Shovel Knight released today on computer and Nintendo platforms and is easily one of the best platformers I’ve played yet. With a very simple and basic concept at its core, Shovel Knight harkens back to the gameplay mechanic seen in Duck Tales on the Nintendo NES in which players are bouncing off of things with their shovel – similar to a Pogo Stick. The main character’s weapon is a shovel and main action is to dig.
There are also items that can be collected throughout the journey. The game’s story is delivered one piece at a time through hints and mentions through other non-playable character chatter. Many puzzling moments surface in Shovel Knight unexpectedly, leading to death and then discovery of how to pass these obstacles as you go. In addition to these pitfalls, seemingly impassable areas, and traps players face a great assortment of enemies and boss fights. The earlier of which are pretty easy to defeat allowing the player to get the basics of the game’s mechanics down. As I mentioned before, a lot of this involves bouncing off of enemies or obstacles
Controls feel great, even on the handheld version, and while many have a hard time playing this game at first, old school retro gaming fans will feel right at home here. Fans of indie games have a home here with Shovel Knight from Yacht Club Games. Another great thing about this title is the sense of gratification after figuring out the confusing parts of stages and overcoming enemies or obstacles along the path to boss fights. There’s a quick-save totem on every level, this will save your progress in case you die. There are usually about four totems that way players can retrieve certain amounts of progress.
Each scene players go through introduces a new set of enemies and environmental art. In between levels players have a Super Mario Bros. 3 style of level select screen. In addition to campaign levels there are also Towns and areas of interest to pass through as well. Completion of each level can be taken to a further level by discovering hidden areas, digging in the unexpected places, and more. There are also great artistic stages crafted as new platformer techniques and artificial intelligence scripts are introduced one at a time. Stages where intermittent flashes of lightning are the only thing guiding you from platform to platform.
Official Trailer:
Final Verdict:
Shovel Knight completely accomplishes what it set out to do, provide fun factor and gameplay design that is solid. The developers of this title found a way to make it progressively more fun and more advanced the further players get along. There are a lot of great mechanics here that are put forth for new age gamers who may have missed out on the retro days as well as veteran gamers who may recognize where much of Shovel Knight’s influence comes from. This title isn’t great because of nostalgia though, the gameplay and fun factor exhibited is due to it actually being good. The solid foundation of the title’s framework should set the trend for quality platformers from the indie market that take the 2D route.
Overall Score: 9 / 10
RGN Rating: Gold Game
Publisher / Developer: Yacht Club Games
Available On: Wii U | 3DS | PC | Mac OS X | Linux
Played On: Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS
Review Copy Info: Two digital copies of this game were provided to RealGamerNewz by the publisher for the purpose of this Review.