Cave Story+ turns a lonely trip through a floating island into a two-player adventure. You and a friend can explore its caves, jump across hazards, and fight the creatures and bosses standing between you and the next part of the story. The co-op mode supports two players sharing one screen on the same PC; Steam Remote Play Together can stream that local session to a friend elsewhere. There is no separate online lobby or large party mode, so this fits best when your group has one other person ready to play.
Two explorers, one winding route
You begin in a dark cave with no memory of who you are. The island around you is home to the Mimigas, small rabbit-like creatures whose peaceful life is threatened by a scientist. Cave Story+ sends you through their underground world as you learn what has happened and look for a way to help. The story unfolds through short conversations and discoveries along the route, so an unfamiliar room can tell you as much as a long cutscene.
In co-op, the basic job stays clear: move through the same adventure together. Both players can jump, shoot and explore the rooms, then take on the common enemies and boss encounters. It is a shared-screen game rather than a split-screen campaign; you see both characters in the same view as they move around the room. The camera does not give either player a separate slice of the map, which keeps the action readable but also means you stay in the same immediate area.
The platforming is built around small, deliberate spaces. A low ledge may hide a doorway, a moving platform may cross a gap, and spikes or falling hazards can make a familiar stretch suddenly dangerous. Rooms connect into larger areas with doors and passages that open as you find new routes or items. You and your friend can notice different details as you move: a suspicious wall, a high ledge, or a doorway tucked beside the main path. Exploring is part of the main progression, not a separate activity away from the action.
That layout gives the pair a steady rhythm of moving, looking, and fighting. A passage may lead to another part of the island, a room of enemies, or a conversation that changes how the story reads. Returning through an area can also feel different once you have another weapon or know where a route continues. The world is compact enough that a new discovery often has a visible purpose, even when the game leaves you to find the connection yourself.
Jumps and weapons carry the fights
Cave Story+ is a side-scrolling action platformer, so your shared progress depends on both movement and aiming. You move through compact rooms while enemies approach from the floor, fly in from the edges, or guard a route ahead. A well-timed jump can clear a hazard and put you in position to fire; a mistimed one can leave you taking damage while an enemy closes in. The two-player mode keeps that action on the same screen, with both players taking part in the same encounter rather than controlling separate tasks.
The weapon set changes how you handle those rooms. The game includes ten weapons to find and upgrade, from the starting gun to options with different reach and attack patterns. Weapons gain strength as you collect experience dropped by enemies, but taking damage can knock their levels back. That makes a fight about more than firing as quickly as possible: a hit can cost some of the power you built up, while clearing enemies can make the next encounter easier to handle. Each player has their own on-screen status display, so the pair can follow the action without sharing one combined health bar.
Bosses turn the side-scrolling movement into a focused encounter. A large enemy fills more of the room and asks you to watch its movement while looking for chances to attack. The same screen can get busy with projectiles, hazards, and both characters moving at once. This is the most direct co-op interaction the game offers: you and your friend are both in the arena, damaging the same opponent and navigating the same danger. There are no fixed character classes or role assignments to manage. Both players have the same broad set of actions, with different weapons shaping how each person contributes.
The difficulty has an old-school edge. Some hazards can punish a missed jump quickly, and a boss can take several attempts to learn. Checkpoints and save rooms break up the journey, but a defeat may still send you back through part of a route before the next try. That can make the pair’s forward progress uneven: a room you just crossed without trouble might demand more care after a weapon loses levels or health runs low. If your friend group mainly wants quick rounds with frequent resets, this story adventure has a more sustained pace.
Progress comes from curiosity
The island’s story and its maps reward looking beyond the next enemy. You collect items, meet characters, and discover new routes as you travel between distinct areas. The game’s multiple endings also give the story more than one possible shape, though the conditions for some outcomes can depend on things you find or do along the way. Cave Story+ rarely puts a marker over every useful discovery, so you and your friend can compare what you notice in the same room rather than follow a long checklist.
The route has a hand-built, room-by-room feel instead of an endless map that keeps generating new ground. A door can lead to a short detour, a character who needs help, or a fight that blocks the way forward. Exploring with a friend gives you two sets of eyes on those small spaces, but it does not turn the adventure into a puzzle game with one player assigned to every switch. The shared activity remains movement, combat, and learning how each area fits into the island.
That also makes the story easier to follow as a pair. New characters and places appear in the same order for both players, and conversations happen while you are still moving through the world. A detail you spot on the way back can make an earlier exchange clearer, while a missed passage may leave something about the island unexplained until another run. The game leaves room for discovery without requiring a guide or a full replay to understand the central conflict.
Weapon progression gives combat a second layer. Each weapon can behave differently as it levels, and the upgrade can change its attack rather than simply add a little more damage. The reset on taking hits ties that progression to movement: an enemy that seems harmless can still interrupt the growth of a weapon you like. That system makes the shooting feel connected to the platforming, because avoiding a hit protects both your health and your current weapon power.
Cave Story+ also includes bonus challenges, including a boss rush and Wind Fortress, alongside its story mode and alternate endings. Those options add extra ways to revisit the game, while its confirmed co-op focus remains the story adventure.
A small, strange island
The setting moves between caves, villages, laboratories, and more open stretches of the island. Its pixel art gives the Mimigas and other creatures soft, simple shapes, while the threats can be much less gentle. That contrast carries through the story: a cute character may be caught in a serious situation, and a quiet path can lead into a fight with a towering machine or monster. The tone stays whimsical, but the game does not make every danger feel harmless.
Music is a large part of the identity. Cave Story+ includes different soundtrack styles and lets you choose between the original and updated artwork and music. The newer presentation adds widescreen support, animated dialogue portraits, and effects for light and water; you can still switch to the classic look. These options can change how the island feels without changing the route your group explores. The result keeps the clean shapes and memorable melodies of a retro platformer while giving you a few ways to tune its presentation.
Is it a fit for your group?
Cave Story+ is for two players in local co-op, with both characters on one shared screen. Two controllers are the straightforward setup. On PC, you can configure bindings separately for each player, use separate keyboard and controller bindings, and rely on automatic controller assignment in two-player mode. Steam Remote Play Together lets one player host the local session and stream it to a friend. The host continues to run the game, so a stable connection is useful; this is not native online matchmaking with a separate copy of the level running on each PC.
The co-op is a good fit if you and a friend want to explore one connected adventure, learn its bosses, and share a platforming challenge. It is a narrower choice if you have three or more people, want to join strangers through an online lobby, or expect several distinct co-op playlists. The game gives the pair a common route, common enemies, and a story that unfolds as you reach new parts of the island. It keeps the focus on that journey, one cave and one boss at a time.