So, I’ve been putting off this
review for a while because I want to treat it with care, it’s not just my first
review but also it’s a review of what I feel to be a very important game and I’ve
got a lot to say about it. Shovel Knight
is an 8-bit styled, 2D side scrolling platformer set in a fantasy setting, but there
is so much more to it than that. I want to start by saying that it may seem
like I’m a little late to getting around to this review but my intention here
at Tasting Gaming is not necessarily to jump on the newest thing but rather
talk about what I like or things I find important, or just simply the most
recent game I played, despite that this times out well with the upcoming
physical release of Shovel Knight coming out on October 13th as well
as the first content update that Shovel Knight has received dubbed “Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows,” We’ll
get into that more later on.
Shovel
Knight was developed and is published by Yacht Club Games, who I’ve never
heard of prior to this game but I can guarantee we’ll be hearing a lot more
about them as the game world continues to age, if they go onto make hundreds of
more games the game community will be that much luckier for it and if somehow
they crash and burn it’ll be one of the most giant upsets in our community.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign Shovel Knight went on to be release on
PC and Nintendo Systems in June of 2014, various ports were release on multiple
consoles in multiple countries since then due to its well-deserved critical
success.
Upon
launching this game you’re introduced to an 8-bit Yacht Club logo, extremely
briefly and then brought to the main screen which is just “Shovel Knight” in
some fancy font and your options written in white against a black screen. Very
retro feel though somehow doesn’t feel or seem cheap at all, I mention the
briefness of booting it up because something about having to see a disclaimer,
a developer logo, a publisher logo, skip a cut scene, press start then be able
to play just really grinds my gears and this game addresses that well, whether
or not that’s because of the size of the team doesn’t matter to me, it’s very
well done and I’d like to see this more in games. There was something so reminiscent
about the Shovel Knight logo and I couldn’t lay my finger on it, until a close
friend of mine pointed out its extremely similar to the “Conan the Barbarian” logo whether or not that was intentional who
knows, could be a subtle nod to the series though. I’ve never watched or played
anything in the Conan universe so I don’t
think that’s the bell it rings in my head every time I see it but this is
getting way off topic so back to the review.
The
game starts off with some gorgeous still-picture cutscenes, giving you enough
of the narrative to paint a picture of the world you’re stepping into without
overloading you with flavor text and spoon feeding you things, it gives you
your motivation and leaves the right amount of work to your imagination and
flushing out through NPC interaction throughout the game. You’re Shovel Knight,
a knight who uses a shovel instead of a sword and you go on wondrous adventures
with your partner-in-crime Shield Knight until one day you guys go into a Tower-of-Darkness
kind of thing, shit goes down and Shield Knight remains trapped inside the tower,
Shovel Knight slips into a downward spiral becomes a recluse and without his
influence, without his presence the land falls under the rule of the
Enchantress and her minions, “The Order of No Quarter,” I just love that name.
One day word gets out that the Tower is now accessible again and Shovel Knight
sets out his adventure to rescue Shield Knight and that’s where you take
control.
You’re
dropped into a pretty standard first level, you know green, hilly, blue skies
that kind of thing, it does a great job of introducing mechanics like, the
downward shovel attack which is extremely throughout the entire game, there’s a
part where you have to use this attack to bounce off three objects
consecutively or otherwise fall into a pit which really trains you for a lot of
the future levels, it also introduces mini-boss styled encounters and a boss
at the end that is an Evil Shovel Knight, which seems cliché , but there’s
something about it I really like, he’s black and red as opposed to your initial
cerulean colored armor with gold trim and uses a lot of the same techniques as
you, he acts as a reoccurring encounter like Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 or Gary (Blue,) in the Pokémon series. After you’re done with your first encounter you’re
introduced to the first Dream sequence which without going into too much detail
really helps establish Shovel Knight’s relationship with and feelings towards
Shield Knight, there’s little to no text in these sequence and they’re brief
and interactive, you awake at the campfire, and exit to be introduced to world
map. The World Map is gorgeous, Super
Mario Bros. 3-esque, with this cloud of darkness looming over the
inaccessible part of the map to imply which direction the bad guys are, the
Pixel art of the individual castles you visit is just stunning if you’re
anything like me it’ll take your breath away the first time you see it, the
first time I saw it shiver of nostalgia goodness flowed down my spine.
