappears when hitting an enemy, making it ''the'' deadliest weapon at point blank.
* [[Optional Sexual Encounter]]: See [[Most Gamers Are Male]] above. However, the game doesn't specifically state it was sexual.
* [[Oxygen Meter]]: Present whenever you go underwater, because you're not a ''waterproof'' robot.
* [[Palette Swap]]: Pooh Black, a recolored form of [[Mythology Gag|Balrog's earlier existence in the game's beta as Puu]].
** In the Wiiware version, the protagonist's costume is a different color, depending on what difficulty level you're playing. In Easy mode, the red tones in his outfit are now Yellow, and in hard mode, they are now Blue, his skin is Tan and is blonde.
** The enemies you encounter in First Cave reappear in multiple colors throughout the game.
* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: The Mimiga mask which tricks half of the characters, ''including Professor Booster''. Misery and The Doctor even have special dialogue if you manage to get there without trading the mask back to Sue for your jetpack.
* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: Averted, partially by accident; see the [[Blind Idiot Translation]] example above.
* [[Path of Most Resistance]]: If you don't have this in mind, you probably won't get the [[Good Ending]].
* [[People Puppets]]: {{spoiler|During the Undead Core battle
* [[Phrase Catcher]]: "You're a soldier from the surface, aren't you?"
* [[Physical God]]: Jenka and Ballos are "far beyond the power of mortals", capable of powerful magical feats and having lived for what seems to be several times longer than normal human lifespans. However, they are never stated to be gods, and Jenka hints that she will eventually have to die if you visit her late in the game.
* [[Platform Hell]]: The {{spoiler|Hidden}} Last Cave. Good luck landing on that single safe spot between dozens of deadly spikes.
* [[Point of No Return]]: There's only one true point of no return: you eventually escape the Labyrinth after getting thrown in it, and if you've unlocked the [[Bonus Level of Hell]], there's a book on the shelf that will ask you if you want to give up on it and offers to "rewind time" so you can get the normal ending. However, if you save in the shack containing the [[Bonus Level of Hell]], you can never return to the caves, as rewinding time only brings you back to the moment where you just defeated the [[Final Boss]] {{spoiler|and started causing the island to plummet}}.
* [[Power Incontinence]]: The Doctor {{spoiler|after his first form is defeated}}. And of course {{spoiler|Ballos, who became this by being tortured by an unnamed king}}.
* [[Powers of Two Minus One]]: Occur in a few places (for example, dying on one of the instant death spikes deals 127 damage).
* [[The Professor]]: Booster.
* [[Psycho Serum]]: The "red flowers", which turn the delicate Mimigas into hulking homicidal monsters.
* [[Public Domain Soundtrack]]: Jenka's theme is a Finnish dance called ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47kFCzE3BXc "Letkajenkka"]''.
* [[Rainbow Speak]]: ·Interpuncts· are used to highlight item names in dialogue.
* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: Misery and Jenka.
* [[Recoil Boost]]: Machine gun at Level 3.
* [[Recurring Boss]]: Balrog.
* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: Misery, Crazed Mimigas, {{spoiler|Red Crystal Doctor and Ballos... [[Boat Lights|halfway, anyway]]}}.
* [[Remixed Level]]: The "Egg Corridor (?)". Yes, the question mark is part of its name.
* Also, if you managed to save curly brace and get the booster 2.0, you'll have to go through a tougher, remixed version of the final cave.
* [[Respawning Enemies]]: Whenever you move between "rooms", the enemies will respawn. A couple of areas, such as the Egg Corridor, will also periodically throw flying enemies at you.
* [[Restart At Level One]]: Happens, twice, on the path to [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]: "You feel a black wind blow through you. All weapons dropped to Level 1!" Though you're almost guaranteed to have at least one weapon—the Spur, the Nemesis
* [[Retraux]]: 16-bit graphics and a TurboGrafx 16-esque sound driver for a computer game released in 2004. One of the few games to be unintentionally [[Retraux]]
* [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]]: The robots can drown (which does get an in-game [[Justified Trope|justification]]), regain their memories by eating a mushroom, and, well... read [[Most Gamers Are Male]] above.
** There's an "Air" counter underwater, and at one point, you're informed "you can breathe" indicating a working and essential respiratory system. The robots can also receive medical care and medicine.
* [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]: Mimigas.
* [[Robot Girl]]: Curly Brace, natch.
* [[Rushmore Refacement]]: Those statues of the Demon Crown wearers can be revisited right before the fight with the [[True Final Boss]]
* [[Scarf of Asskicking]]: You wear one.
