Once, in the cave, there was a cliff, a fire, and some shadow puppets... Oh, wait. Wrong cave, sorry. Once in the cave, there was a wizard who was searching for the evil wizard in AnienaGames' fantasy platformer. Use the [arrows] to move, [W] and [E] to fire your weapons, and the numbers [1-4] to use the items you collect in your travels. There are 11 levels in all, each with three special challenges. You might have to complete the level in a certain time, or collect a hidden item, or defeat a certain number of enemies; when you complete a level after achieving one of these goals, you get a star that you can use to buy new skills. In each level you'll collect coins that you can use to buy weapons and potions, and you can collect powerups that restore your health or mana.
The neat thing about Once In The Cave is the extensibility of the skills. While there are only a few available skills, AnienaGames has put them to good use. Rather than having a huge skill tree, there are fire and ice skills, which match up with the types of weapons you can use. Since you can reset your skills and sell your items with no penalty, you can always experiment and find the setup that works best for you. Between the flexibility of character and the tidiness of the art, Once In The Cave is a wonderful way to explore a cave without ever leaving your computer behind.
I really disliked the way every game has a "find the hidden thing" challenge and a "complete under the time limit" challenge. It's pretty much impossible to do both, so you end up playing every level twice.
I do agree that the time limit, plus the other constraints, make this game "too" challenging.
It seemed to lack in the tutorial that to pick up potions and such, you needed to press [spacebar] so it would be a good idea to add this to the review.
A later level has a rising lava thing, which makes me impossible to play it leisurely. :(
I liked the different challenges, as it added replay value to each level. The rising lava level was significantly harder than the others, and the final boss seemed to take quite a bit of luck, but I finally finished it.
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