This game is a masterpiece!! The first campaign is an amazing nostalgia trip for people that loved 8-bit platform games like Ducktales, Castlevania and Megaman. The rest of the campaigns go beyond that with more creative level design and gameplay. The story and characters are great! better than in any 8-bit platform game I played in the past! the music! oooh the music! it's a blast! tons of content, a lot of stuff to do! There are some design choices here and there that some players wouldn't like, for example, the way checkpoints are implemented means that sometimes you need to play long sessions if you don't want to have to repeat 30 minutes up to an hour of lost progress next time. Overall though, this game is as close to perfection you can get.
A brilliant game inspired by old-school classics such as mega man, castlevania, mario, zelda etc. The soundtrack is also fantastic. Prepare to be surpised as i was with one of the best indie games ive ever played.
PS - King Knight is so Dandy
Fantastic music, tight controls, fun levels/bosses, beautiful art direction...
An homage to the classics of the 8bit era, while still forging its own identity, Shovel Knight is a true masterpiece.
Well, Shovel Knight is kind of a massive game (with three different campains as of now). The story of knights, that have to fight each other under different circumstances, is perfectly shown in an old-school visual style, inspired by the era of NES and Genesis action platformers, such as DuckTales, Mario or Aladdin. The difficulty of levels increase throughout the game, and, as many have already mentioned, there are no extra lives. Just like in Demon's Souls, you lose the part of your precious money in the place you have died, and return to a checkpoint.
Each chapter has its own main character, his tearful story, additional abilities system and special jumping mechanics. Well, the jumping is the main feature of platformers, right?
For the Shovel of Hope original campaign you get Shovel Knight and his, well, shovel jumps ability. For the Spector of Torment campaign you get Spector Knight and his scythe jumps. Finally, for the Plague of Shadows campaign you get Plague Knight and his potion explosion jumps.
As for Plague of Shadows campaign, it seems to be the most frustrating and difficult, as the character is really slow and his special explosion jumps accelerate him like rocket. So you find it hard to land properly even in the beginning levels. Like, really much harder after finishing Shovel of Hope campaign.
On the other hand, Spector of Torment feels less frustrative and much funnier, first of all because of perfectly implemented unique features. Sector Knight can use his scythe on the enemies to jump higher and further, as well as he can walk on the most types of walls.
Ok. So, as for now the game includes three huge different chapters (each the size of a single game), outstanding visuals and sharp-cut game mechanics, which will captivate you for at least 20 hours. Good buy! :)
"In life, you have two choices: You either play Shovel Knight or die."
I cannot express how great this game really is. Perfect controls, satisfying boss battles, and its storyline create for a unique experience, that most 2D platformers these days miss out on.
Additionally, the soundtrack is great, and it grows along with your character as you unlock more and more songs. This is nice feature as it avoids drowning out the player with the same repeatable tunes throughout the game.
Finally, the developers are fantastic, offering 2 great versions of add-on content with Plague of Shadows and Spectre of Torment, which are good enough to be stand alone games.
I hope more games like this come out, because this is really something special.