I won’t do a full run down of this game step
by step if that’s what you want let me know in the comments, but you could just
watch a “Let’s Play” for that kind of spoiler filled run down, I’d rather touch
base with the feel of the game, key features and go down the bullet points of
what I liked and disliked about it and how it made me feel.
I’d like to mention this game
has some RPG elements to it that an RPG nerd myself really appreciated though
it didn’t bog down the game at all, there’s no leveling up system it would kind
of break the continuity of Shovel Knight being a “renowned knight” if you had
to work your way up from level one but rather it has a couple very interesting
systems in place. There’s two towns you can visit in the game one immediately after
the first level one and one that becomes accessible later on, these act as your
hubs, your shops and whatnot are found here.
The first town contains shops for your health
and magic upgrades, as well a shop for goblets and a shop for relics. The first
town also has a bard who buys music sheets off of you, music sheets are hidden
collectibles each level contains each one and not only do you get handsomely
rewarded for them you can also access the songs and have the bard play them for
you whenever you want which is a nice little touch. As you progress through the
game each main level will have a relic shop hidden within it with a relic that’s
seemingly imperative to the level but if you somehow beat the level and miss
the relic shop you can always return to the first town and buy the relics which
is again just a nice touch. The relics are abilities that use magic points
and only one can be equipped one at a time though you can change what relic you
currently have equipped on the fly as long as you own it. The Goblets will
allow you to visit Trouple Pond and carry up to two potions, which they refer
to as “ichors,” at any given time which is extremely handy later on in the
game. The second town contains your weapon and armor upgrades. Weapon upgrades
are cumulative so as you buy them they’re just equipped to you, they’re all
useful and the best part is you don’t have to choose between them. The Armor is
a different case you can buy as many as you want but you can only have one
equipped at a time and can only change what one you have equipped by visiting
the shop.
I know it sounds like I’m nothing
but an advocate for this game which isn’t a lie I would recommend this game to
anybody, young or old doesn’t matter but that doesn’t mean there isn’t stuff I disliked
about the game and that’s what this little sections going to be for. My first
gripe with the game, which is subjective and can vary from player to player
depending on your skill and playstyle but that’s what this is all about, is
that after the first level the map is blocked off until you complete two castle
in no particular order but you must complete them both to progress further. That’s
not my concern, I actually like how they let you play in whatever order you
want but add these blocked off sections to maintain a little bit of linearity
for linearity’s sake, but rather my problem is the difficulty of Specter Knight’s
castle, it was personally one of the most difficult levels for me in the whole
game and you can’t progress to the fourth level or the next town without
beating it. I can already hear the future comments of “OMG that level was soooo
easy git gud n00b,” and that’s fine I’m glad it as easy for you but I can’t be
alone in thinking it was a little much for being one of three of the opening
levels, and in recommending this game to everybody I feel like this just makes
it less accessible newcomers especially if they’re not seasoned vets of
platformers, I don’t think the level should be taken out or even edited just
maybe placed later on, though it does prepare you well for what is to come like
I said it was one of the hardest levels for me. It’s not necessarily the level
layout I mean parts are a little difficult but it’s actually pretty straight
forward if you’re the type to experiment but half way through the level the
lights go out, it’s only brief and it comes back on and goes back out and comes
back on, you get the idea. But this isn’t difficult through complexity it
literally goes black and you’re forced to stand still or take leaps of faith
whilst threats pursue you and you have to get past puzzles and then the level
has again for me what was one of the most difficult boss battles in the game
and half way through its lifebar it pulls this same thing with the lights going
out. This only bothers me so much because to me this feels like one of the only
few oversights this game has and it truly is a game that deserves to be played
by everybody so I’d just hate to see this difficulty curve make it that much
less accessible and they just seems so out of place in a game that is otherwise
very fair and brilliantly balanced.