* [[Scary Shiny Glasses]]: The Doctor
* [[Scenery Gorn]]: {{spoiler|The Egg Corridor after it gets damaged}}.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: The 3DS version contains wonderfully detailed backgrounds.
* [[Schmuck Bait]]: A sign placed next to some [[Spikes of Doom]] clearly warns "One touch means instant death!". Unfortunately, the swathes of spikes littered throughout the rest of the game do not have a similar warning: neither are they so easy to avoid. Of course, when you first see this, just about ANYTHING kills you instantly.
* [[Schrödinger's Gun]]: There's a number of plausible explanations for why your decision to talk to Professor Booster determines whether he lives or dies. For example, if you talk to him, you can take his invention, the Booster v0.8, from him so you can use it. [[Fridge Logic|Using it is the only way to get out of the pit he (and now you) have fallen into]]<ref>You might not notice this if you carry a Level l3 Machinegun.</ref>, and you can't take him with you when you use the Booster v0.8 to escape. However, your decision to talk with Booster also determines whether a tow rope in the ''very'' securely locked room adjacent is loose or stuck {{spoiler|which affects whether you can get the good ending or not}}.
* [[Screen Shake]]: The whole game after defeating the {{spoiler|Undead Core}}.
* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: Two-thirds through, one of your allies gains a means of escape, and encourages you to run away with him, rather than staying to fight. You can take him up on this offer; however, doing so gets you the worst ending.
* [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]: {{spoiler|Ballos, although he's not completely evil
* [[Send in the Clones]]: {{spoiler|As you progress through ''Cave Story Plus'''s Wind Fortress, the only enemies you'll be fighting through the last end of the level are clones of Curly}}.
* [[Senseless Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|King}}'s death cannot prevent anything anymore.
* [[Sequel Hook]]: The original game ends rather neatly, but it's never fully explained just what the island is, or why the surface tried to attack it. And in the latest remake (released after Pixel began talking about a potential sequel), {{spoiler|it's revealed in a possibly canon sequence that someone or something was making Curly clones in the Wind Fortress}}. The surface was trying to get ahold of the Demon Crown, according to Curly.
* [[Sequential Boss]]: The Doctor, who is the second of a three-part [[Boss Rush]]. Also, the [[True Final Boss]].
* [[Shield Bearing Mook]]: The Gravekeeper is invulnerable from the front unless he's preparing to attack or has just attacked.
** Same deal with the small sword-wielding 'Bute' enemies in the [[Bonus Level of Hell]].
* [[Shout-Out]]:
** The "found a heart container" jingle is quite similar to the ''[[Metroid]]'' one. The Jellies may also be a ''Metroid'' reference. Also, the first weapon you get is a laser gun whose range, damage
** You get a Fireball weapon, which is a [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|fireball]] [[Super Mario Bros.|of infinite supply which bounces up and down as it moves forward
** {{spoiler|Ballos}}'s [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]] "Kill me... or I shall KILL YOU!" presumably references a very similar line in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]''.
** Getting the Super Missile Launcher in the [[Steam]] version nets you the achievement [[South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut|"Super, thanks for asking!"]].
*** While we're still talking about Steam achievements, the acquirement for getting the Alien Medal is called [[The Shining|"Here's Johnny!"]].
** The 3D diorama before you boot up the 3DS version looks like something out of ''[[3D Dot Game Heroes]]''.
** Jenka's theme is actually [[The Jimmy Hart Version]] of an OLD Finnish song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2NvAn7ujjw "Letkajenkka"].
* [[Skippable Boss]]: The very first boss, as well as "The Sisters". Although the first one is more ironic: {{spoiler|Balrog actually asks you if you're going to fight him, and just leaves if you say no}}...
** The Sisters are not so obvious, however. {{spoiler|Though, skipping them involves skipping a missile expansion, which, given the ease of the boss fight, is completely worth getting}}.
** If you're fast enough, you can actually {{spoiler|grab the missile expansion}} and ''still'' skip The Sisters by escaping the room in time. It is eventually demonstrated in [http://tasvideos.org/1917M.html this] [[Speed Run]].
* [[Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom]]: The Presses, especially later on in the {{spoiler|Plantation, both versions of the Last Cave, and a few in the Sacred Grounds}}.
* [[Spam Attack]]: The Bubbler's Level 3 shot allows you to do this if you hold down the fire button for a few seconds first.
** In the boss battle with the Doctor, his second form has an attack which shoots out a ''huge'' amount of red bats.
* [[Speed Run]]: The Nikumaru Counter, specifically used to time any attempts at the [[Bonus Level of Hell]]. World record time is about 2:17 for those of you who are curious.
