It might come to mind that Yacht Club is exploiting its franchise a bit too much, dragging it in directions that seem ill-fitting and far too experimental, but here again we are faced with success. Rather than bending the series to fit into a different well-coded game structure, Shovel Knight Dig proudly reinterprets the roguelike in its own style, managing both to stay true to its origins and to come up with something different and new. The roguelite mechanisms are perfectly matched to the action, which remains somewhat strongly linked to the classic Shovel Knight action, especially in terms of the feeling provided by the gameplay and character control. It is also enhanced by a representation derived from the usual care in retro 16-bit style aesthetics. It's true that the levels are a bit few in the end and the semi-permanent death mechanic can be frustrating, but it's easy to get caught up in the formula and keep throwing yourself down the well, armed with a shovel.

Rogue-likes are some of my favourite games, and among the many rogue-likes I own, Shovel Knight Dig is absolutely one of the best I've played.

If you've played the original Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope game, you'll quickly find your footing, as the gameplay is quite similar, only you're going down instead of sideways, like in Downwell. I think the name of the game is satisfaction: digging through dirt is quick, snappy and instantly rewarding, same for collecting gems, the sound design of which enhances the experience tenfold. The game is crammed with stuff to do, even after the true ending is reached, with an increasingly difficult post-game that I have yet to complete due to how hard it gets.
To put it simply, it's as if a classic game like Mega Man or Castlevania was remade to fit in a roguelike setting, and it's definitely an incredibly experience. Cannot recommend this enough!

PS: I also own this game on Switch, which is a testament to how captivating the game is.

If you loved the original shovel knight and craved for more, this is a perfect game for you as it is basically an "unlimited" shovel knight, taking the same original gameplay and making it a roguelite with beautiful upgraded 16 bit visuals.

While a very enjoyable gameplay loop, as of writing this review the game is still a bit barebones on content seeing how you can still beat it in a few hours, and Shovel Knight being the only playable character leaves a bit more to be desired.

I can easily see this go from an 8 to a 9 if it gets the same love and added content in future updates as the original shovel knight did.

Honestly I had quite a bit of fun with this game when it released. The stages had good visuals, music, and decent layouts, although some hazards could get really annoying, and certain flying enemies really got in the way of having fun.

But for a rougelite you would expect the game to have more post game content. But after unlocking almost everything, and getting the true ending, I felt I didn't really have a reason to come to this one.

But, they "recently" released a new update for the game, which added a difficulty meter in the style of Dead Cells. I think I'll come back to this eventually, but this should have been part of the base game.

Feels like I liked this one more than a lot of people did, but it's still not as much as I'd hoped.

Shovel Knight Dig has a lot of systems with its procedurally generated levels, you have to adapt on the fly to a lot of shenanigans. In reality a lot of it is hoping the stars align and you get the right set of items (my saving grace was the "lose one max HP instead of dying" which sounds way less helpful than it is, it saved my life) and then you can win. There are small things you can do to increase your odds in the overworld, but it's not a lot, your bulk is going to be decided in the underground.

Despite all this it's not that hard most of the time. The most frustrating thing I'd say was in Scrap's level, mainly the book enemies that block your way down, and sometimes the BIG SAW that comes up if you're in an area for too long, but it goes off fairly quickly. The spritework's fantastic, and the music, while not as good as I was expecting out of Shovel Knight, was still nice.

I was really looking forward to this as my first entry to Shovel Knight games. What I got is a typical rogue like, the type I DON’T like. There is no meaningful progression you can bring with you after dying. You can only buy the chance to encounter certain items based on the short time I played. I read that you can also unlock shortcuts eventually. There are other upgrades but they reset after dying. This is a big red flag but there is more that didn’t jive with me.

The controls/gameplay didn’t feel right. It’s hard to explain how but there is a chance this could improve the more you play. However, I can already tell that the levels and enemies are not great. There are some cheap sections right at the start, there are enemies that keep respawning, there is a drill that follows you if you stay too long in one spot etc. It doesn’t feel like a good gradual introduction to the game and its challenge.

There might be a great game hidden here but I’m not sticking around to find out. I can already imagine the repetitiveness and frustration that will show up and that’s never a good thing when you barely played the game.

On paper, this is a dream come true.
The visuals of Nitrome mixed with the world and music of Shovel Knight? Unreal.
But for some godforsaken reason, this game LOVES to play dirty and I don't mean the digging.
Enemies, some constantly spawning (sometimes right in your face), some dealing damage offscreen from above or so fast that you couldn't possibly react.
A lot of items in the game are worthless, a couple making the run harder, which is just ridiculous.
The requirements for the true ending are insane and incredibly easy to miss simply because the game is random. Not to mention unfair hitboxes.
Previous Shovel Knight entries feel like a grand, fun adventure. This, however, feels more like getting punched in the balls, getting sand in the eyes, or slapped in the face, constantly.
It knows how to introduce secrets right, but unfortunately, that's it.
Disappointing!

One of the most disappointing sequels I have ever played, bar none.

Shovel Knight was, and still is, an incredible 2D platformer even if it was severely lacking in originality. It borrowed its inspiration from all of the right NES games and had several expansions that you didn't have to purchase if you bought the main game (which was already great) at launch.

All Yacht Club really needed to do for a follow-up was more of the same with perhaps a 16-bit aesthetic and a "Super" moniker.

Unfortunately, they decided to be lazy and let the computer generate the levels for them. Because, you know, game journalists slobber over anything that is a roguelike. The concept behind this game (that is, digging further and further down a chasm with the impending threat of a drill coming to whiff your ass) isn't that bad for a spinoff, but not at the cost of real level design.

To add insult to injury, this game cost five dollars more than the original Shovel Knight did at launch while offering significantly less to do.

Oh well, at least the art direction is more or less what I expected and the music is good- not that it can carry an otherwise soul-less experience. I got the normal ending once after maybe two hours of playing and see no point in going back. I'll just revisit the original Shovel Knight when I need my fix, and I'd suggest you do the same.

Unfortunately, playing this one made me think of better games that I would rather be playing. Well, one is a set of games: the Treasure Trove games. I could be playing any one of those and doing a challenge run in which I destroy every checkpoint. That would have the same effect of resetting my progress with each death, but I would benefit from well-crafted levels and more precise controls. Similarly, I think there's some clear inspiration from Downwell in here, but without the momentum and deceptive simplicity. Those are good ingredients, but they don't come together in Shovel Knight Dig. Ultimately, I don't think that procedural generation and Shovel Knight go all that well together.

I really love Shovel Knight! The charisma of the series is enormous! and Shovel knight Dig is charismatic is a challenging and difficult roguelike! There are points in the game that are very frustrating, I know it's a Roguelike but it was frustrating at a certain point in the game to lose progress and do everything from scratch, it's addictive to have these adventures and try again the original game remains my favorite but the experience was very fun with Shovel knight Dig, the game will receive DLC and also has an alternative ending.

Man did I enjoy the original Shovel Knight collection, and seeing that there was a mobile Rouge-like version I downloaded it imminently. Overall this is a fun Rouge-like package that includes a bunch of fun secrets, a solid core gameplay loop and a few post game challenges and achievements that will keep me coming back to it even after finishing the main run. I do find it a little lacking, while everything that's here is fantastic and should be played, it left me wanting a little more. Once the few upgrades are unlocked, your treasure becomes a little useless. Overall a good game leaving you wanting more isn't a terrible thing.