You know, Shovel Knight is one of those games I thought I would never enjoy due to it being a platformer (which is my least favorite game genre); but maybe I hated the genre too much.

At the time of me writing this, Shovel Knight is one of my favorite games of 2022. Granted it’s only February, but I don’t care, I love this game.

The story is very simple: Shovel Knight has to go rescue Shield Knight, who is trapped in the Tower of Fate. The Order of No Quarter is there to stop the knight in blue from reaching the said tower. Personally, I think the story could have been more detailed and larger, but the game’s story really doesn’t affect the main part of the game: the gameplay.

When I could barely beat the first level, I thought of dropping the game right then and there because the “shovel hop” ability was too confusing for me to understand. But after going through a couple more levels, I started to understand the controls and mechanics a lot more and I found the “shovel hop” to get easier and easier to use. Like mentioned earlier, I don’t like platformers; I find the gameplay too boring and redundant. But for some reason, Shovel Knight’s gameplay was so fun for me to play. I found myself wanting to keep playing until I beat the game.

It was cool that every level, even the towns, had a secret a part of them. I loved looking for the secret song scrolls and trying to find all the gems to buy new gear and abilities. I also found the concept of getting extra HP to be a cool concept.

I think the reason I am giving the game a 4-star rating is the difficulty spike. Especially in the early game, the bosses’ difficulty spikes so high. By the end, they’re pretty easy to defeat; but the first two bosses I found challenging. While you’re stuck with four HP, the bosses have eight HP, which can be difficult to fight, especially if it’s your first attempt. It was infuriating dying to the same boss over and over again. I luckily beat these bosses, but I was frustrated. Luckily, the farther you get in the game, the easier the bosses are due to abilities and extra HP on your end. But, the farther you get, the harder and more complicated the platforming is; so, it’s a trade-off.

Overall however, I found myself enjoying the game so much. I’m so excited to play the next game, “Specter Knight”. I recommend playing the game; even if you aren’t a fan of platformers, give it a shot. This game for me was the catalyst to start playing other platformers.

I originally started playing Shovel Knight: Shovel of hope way back in 2017. I made it a few hours into the game, but I set it aside with no plan to go back to finish it. The main reason I gave up on it was because I grew tired of losing a good portion of the money I had gathered in a level every time that I died.

In late 2021 I was in a bit of a rut with what to play next, so I decided to give Shovel of Hope another change. I booted the game up where I left off, and after a few lousy runs I had relearned the controls and found myself having an absolute blast.
Shovel of Hope has so many great elements that add up to make it one of the greatest indie games of all time. First, the graphics. Yacht Club Games nailed the retro aesthetic here, and everything has such a cohesive look throughout. World and enemy designs are great, as are the bosses. The soundtrack was spot on too and I really loved listening to it throughout my play through.

The gameplay is what you would expect from a retro platformer too, being challenging but not impossible. The checkpoint system is a nice touch too, allowing you to not have to start all the way back at the start if you die. The challenging nature of the gameplay often lead to some moments of frustration, but I always felt these moments were due to my own mistake, not because the game was being unfair. This was apparent in the incredibly well-designed boss fights which often seemed ridiculously challenging, but after a few deaths I always learned their mechanics and was able to take them down with relative ease.

Additionally, to round out the package as a whole, the game has incredible writing. I really liked how all the characters had quirky personalities and the writing style was actually quite funny. I love how these personalities were further fleshed out in other games in the Shovel Knight series too.

I really have nothing bad to say about Shovel of Hope. It has one of the best retro aesthetics of any modern-day platformer. The gameplay is challenging and often times frustrating, but it always feels fair. Its humorous writing, its interesting and well-developed characters, and its truly unique game world make for a truly charming adventure. This is a must play indie game that I cannot recommend enough.

"A New Hope For The Platforming Genre"

The OG adventure was fantastic! I enjoyed the colorfully organized pixel art, the simple yet difficult gameplay, and the amazing soundtrack. However, the final levels were a bit frustrating and I wished that some characters were fleshed out more. I liked that there was a varied customization within this game without it feeling overwhelming. There are shovel upgrades and different types of armor to purchase as well as health/mana upgrades. Additionally, there is a number of collectibles, and many weren’t too hard to find. Collectible hunting didn’t feel like a chore nor felt like I was going too far out of my way to break game flow!

The story is good but lacks some depth. I wish some characters had more personality, and the level designs could have been crafted in a way where it gave some insight to their backstories rather than an overall theme. However, the themes were great! I also really loved the soundtrack, with it being one of the best I have heard in gaming! There are some serious jams in here and they fit a lot of the fights that occur.

