SHOVEL KNIGHT REVIEW

Do you like Zelda II? Do you like Mega Man? How about DuckTales for the NES? Great! Now forget those, because Shovel Knight may take a little inspiration from them, but it’s a beast all its own. From the title screen to the post-credits scene (don’t turn your game off too soon!), this game oozes personality and originality. You may already be able to tell that I like Shovel Knight, but let me explain why it’s worth your time and $15 dollars.

STORY

I don’t want to give away Shovel Knight’s story, because it’s a little more interesting than most of the 8-bit games it imitates. I’ll only say that it’s part redemption story, part adventure tale, and part love saga. Never did I notice that the story felt forced or annoying, but rather it made the experience of the game all the more enjoyable. I really cared about our hero’s journey and the all the colorful characters (good and bad) he met along the way.

SOUND

When you boot up your Shovel Knight game you’re met with a pretty darn epic and catchy tune by the great Jake Kaufman (He also did the music for DuckTales: Remastered). And then, when you start the first stage of the game you just might fall into pits on purpose so you can stay on the level and listen to the music a little longer. Kaufman’s first stage song evokes all the cues of sword and sorcery while still being fast paced and rockin’. The rest of the music works in much the same way. The songs add elements that are descriptive of the stage without sacrificing the overall composition, like the quick “skitching” sounds on the airship level imitating propellers. It’s a little hard to explain, but when you hear it in action, you’ll understand. Otherwise, the sound in it is what you’d expect from an 8-bit style game. There’s no voice acting and limited sound-effects, but that would just get in the way of Kaufman’s music, so you shouldn’t mind too much.

PRESENTATION

While 8-bit style games are often limited in their presentation, I never felt that Shovel Knight was limited by the choice. In fact, I think that Shovel Knight (the character) wouldn’t be quite as endearing with a more detailed sprite. Speaking of sprites, there’s a somewhat limited use of large sprites in this game, an old tactic used to make your games visuals look better. Most of Shovel Knight’s sprites are just the right size for gameplay and somehow still manage to exude personality. Boss characters are mostly small to medium and yet their movements are extremely expressive allowing for an intrinsic understanding of what these characters are all about.

GAMEPLAY

Shovel Knight has very responsive controls allowing for precision platforming when the game calls for it. I was a little surprised that the game has your item buttons preset for “up+B,” which can cause a fair deal of misfiring in the heat of battle. Thankfully, Shovel Knight allows you to map out your own button layout, should you so choose. The dynamics of the game are something I found very interesting, in that there are no lives and everything in the game seems to run on currency. Instead of losing lives and having to play levels over again, the game gives you unlimited continues from checkpoints and simply steals a certain percentage of your money every time you die (which can be recollected). This takes away a lot of the tedium of dying and having to replay a whole level, while still punishing the player with a loss of money. So the game can be hard, but it’s paced well, and forgiving with deaths.

Money plays an important role in Shovel Knight, allowing players to buy upgrades that will raise their stats or help their style of play. There are health and mana upgrades, as well as techniques and armor choices. While things like an increased health bar can help you on your quest, I never felt overpowered during my playthrough. A good example of this is with the armor choices, which can give you useful abilities, but will usually give you a drawback as well. The armor you choose can influence your play style and make you more efficient, but it will never make you a god among men. On that same note, some upgrades seemed rather useless and purely aesthetic (which is the point in one case). With all of these upgrades available for a price, you can see how losing some of your money when you die is an adequate punishment.

CONCLUSION

Is Shovel Knight perfect? Not quite, but it’s darned close. It would take a long time to list all the praise I laid on it, so I’ll just recount it’s few cracks. The sound effects (not music) for the game are not varied or terribly interesting and sometimes the upgrades and items seem a little useless. These two things aside, and you have an amazing experience that I recommend to gamers from all walks of life. Shovel Knight made me feel something special when I beat it and I can’t seem to get it out of my mind. I guess what I’m trying to say is: Shovel Knight, will you marry me?

97/100

–Will