My other three gripes are much simpler
and will probably be way less of an unpopular opinion than my last one. Ones
pretty straight forward and it’s that most of the armor upgrades feel so unnecessary
which feels so out of place which I’ll explain later. Secondly, that later on
in the game there’s segments where you’re taking leaps of faith just jumping
into the darkness which again feels so out of place especially in a game where
you feel like every death is your own fault. Lastly, there’s no upward attack
which doesn’t make or break anything I just would’ve liked to see it and now
for the much longer section where I talked about what it is I love about Shovel Knight.
THE ART!!! I can go on and on about
how well done the sprite work and the scenery are so well crafted it really
puts itself on the art side of the pixel graphics vs. pixel art debate which I mentioned
in my last Tasting Gaming articley thing. Two odd note-worthy things for me are:
1.) that every time you encounter a knight its substantial and I don’t just
mean the bosses (The Order of no Quarter members,) but just the normal everyday
knights that are scattered throughout most levels, each encounter carries
weight they’re difficult, they take thought to beat and this isn’t just fun for
me it also helped make me believe that I was in a world where knights were
revered, ruled the land and were taken very seriously, and this is without any
text going “hey, these are difficult because they’re knights” and in most cases
you can just run right past them which is your best bet until you obtain some
relics and upgrades. 2.) This one’s not so critical might just be me but I love
that one member of the Order of No Quarter is what looks like a Viking holding
an over-sized Snow Shovel as opposed to Shovel Knight’s digging shovel which
made me go “okay, these guys were once friends or at least have something to do
with each other” and sure enough they were, it was flushed out a little more
from some pre and post battle banter I just love how this game uses these
visual and mechanical cues to tell so much of a story, create so much of an
atmosphere without words, it truly is impressive.
Somehow even though there was the
generic run down of a Green foresty opening level, castles, an underwater level,
a snow level and a lava level, Each one of these levels is very unique, the
layout and level design are top notch and really exist in a league of their
own, each one is relatively long and they will test your peak platforming
abilities and force you to use abilities and knowledge you’ve obtained from
previous level. I absolutely love love love the world map one of my favorite
things is there are boss-like and bonus level-like encounters that will periodically
appear on the map and really add some more substance to the game, they are way more
welcomed than they are at all intrusive. Everything feels so “right where it
belongs” all the relics and upgrades are useful except I only found one armor
upgrade to be useful which for how expensive they are and how otherwise
balanced and well placed everything is just really seems out of place. Every
death feels like it’s your fault, every encounter with a knight, a mini-boss or
a member of the Order of No Quarter holds water, it carries weight, it has substance
and very few if any experiences in this game are forgettable. The physics and
the controls are just perfect, honestly it’ll spoil playing other platformers
for you if you go in expecting their controls to have the same buttery fluidity
that Shovel Knight has and I don’t know
how else to explain this other than the weight of Shovel knight and the gravity
of the world are very believable, substantial and not at all “floaty.”
I would say one of my favorite thing about
this game, well its actually two things that go hand-in-hand, one is that money
is realistic, you work for it, it doesn’t ever accumulate to an excessive
amount, at least not in one play through, and the price of the things reflects
how substantial they are to the game (sans armor,) two is that that you have
theoretically an infinite amount of continues, no arbitrary life system, this
is one of the most interesting things about this game because I’ve heard for a
while now that the use of life-based systems say like Mario or Sonic are
outdated and I’ve often wonder what a better alternative is and Yacht Club
Games approached this brilliantly, when you die you lose a fraction of your
money which oddly is so much more punishing, is so much more valuable than
losing a life, and my favorite part is you’ll almost always want to plow back
to where you died to collect your money and they let you do this it’s just so
brilliant and so satisfying.
