I bought Shovel Knight originally on PC in the Summer Steam Sale last year in the midst of a purchasing orgy of akin to Shark Week. It quickly supplanted not only the games bought at the same time, but became my sole focus. There are very few games that can keep my attention for any appreciable amount of time, as the majority will get played for a stretch until they get unceremoniously dumped into the "to be finished later" pile. Having a very "pun"-ny sense of humor and an appreciation for odd visual choices in both character and level designs makes it a stand-out when compared against the typical battle for higher fidelity in all things.
Mechanically the game is an obvious homage to the original MegaMan, besides the main character wearing blue, the side scrolling levels requiring a high degree of precision to navigate, certain areas cannot be passed without the correct power-ups and the boss fights are a-typical pattern recognition fights. Unlike the disposable nature of some of the earned power-ups from other games, all of the techniques that you earn become integral into your being able to pass future levels. Trying to restart a game from scratch is a bit of trick, as you'll struggle with a phantom limb syndrome thinking you should be able to do certain things, but haven't earned them back yet. Managing your tools successfully will be the difference between barely succeeding and blowing through the opposition.
Shovel Knight is challenging, but I never really hit the level of frustration that would lead to controller throwing. Death will just send you back to the last checkpoint you passed, minus a fraction of your hard earned gold floating in sacks at your position of death. Hopefully they aren't hovering over a chasm but considering the frequency of nasty jumping puzzles, I wouldn't hold my breath on that. Just make sure that you don't recreate the death while trying to recollect your lost booty. Because of the nature of the replay/death system, repetition should lead you to a good solution path for each area. By the end of it, you should have a successful route through each level, much like watching anyone play through the original MegaMan games. I recently replayed MegaMan 2 – taking only minor damage on my run-throughs of each level, only really getting hit in some of the boss-fights despite not having played the game in approximately 10 years. My girlfriend watched in a combination of revulsion and pride.
The pixel art design of the game is decidedly NES inspired, albeit with a much greater color palette to work with. The music is similar in that you'd expect to hear the same midi-music score as you play those classics. A ton of appreciation should be given to the design team for making sure all of those little aesthetic choices are as era specific as possible, the game is such a great throwback.
The Xbox One port release is pretty much the same game with one neat exception – an additional boss encounter fight with the Battletoads! It's pretty darn entertaining. It's an homage to the 2nd and 3rd levels featuring the droplines and the infamous jet bikes with an additional boss battle against one of the 'toads and the final battle is with all three attacking. Success earns you the Toad Armor with a swanky new dash feature and green colored kit of course.
All in all, Shovel Knight was easily one of the best games I've played in the last 5 years. Although it is a loving homage to the NES, it should not be dismissed as such and deserves to be played by everyone for its charming design, and excellent use of progressive learning as a game device.
- Tazman
The Good:
- Brilliant use of game mechanics as story-telling
- A love letter to the original Mega-Man
The Bad:
- Some will complain about the difficulty (undeservedly so)