** Wind Fortress also has the ability to do this.
* [[Spikes of Doom]]: With varying lethality from Grasstown point on. Last Cave and {{spoiler|Sacred Grounds}} are filled with them. The normal spikes simply cause a lot of damage. The ones that look like laser spikes, [[One-Hit Kill|on the other hand...]]
* [[Sprite Polygon Mix]]: Classic Mode in the 3DS version does this, retaining the original character, enemy and item sprites, but uses 3D backgrounds.
* [[Stalactite Spite]]: Revisited Egg Corridor. Stalactites hurt enemies too though.
* [[Stationary Boss]]: Heavy Press and {{spoiler|Ballos' last form}}, though in the latter's room everything you can step on either moves or damages you.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: To craft a bomb, you need to get coal. You find the coal in the fireplace of a Mimiga named {{spoiler|Santa}}.
* [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]]: Halfway through the game, you will witness Dr. Booster falling into a chasm. Major spoilers ahead:
* [[Sugar Apocalypse]]: Once you reach the end of the {{spoiler|Sand Zone}}, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that this one's not completely sweet and cuddly.
* [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]]: Initially, the Traveler sinks like a rock and has roughly 15 seconds to surface before drowning. Once {{spoiler|Curly sacrifices herself and gives you her oxygen tank}}, you can stay underwater indefinitely.
* [[Superweapon Surprise]]: The red flowers' effect. They're so secret, Mimigas no longer know the truth about them.
* [[Talking Is a Free Action]]: Lampshaded if you talk to the caged mimiga child during the fight with the doctor.
{{quote|Interesting priorities you've got.}}
* [[Tears of Blood]]: {{spoiler|The zombie dragons in the wrecked Egg Corridor
* [[Teleport Spam]]: When you fight {{spoiler|the Doctor's first form}}, he'll frequently send a double-helix energy ray at you, and by the time you jump over it to get to him, he just teleports again. Yay.
* [[That Makes Me Feel Angry]]: Misery's "Heavens, that felt good!" while nobody is around.
* [[Theme Naming]]: {{spoiler|"Curly Brace" and "Quote" are (computer programmers' terms for) the { and " symbols, respectively. Also note that on a keyboard, the curly brace key is directly on top of the quote key}}. Curly's adopted Mimiga children have the last name Colon (unless you have a certain translation; see [[Engrish]] above).
** Also, the leader of the Mimigas is named King and the second-in-command is named Jack, as in the cards.
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** The angel enemies in Sacred Ground appear to be named for flat-topped hills: Bute (one letter off from [[wikipedia:Butte|Butte]]) and [[wikipedia:Mesa|Mesa]].
** [[wikipedia:Jenkka|Jenka]] and [[wikipedia:Ballos|Ballos]] have names taken from dance styles.
* [[There Was a Door]]: But it was just too small for Balrog, so he has to bust through the wall, door included. Likely why his catch phrase got changed to a Kool-Aid-Man-style "OH YEAH!" in the Wiiware release.
* [[This Was His True Form]]: The defeat of Monster X. Blink and you might miss it. {{spoiler|[[Xkcd|It's a kitty]]}}!
* [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works]]: The ''only'' way the protagonist uses the Blade.
* [[Tin Can Robot]]: Malco.
* [[Tomato Surprise]]: Kind of. {{spoiler|The main character}} is revealed to be a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]] one-third into the game. The surprise of this revelation depends entirely on whether you noticed the robot ears on his sprite before this
** Another one that's mentioned in passing, and later becomes important. Being a game called
**
* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: The Life Jar, to the point you'll forget you have it when [[Boss Rush|you really, really need it]]. You'll want to save it 'till the {{spoiler|[[Bonus Level of Hell]]}} anyway. Played with because thankfully, you can go back and get another any time you use it up if you're able to backtrack.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Misery in the final fight. {{spoiler|Defying and trying to attack the Doctor, even if he is technically dead, is a very bad idea. Unless you're Quote
** {{spoiler|Also, the king who imprisoned Ballos. Torturing an immortal person with powers you cannot comprehend? Bad idea
* [[Took a Shortcut]]: No matter where you go, Curly Brace will get there ahead of you. However, the shortcuts appear rather tough on her, since she's usually heavily injured by the time you get there.
* [[Tragic Monster]]: Every speaking villain but [[Complete Monster|the Doctor]], but especially {{spoiler|Toroko}} and {{spoiler|Ballos}}.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The recent video interview for the Wiiware version has the game playing in the background, showing off several areas. This includes Sacred Grounds. IGN's one-paragraph description of the game spoils the player character's name, which you only learn on the path to [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]: {{spoiler|Quote}}.
