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Next week Shovel Knight is getting two expansions to close it out: King of Cards and Showdown. The former is a full character-based story mode that incorporates a card game element, the latter is a fighting gametype that is modeled closely after Super Smash Bros. Yacht Club Games took to the PlayStation Blog to shed some more light on it, specifically their open approach to unlocks.

Fighting game unlocks are a huge point of contention in the FGC, as some folks prefer to earn extra content over time, and others want everything unlocked from the start to spur competitive play. Yacht Club seemingly placates both sides of the coin, offering up less stressful unlocks for those that want to do it, as well as temporary and permanent (genius) unlock cheat codes for everything.

So if you just want to try out a new character for fun to see if the time spent on unlocking it is worth it, you can do that. Or if you're not the type of person who's up for a grind and just wants all the levels and characters upfront, you can do that too. Both codes are below. Given that they specifically mention tournament play as a concern for immediate unlocks, including it with the assumption that it might be played at various cons is a no-brainer.

If you're at all into game design, Yacht Club's approach is worth reading in its entirety: they get pretty in-depth! Their core tenets involve "surprise, accomplishment, ramping and motivation," which I think everyone can get behind.

Look for our review of both King of Cards and Showdown sometime near launch.

How to Unlock Everything in Shovel Knight Showdown [PlayStation Blog]

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