Day 22, Game 22 - The Cave

Today was a good day in the digital gaming world. Not only did the long awaited game The Cave come out, but the PSN started a huge sale of downloadable games, in which I was able to pick up a handful of games for about 10 bucks. Nothing like adding games to the collection to play for cheap.

So like I said, The Cave came out on all platforms (XBLA and PC tomorrow, though). I was going back and forth on which system to download it on, between PS3 and the Wii U. On one hand, I could rack up some easy trophies on the PS3. But without a Platinum trophy, it wasn't a no-brainer decision. If I got it on the Wii U, however, I would add another really cool downloaded game to my small yet growing collection, but also I could utilize one of the coolest and still under appreciated functions of the Wii U - Miiverse.

I chose the Wii U. And so far, I think I made the right decision.

The Cave is a puzzle game, where you select three of a possible seven characters to go on an adventure in a mysterious, unknown and magical cave. Each character has their own special ability, and you have to use all three to solve the puzzles to advance through the cave. Sounds simple, right? Well, Double Fine, the makers of The Cave, made sure right off the bat that you'll have to wear your critical thinking hats in order to get anywhere in this game. The puzzles are pretty straight forward, and even after being stuck on one, once you figure it out and have that "Aha!" moment, you'll sit back and wonder why the hell you were stuck in the first place.

I got through the first couple of puzzles no problem. By no problem I mean I got pretty frustrated at times, but eventually figured out where to go and what to do. But then I came to a puzzle that completely stumped me. I had a few objects and one last one to figure out, but nothing, and I mean nothing, was obvious about what to do.

So I paused the game, brought up the internet browser and looked up guides for the game. Well, apparently everyone is still playing the game as I couldn't find a single guide anywhere on the internet.

Thankfully, Nintendo built in a solution to this problem when they designed the Wii U. Welcome, to Miiverse.

Miiverse is basically a huge collection of message boards for all things Wii U, that you can access whenever you want (middle of the game, browsing the menu, whatever). Miiverse was built and designed for people to connect with other people, talk about games and in this case, to help out others when the going gets tough.

I opened up Miiverse, it went right to The Cave forum, and I started to scroll through. I could have posted my question, along with a screen shot of exactly where I was, to the forum and waited for replies, but instead, I just scrolled through looking at all the others posting questions. Low and behold, I found someone stuck on the exact part I was. I opened the thread, scrolled through the responses, and BAM! - I was back on my way through The Cave. First, though, I did my due diligence and answered a few questions from people stuck in rooms I completed, as a "thank you" to the community. It was actually funny to see some people stuck on puzzles I thought were a breeze, and other people like me stuck on puzzles that others found easy. Goes to show how different everyone's minds work.

I took a break from the game to write this blog, but I'm excited to get back to it. I still have Far Cry 3 looming over head, waiting to be finished, but I think I found something to pick up and play when killing pirates and hunting tigers gets too much.

Oh, and thank you Miiverse. I look forward to interacting with you again soon. If only you offered a trophy system to brag about my accomplishments in games. *sigh*

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