* [[True Companions]]: {{spoiler|Curly and Quote}}, but only if you get [[One Hundred Percent Completion]].
* [[True Final Boss]]: {{spoiler|The Heavy Press and Ballos, found at the end of [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon|The Sacred Grounds]], constitute five forms in two bosses. In short, a [[Sequential Boss|Sequential]] [[True Final Boss|True Final]] [[Boss Rush]]
* [[Tube Travel]]: Which helps you get out of Plantation's reservoir faster (possibly in case you fall in without the jetpack equipped).
* [[Turns Red]]: Virtually all bosses unveil new attacks at lower HP. The elephant-like Behemoths from the Egg Corridor also turn red and stampede if they take enough damage, though this is rarely seen because they're not hard to defeat in the first place.
* [[Two Point Five D]]: The 3DS remake.
* [[Tyop on the Cover]]: The fan-made arranged ''[[Cave Story]]'' OST remix album by Vernian Process is tagged "A Sleeping Destiny: An Orchestral ''Tributre'' to ''Cave Story''".
* [[Underground Monkey]]: Mainly with the Critters and Bats.
* [[Unexpected Shmup Level]]: Well, more like an Unexpected Shmup Boss when fighting {{spoiler|Ironhead}}.
* [[Unique Enemy]]: Chinfish, The Door, Gravekeeper
* [[Vent Physics]]: Most notable in Grasstown, but fans can be found elsewhere too.
* [[Villain Override]]: {{spoiler|The Doctor with Misery and Sue}}.
* [[Villain Teleportation]]
* [[The Voiceless]]: Your main character has virtually no dialogue of his own. Even when you're playing the game as Curly. In the [[Wii Ware]] version, {{spoiler|he does talk, but only if you get the mushroom and meet with him in the Plantation}}.
* [["Wake-Up Call" Boss]]: Speaking of the [[Vent Physics]], anyone who hasn't mastered them is very likely to get their butt kicked by {{spoiler|Balfrog}} several times on their first playthrough. Other factors play a part, but it's usually the fans that screw one up.
* [[Walk, Don't Swim]]: The robotic protagonist and Curly Brace both sink like a rock in water.
* [[Wall Master]]: Sand Crocs! And of course that infamous killer door! The moving, crushing eye blocks known as Presses count as well.
* [[The Walls Are Closing In]]: The walls of Ballos' chamber close in when the hero and Curly Brace defeat him for good. {{spoiler|They would be crushed if not for Balrog
* [[Wasted Song]]: "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itQ94NuNVjo White]", a scrapped theme for King which can only be unlocked by beating {{spoiler|Sacred Grounds}} in ''three minutes''. "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_DkaVDUzt0 Toroko's Theme]" as well, but not to as great an extent.<ref>In the WiiWare version, the roles are reversed
* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: The Spur, if you fire it when its EXP. bar is at maximum, will release a large white beam that will pierce through and completely reduce ''any'' non-boss monster in the game into its component atoms. There is no better example of [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]] in this game than this alone.
* [[What the Hell, Player?]]: If you agreed to leave with Kazuma on a Sky Dragon, {{spoiler|The Doctor will destroy the world
** If you want to experience the raw fury of the [[Infinity+1 Sword|Nemesis]], it's not that difficult... {{spoiler|you just have to give up King's blade, showing that his sacrifice and request to avenge him and Tokoro mean ''absolutely nothing to you
* [[With This Herring]]: You are {{spoiler|an elite combat android sent to destroy an artifact that gives its wearer unthinkable power, on an island populated by rampaging monsters
{{quote|''Analysis complete''
''Current forces insufficient''
''Retreat''
''RETREAT!!''
**
* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: {{spoiler|Ballos, oh god, Ballos
* [[X Marks the Hero]]: Sue.
** And King... However, {{spoiler|he doesn't last long enough to make much of a difference, unless you count [[Empathic Weapon|the Blade]]}}.
* [[You Bastard]]:
** When you defeat most bosses, a block of text comes up on the screen comes up saying "You defeated [insert boss name]!". When you defeat {{spoiler|Frenzied Toroko}}, it's followed by a period. Played even more straight in the
** The text the game displays in the worst ending also has shades of this.
* [[You Gotta Have Blue
** Misery has blue hair, except for her dialogue portrait, where her hair is green. The Wiiware version has her hair consistently blue.
* [[You Have Failed Me...]]: Misery ultimately decides she's had enough of Balrog.
* [[Zigzag Paper Tassel]]: On the boulder that blocks the entrance to Labyrinth M.
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