Overall, this first entry is delightful. It has a few flaws that kept it from being “next level” for me, but it is a finely crafted platformer with a whole lot of charm. I can easily Recommend this entry, and it left me excited to see what’s next in store with…

Final Verdict: 9/10 (Excellent)

My friend gifted me this game and I was like "Is this game worth the hype?" Yes. Yes, it is. This game is everything people said it out to be and then some. It's full of incredible level design and it seemed to be an enjoyable game for people around me to watch. I died, like, a lot. It was not an easy game, but beating the game felt very rewarding. I did not like a couple of parts, like some autoscrollers and one part of the Tinkerer Knight's stage, but those moments were few and far between. Overall, it was a very good experience.

Honestly it feels great when a hyped up game manages to live up to your expectations and even overdelievers

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope is a really great Indie 2D Platformer made by former Wayforward employees called Yacht Club Games, after a successful Kickstarter, this game was graced to the many consoles it's on. Shovel Knight I feel not only does exactly what it sets out to do (I.E being a modern styled NES Platformer) but is one of the best 2D Platformers I've ever played.

The game takes a lot of inspiration from the world/level structure from Mega Man and Super Mario Bros 3 along with movement from Ducktales while standing on its own and being better than all 3 of these inspirations. Shovel Knight's level design is great as it feels pretty challenging and fair while using Shovel Knight's simple, tight and fun movement as you traverse these mystically 8 levels with many enemies and unique landscapes as this game will test all of your platforming skills ending with some gruelling yet fair boss fights (apart from Propeller Knight he sucks)

While it's reminiscent of a late 80's NES Game, the game isn't stuck in the past unlike say Sonic Mania, Mega Man 9 or 10, which are the pinnacle of the series (not Sonic Mania lol) but admittedly don't advance the series in any way at all. Shovel Knight obviously isn't a part of the series but does this for these types of platformers in general, many tropes in this game are either gone or completely subverted.

Most notably, lives are gone and the punishment is losing at a maximum of 3 Bags of the Treasure. I'm not gonna talk about whether or not lives belong in games or not since it depends on the game, but it works in its favour like Super Mario Odyssey which shamelessly stole this system. You don't need to get the Treasure but you probably want to, since you need them for buying shovel/Health/Armour/Magic upgrades or relics, optional items which can be bought by a vendor. These are pretty hit and mis. and one of the only major issue with the game, on one hand they can provide a nice little game changer such as the Mobile Gear, Phase Locket and Propeller but most of them come of sort and are very situational. Another issue is that i kinda feel there needed to be a bit more enemy variety and how you approach them since a lot of the encounters feel really one note.

Shovel Knight also adds a few other new ideas that makes it really feel like a great follow up to this enjoyable while dated era of games, such as digging stuff with your shovel, collecting music notes which can unlock music to be played in the Hub World earned by doing a challenge in the stage, along with the World Map system that's sorta a mix between Mega Man & Basa of all games and Super Mario Bros 3 where you unlock multiple boss stages at once, this allows for a good amount of choice/replayability while also increasing the challenge significantly, You've also got 3 Hub Worlds (4 with an exclusive Streetpass Arena from the 3DS) which allow you to talk to NPCs and upgrade your equipment, finally similar to Super Mario Bros 3 you've got optional Boss fights with characters such as Solar Strike or Black Knight which are harder than the main bosses but give you a lot of treasure, There's even a neat risk reward system with the Checkpoints where you can break them to gain a Gem but you can't spawn there anymore.

One last thing that Shovel Knight excels at is its presentation and surprisingly the story. The game has this really charming 2D Pixel art that doesn't hold back with a colour palette that's not limited by Console limitations and with great animation , along with great designs for the main knights and even with the unique side characters. The music is also pretty great and memorable, i find music that's trying to element an older soundfont doesn't sound that great in my opinion but here the soundtrack uses the limited soundfont to produce some amazing themes. But lastly, the story isn't anything amazing but it's surprisingly in depth, it follows Shovel Knight going on one last adventure after finding out the Enchantress has gathered 7 Knights to take over the land it has a lot of charming dialogue with the main theme of what it means to be a Knight/Adventurer and without delving into spoilers, there's a lot of moments where there's a good amount of character development/moments, it's not super in-depth but it's definitely admirable that the game wants to develop it's world and characters such as every boss having a Mega Man Powered Up of Boss Preludes.

So overall Shovel Knight is a great 2D Platformer that isn't a major game changer but definitely shakes up a lot of NES Platforming tropes making it probably better than any of the games it's taking inspiration from so I'll give it a good recommend if you haven't played it already, if this is how good the first game is then i hope the DLC can uphold or even surpass this game.

I got pretty frustrated with nostalgia-fueled pixel games. 8-bit games were never really as good as we remember them, and new games made in the same style are often just as mediocre.

