Cameos and References
This is a list of games and other media that have referenced Cave Story in some way or form. This page is still a work in progress and is by no means exhaustive.
Nicalis Published
1001 Spikes
Curly can be unlocked as a playable character in 1001 Spikes by obtaining 30 golden skulls. She is equipped with a Booster 2.0 and her trademark machine gun.The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+
Quote and Balrog are two of the hundreds of randomly selected Co-op Babies. If you want to play as either you either need luck or a player 1 with the patience of a saint (since they have to wait while you dismiss and resummon your avatar over and over again).Blade Strangers
Quote and Curly Brace are both playable characters in Blade Strangers.Castle in the Darkness
A statue of Balrog can be found in a room behind that ledge to the right of the fire bomb enemy in the Clock Tower. You will need the Wing Boots to reach it.Creepy Castle
Balrog can be found in Scenario 4 (Due Exaltation) within the Great Machine in a room accessible with the Lasso and the Jump Boots from Florius.Critadel
Curly is available as an outfit for Nox.Crystal Crisis
Quote and Curly Brace are both playable characters and the game's story is centered around the Red Crystal.Fisher
Chinfish (Egg Fish) appears as one of the fish that can be caught in this game.Umihara Kawase Fresh!
Curly Brace can be unlocked as a playable character in the Switch and PS4 ports after completing quest 12 (Boss Battle: Giga Tadpole).Other
The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls
Quote, Balrog, Ballos as well as the Polar Star/Booster 2.0 are all cards in the Requiem Warp Zone set, which thus far has only been available to backers of the Four Souls Requiem Kickstarter.BIT.TRIP Runner 2
Quote is available as a playable character in the Good Friends Character Pack for BIT.TRIP Runner 2.Cat Poke
Paintings of Quote and Curly can be found on the second floor if you can be distracted long enough from trying to poke cats.Deltarune
In Deltarune chapter 2 in the area to the right of the music shop you can see a red floppy disk with the same colour, lean, and spinning animation as the save point from Cave Story. It asks if you want to want to save, before realising that it didn't know what saving was.Dino Run DX
Quote is available as a hat in Dino Run DX.DF CONNECTED (DONTFORGET)
DF CONNECTED, the online-multiplayer spinoff of DONTFORGET (an Undertale fangame), has a variety of avatars available to players called vessels, and Quote can be unlocked as one.Enter the Gungeon
The Polaris, a reference to the Polar Star, can be unlocked by completing the Hollow 20 times.Epic Battle Fantasy 3
Curly appears as an NPC in this game and makes a passing reference to the opening hell narration from Cave Story.Gang Garrison 2
Press q on the character select screen to select either Quote or Curly as your character.Hexane
When Dell Talton is introduced in page 418 (in act 2) of the MSPA-style webcomic Hexane his room is initially depicted using pixel art in a similar art style to Cave Story, he has a Cave Story poster in the room and a Polar Star, both of which are later combined into other items.#IDARB
Curly is available as a player avatar under the group "Nicalis".Indie Game: The Movie: The Game
If you click on the SNES controller in the main menu of the Steam release of "Indie Game: The Movie" then you get an indie game character mix and match game.I Wanna Kill the Guy
Curly is used as an optional dance off boss in chapter 3 of IWKTG v.052.Kid Icarus: Uprising
Unverified possible reference from the opening lines of the Powers tutorial:"Remember, Pit, you won't be fighting alone out there."
"You're going to send me a machine-gun-robot girlfriend?"