#cave noire

[obscurevideogames]

"Krabz" -

Cave Noire (Konami - Game Boy - 1991)

[npfehr]

[photos credit: me]

Recently Completed: Cave Noire (GB)

This is a turn-based roguelike RPG. The title screens are essentially all the story you're going to get from the game. You begin at an explorer's guild, and choose one of four quests and the difficulty. A tree with a face (seen above) grants you four items to start, and your squishy lil' hero must explore the dungeon from there.

Each run at the dungeon is unique. While room layouts are not randomized, the number of rooms per floor and their contents change every time you play. Each quest also has a unique graphical tileset for the rooms. Completing the 6th difficulty level of each quest awards you a medal, and once you have all four medals, credits roll.

Controls are simple. Enemies move when you do. Bumping into them allows you to attack, though if you do, they will fight back. The B button passes one turn, allowing everything else to move while you stand still. The A button opens your inventory and lets you use your various collected spells and potions.

The real difficulty is in learning what they do and when best to use them. The other challenge is discovering that almost no fights in the entire game are truly 'safe'; your hero does not have a lot of hit points and you can die extremely quickly. The game is therefore a strategic challenge in resource management and enemy movement pattern recognition, so that you can choose your moments as carefully as possible.

Maybe that doesn't sound like a lot of fun? But the tension of being one hit from death, out of resources, and having the exit be in sight but blocked by a skeleton you have to out-maneuver is surprisingly fun. And the satisfaction of pulling it off is outstanding. It's a game to be played in short bursts, like on a coffee break, and it packs a surprising amount of depth and challenge.

Unfortunately, it was only released in Japan, so you can import the cart (like I might do) or get a translated ROM from someplace. I've been picking at it for years but just last night I finally completed the last quest. As you can tell, I loved it.

Find a way to play it!

[gameboydemakes]

Cave Noire was a roguelike released on the Game Boy in 1991 by Konami and was an absolute wonderful challenge to remake. The base game is by no means a bad looking game which is why it was such a challenge to see if I could polish an already great looking gem!  Don’t know the source and want a great video covering it? Check out Derek and Graces video on it from StopSkeletonsFromFighting! Shout out to LoloDePuzlo for the suggestion! If you liked this remake, please visit my Patreon. Any amount thrown my way helps and is greatly appreciated! Thanks! [Patreon] [Twitter]

[gaygamer]

There are a *ton* of reasons to love Konami’s Cave Noire for the Nintendo GameBoy, and its brilliant box/cover art (above) is one of them.

Want to learn more about why I personally adore this portable roguelike, released in Japan (and only in Japan) all the way back in 1991? Check out my recent write-up about my favorite games of 2019 that weren't actually released in 2019.

More photos of Cave Noire’s box, cartridge, and instruction manual can be found on my more traditional games blog, too.

[animatedscreenshots]

Cave Noire

[computervsworldarchive]

@punk-possum I love you!!!!!

[obscurevideogames]

"Pentaro found 3 gold! Grats." -

Cave Noire (Konami - Game Boy - 1991)

[gameboydemakes]

Cave Noire remade on Gameboy at 100% size for pixel posterity! If you liked this demake, please visit my Patreon. Any amount thrown my way helps and is greatly appreciated! Thanks! [Patreon] [Twitter]