Where Shovel Knight succeeds is that it doesn't strictly adhere to the 8-bit identity. Shovel Knight is a game that's as great as you remember 8-bit games being. It perfects the formula established by classics like Castlevania, Mega Man and Ducktales. The full edition of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is a strong contender for the Greatest 2D Platformer of All-Time.

There is no other 2D platformer I would recommend as heartily as Shovel Knight.

Also, the soundtrack is BANGIN'.

Shovel Knight has arguably become the face of retro-inspired indie games, and it’s pretty easy to see why. The game successfully captures the spirit of classic 8-bit titles on the NES. It lifts the best elements from many games of that period such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Zelda II: Link’s Awakening, Castlevania, Mega Man, Ducktales, and I’m sure other games that I don’t recognize, and puts them together in a surprisingly cohesive fashion. This makes for a memorable and very enjoyable platforming experience.

The levels are very well designed. They take a lot of cues from the Mega Man games, with each level having one or two gimmicks that relate to the correspondingly themed boss you fight at the end of the level, which leads to interesting platforming challenges. The level gimmicks are actually quite clever, as they go beyond your typical elemental hazards in platforming. Polar Knight’s level is ice themed, and includes traditional ice level hazards such as slippery platforms. However, there’s also this platform with a Nordic statue on it that when struck by your shovel will launch forward and shoot out a rainbow bridge that Shovel Knight must traverse across. I really like the thought and care that was put into these levels and their gimmicks. One I’m not personally a fan of though is Specter Knight’s level, which is enshrouded in darkness, allowing you to only see the outlines of yourself, enemies, and platforms. I hesitate to actually call it bad, but having my sight robbed from me like that made his level and his boss fight in particular extremely frustrating, especially since this level was one of the earlier levels in the game and I wasn’t quite acclimated to the game’s feel yet.

One of the elements the game takes from its inspirations is a high difficulty. The game does get rather tough, especially in the latter levels. However, it's never unfair, even if it does feel cheap at times. This is because the game provides numerous checkpoints throughout levels and lacks lives/continues. Instead, you lose an amount of gold collected during your travels, which you can even recover when you go through the area where you died again. Gold can be important in Shovel Knight, but you don’t really need gold for very much. You do need it for meal tickets if you want to increase your health, and you do need it for the hidden treasures you can find in levels (which can be very useful) but those are the best uses for gold that I could find. There’s even a set of armor that you can purchase that halves the amount of gold you lose when you die, and it’s one of the cheapest armor sets you can buy in the game. This means that you have many, many chances to retry levels over and over again. As long as you don’t give up, you will make progress, and you will finish the game.

The story, keeping true to its 8-bit roots, is rather light and straightforward in terms of its content. However, that small amount of story that’s there is rather charming and well executed. The dialogue in particular does a great job of demonstrating each character’s personality, and it’s all quite likable. I’m also a big fan of how the game communicates just how much Shield Knight means to Shovel Knight with the dream sequences. These sequences, combined with the game’s ending, are actually quite emotional and I was surprisingly moved by them.

Shovel Knight is an all-around excellent title that truly lives up to the games that inspired it. It’s short, sweet, to the point, and very satisfying to finish. It manages to retain the difficulty of those classic 8-bit titles, but in a way that’s fair and minimizes frustration. The levels all manage to be fresh and unique. I can see why this game is held in such high regard, and I very much regret letting this sit in my Steam Library for nearly a decade before finally sitting down to play it. It’s a must-play title that truly lives up to the hype.

What an absolute banger! Shovel Knight breaks free from the constraints of its genre influences, offering surprisingly little in the way of artificial difficulty or unfair game design. The pacing of the game is spot-on and the level design is honestly flawless.

The character writing and world-building in Shovel Knight are surprisingly compelling for a platformer game. While still simple, there's always something fun about a knight with a shovel going on a perilous journey to reunite with his long lost love. It's an all-around enjoyable experience and undoubtedly ranks with the great platformer hits of old.

I've always heard great things about this game as a very solid platformer and I've got to say that it delivered in every aspect.

I love the art style. The sprite designs were great, giving a mix of very modernistic designs along with these strange vague enemies that you might see in a plaformer from the late 80s/early 90s.

The music and sound design fit perfectly in the overall approach. While I didn't find myself humming any particular tune, they were certainly enjoyable throughout the game.

Lastly, while the story isn't exactly the deepest thing, the ending surprised me in how it made me feel. I won't spoil it but the final moments spiked some emotion in me that I certainly wasn't expecting.

This game was a solid game to play while travelling with the switch, would recommend to anyone looking for a quick and fun game that isn't too challenging. Looking forward to playing the sequels