There’s some “shoutouts” and some “fan
service,” that are very noteworthy one because the game was “kick started”
there is a more casual level called “the Hall of Champions” where contributors
of a certain tier’s portraits are proudly displayed in beautiful pixel art
hanging throughout the level. A bit of fan service I really enjoyed is
additional encounters on the world map exclusive to Xbox One and PS4, Xbox got
a Battletoads encounter and PS4 got a
Kratos Cameo, from the God of War
series. I’m assuming this is because these version were released almost a year
after the Nintendo and Windows release of the game and the additions don’t just
add value to first time players but also to people who are re-buying it now for
their preferred consoles. I personally played the game on Steam, but then
helped my friend beat it on his Xbox One, sadly I haven’t tried the Kratos
encounter but I did get a chance to sink my teeth into the Battletoads one. First off, how you activate the encounter and
where you do it is fantastic, secondly it was hard like really really hard I’ve
never died so many times in a row trying to accomplish one task but luckily
they foresaw this and you don’t lose money in this encounter, without going
into too much detail it really stays true to the Battletoads franchise and beating it is extremely rewarding not
just because of its difficulty but literally the reward you get for completing
it is frikkin’ sweet, I’ve heard this is true of the reward for the Kratos
encounter too.
Now this game does that thing where
you think it’s over already but then there’s more and its very well done and
again welcomed, without getting into spoiler territory the end is very
satisfying and very difficult, the “surprise element” revealed towards the end
was predictable to me right from the get go, this didn’t hinder the game at all
for me it was still amazing and really it wasn’t very story focused anyways
besides giving your hero motivation to move forward, I’ll go as far to say as
this “surprise element” reminded me of a bit from the latter part of Final Fantasy VIII’s story. After you beat the game there is a New Game Plus mode
which approaches the New Game Plus formula very uniquely in increasing the difficulty,
there’s less checkpoints, the food you normally would find throughout levels to
heal yourself is for the most part replaced with bombs, the potions you’d find
to heal your magic heal it less, you take significantly more damage from enemy’s
blows and oddly enough you get more money I think this is so you can go through
and buy things you missed the first time and to help with money based achievements.
Lastly I’d like to address that
this game is often referred to as “mimicking” or “mirroring” older style games,
which is true to some extent but I feel it holds up very well on its own merits
and is flat out in my opinion better than a lot if not most of its predecessors.
Now I grew up playing a lot of Donkey
Kong and Mario but other than
that my childhood was mostly Final
Fantasy, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
and Grand Theft Auto so I can’t
really account for how much of Shovel Knight
is cashing in on nostalgia other than aesthetics which Yacht Club pulled
off painfully well, I found the experience to be very uniquely varied from the Marios, Sonics and Donkey Kongs that
came before it other than in the sense that you move to the right, there’s
usually secrets hidden to the left and you jump over instant death pits
sometimes. I often hear the comparison to Mega
Man, I never played Mega Man as a
child and rather than it making me want to play Shovel Knight, Shovel
Knight has made me want to go back experience what the Mega Man catalog has to offer though I do definitely see where some
people draw parallels with the open boss fight system, and how each boss has a
theme that is readily apparent in the aesthetic of the same level as them
and the equipment you obtain but I don’t think it is a 1:1 clone of it at
all it definitely stands out on its own and new gamers and retro gamers alike
are lucky to experience Shovel Knight.
So yeah that was my first review, a
little wordy, long in the tooth but I like being able to let everything out
here so definitely let me know what you guys think positive or negative all
feedback is welcomed, I’d to close this by plugging the Physical Release of
Shovel Knight coming out October 13th , 2015 I absolutely can’t wait
to hold a copy of this game in my hands it’s one of those games that truly deserves
a physical release and they’re adding sooooooo much content to it with trial
modes, new story campaigns, new characters to play as and some customization options.
My favorite part is they’re doing all this and keeping the price of the
physical release at $20.00 (in the US at least,) and not only that any future
updates are free to owners of this game, so obviously I highly recommend this
game to freaking everybody, if you haven’t played it yet you my friend are in
for a treat. One of the trickier Bosses from the campaign, Plague Knight will
have his own campaign right from the get go and I plan on reviewing that campaign
and the physical copy in a much briefer, future review. If you cant wait til October there's a link to it below on Steam for the low low price of $15 USD.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/250760/
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