Shovel Knight is an 8-bit platformer by indie studio Yacht Club Games. It is in essence a love letter to classic 8-bit games like Mega Man, Metroid and The Legend of Zelda (1 and 2). While this isn't a game I've taken too seriously I've had a lot of fun with it and I can tell the folks at Yacht Club Games really poured their heart and sous into it, which is all I can ask. I think it's definitely worth a buy if not now at least later at a discount.
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The long:
Shovel Knight has a special place in my heart because it was the first game I've ever funded on Kickstarter that actually was released. Technically it is the only game on Kickstarter I've ever funded, but seeing how some of the other games on there have gone this may be a good thing.
I'll leave the pondering of how effective the Kickstarter model really is for later, right now I just want to get down the the nitty gritty of Shovel Knight. Ya dig? (That's the last of the shovel puns, I promise.)
Shovel Knight is an action platformer created by indie studio Yacht Club Games for the Nintendo 3DS, Wii-U and Linux/Mac/PC on their website and through Steam. As of now it is only available in North America.
The game handles well, like any classic 8-bit platformer. The combat is tight and if you get hit by an enemy it feels like it's your fault. Shovel Knight isn't just an easy breezy playtrhough either. I'll compare it to the challenge of the early Mega Man games, especially if you didn't know what order of bosses to fight. Speaking of bosses, Shovel Knight has a whole cast of colorful character filled bosses, all of which need taken down before you can get to the final area and they can be a little tough, however they are the type of boss fights that give immense satisfaction once you figure out what to do after getting your butt kicked over and over.
Just a tad similar, but in the best ways.
Oh yeah, there's a plot too! The game follows the story of Shovel
Knight, a blue-clad knight who once adventured and fought evil far and
wide with his beloved, Shield Knight. After he lost the woman he loved
to an evil enchantress and her tower he gave up adventuring. However,
now the tower is open again and Shovel Knight must reach the tower,
defeat the enchantress and reunite with his long lost love, Shield
Knight.
It's a neat story, but it definitely isn't a
game you play for the thrilling plot, it's a game that's just meant to
be plain fun and can be funny with a few well placed jokes thrown in.
Did
I mention the music? I don't want to call it perfect for fear you guys
may think they paid me off to write this (haha I wish!) however the
music fits quite well and I found myself humming along after a few
minutes of playing.
Sure gamers are represented by quite a few age groups now, but the newer generations of gamers may not feel the same way that those of us who grew up with the 8-bit classics do. In this regard I hope that Shovel Knight can get them interested in those old games if they already weren't.
A game doesn't have to have 1080p life-like graphics and 4,000 DLC packages with leaderboards and whatnot to be fun. The game just has to have some heart and hard work put into it. I'm not knocking modern games at all. In fact I love where gaming is today, how gamers have become a community and how amazing modern games look and play. I'm just saying that I remember a time when developers had less than a gigabyte to work with and still knocked it out of the park.
Shovel Knight reminds us where we came from and while it's important not to be stuck in the past, it's also important to know where we used to be to appreciate where we are now.
Either way I had a load of fun with Shovel Knight and whether it intended to or not, it made me think about the state of modern games and brought up fond memories of old games.
I can tell that Yacht Club Games really poured their hearts and souls into this and it shows.
I'll give this game about 9 muffled cuss words out of 10.
It's hard to game when you're staying at your parent's house.
