Forgive me if this thread exists, but I couldn’t find it thanks to the anemic search in PHPBB.
http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/
If you haven’t seen this game yet, and you liked Metroid and Castlevania, you’ll love Cave Story.
I saw it mentioned in some Freeware gems threads, but I think it deserves its own thread. Such an old school game, and the difficulty is absolutely smack in the sweet spot. A masterful game overall. Not gonna spoil anything, but the game made me almost cry after I fought the core.