Some Wiimakes are worth waiting for. Er, let us rephrase. One Wii-bound remake is worth waiting for: Cave Story. But with developer Nicalis playing the hermit through Thanksgiving and the month of December, the outlook was quickly bleak-ening. Had the recession starved dead this fragile indie? Was WiiWare destined to mire in sandy beaches? The holiday season passed without a glimmer of hope -- a promise unfulfilled.

But with the coming of the New Year, we renewed our faith, depositing 2000 Wii Points into our account -- just for Cave Story. Lo and behold, our call was answered! Nicalis emerged from the darkness, a so-called "night game" this week to bring testament: "Cave Story for Wii hasn't been killed," pledged the developer. "Truth be told we did try to make it in time for Christmas, however, we weren't able to do so." Fair enough.

Nicalis continued: "We're still working ... to make sure it's faithful to Amaya-san's original while adding a few things for the console release." Wait for it ... "One of these new additions, I'm happy to announce" -- almost there -- "is Download Content." Hmmm, an uncertain path for sure. Will it be "oh, here, buy this character we forgot to add" or "and here's that time trial mode you wanted ... for a little more" kinda DLC? Or, a legitimate expansion of the story -- beyond the cave, so to speak? Back to the waiting game for us.

(In the meantime, Nicalis has posted its updated Curly sprite -- seen above, on the right; and reminded us of the game preview in the January EGM -- the last issue in print ... ever!)