Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Yes, I was very surprised that this game is actually much better than retro megaman series. Level design is somewhat similar to megamans but there're much more fun factors than just new weapons. Hidden passages, relics, story, bgm and even graphics are very well structured and polished to make this game unique. Highly recommended.

This game blends some of the aspects of Megaman, Ducktales, Mario 3 and Castlevania together in a very nice mix. To elaborate: There's a sub-weapon system very similar to Castlevania but you gain the weapons themselves at set points (more similar to Megaman). Your movement is more akin to Simon Belmont or Scrooge than Megaman though (which is my biggest gripe). There's also map screen (kinda like Mario 3) and there's even some challenges that show up (a la Mario 3 hammer bros.). Despite my comparisons to Mario 3, it plays like a modernized Castlevania more often than not. To continue the Castlevania comparison, your movement is relatively stiff in the way that Belmont moves in the NES games. It's not a "bad," but it causes some slight issues when you're doing the various precision platforming you need to do to complete some of the levels. As someone who played a lot of the old 8-bit games as a kid, I would definitely recommend this. I'd recommend a gamepad as well (works fine with my DS4).

A platformer done right. A must. The only bad thing about this is - Why isn't a Soundtrack bundled in with this? The soundtrack is awesome!

Final Update is out, the last most recent review is pure drivel so here's a newsflash: Game is great and so are Yacht Club Games' ethics. This has nothing to do with nostalgia. I - Not only are the controls perfectly adequate, I found them to be equally comfortable on either the keyboard or on the X360 controller. My girlfriend and two brothers didn't have a problem either. II - Great art and packed with content. If that isn't immediately clear, Treasure Trove is 4 campaigns + a showdown mode. III - NOWHERE near as "frustrating" as many staples of the genre. Every level has multiple checkpoints, death only incurs a monetary penalty which can be REDEEMED on your next life by doing better and you have access to multiple E-Tank-like health packs. IV - The platforming itself is also much more forgiving than many games of the 8 and 32bit era. Bottomless pits are probably the harshest obstacle you will find and they aren't even that prevalent. V - Continued support at no additional cost for years - not a single dime spent on DLC. If you don't like Shovel Knight, you probably don't like platformers. If you are so bitter you can't recognize its merits, you probably don't like video games.