I love Shovel Knight, but I'm really not into rougelikes as much as I used to be. That being said, Shovel Knight Dig feels like something in the middle between good and terrible.

It definitely has that Shovel Knight charm, but the gameplay loop is dull, especially when you can spend hours not progressing, barely having enough money for a new set of armor or an upgrade. And there's nothing more frustrating than losing a key from a hit that gives you a lot more knockback than you're expecting, enough to throw you deeper down the pit. Or that "You're taking too long" Drill that Drill Knight deploys when the game decides you've had enough time exploring a specific area for secrets and gems. That can fuck right off.

And one more disjointed thought, why wasn't this a co-op game? In Shovel of Hope you get a hint of the chemistry that Shovel Knight and Shield Knight have as a duo. And while you see that in the dialogue here, i feel like a co-op roguelike, or even a co-op mode could've fully explored the chemistry they have in combat together, but no. Every time she shows up she just suggests that they split up and she's off again. Shield Knight may as well not have shown up until the ending.

And as someone who really enjoyed Shovel Knight's trip through 6 games and countless cameos, and hearing that Yacht Club Games is gonna be retiring Shovel Knight; as far as a last hurrah is concerned: this feels more like a whimper than a cheer.

I hate saying this one disappointed me a bit. Maybe it isn't the game's fault because Rouge-likes are hit or miss for me, but I gave it a go anyway because Shovel Knight's one of my favorite games ever, why wouldn't I? Well, it ends up feeling a little tiresome after a while because of how often you're at the mercy of what the games gives you to build with. I can get a good run where I get a lot of Max HP sometimes, and thus have less difficulty surviving, but some runs it just doesn't give me any Max HP upgrades and I end up too fragile to reliably survive the lower parts of the dungeon.

Shovel Knight's hard level design works because fairly generous checkpointing allows you to learn the level design, and dying doesn't hurt so bad. Dying here feels awful because I'm trying to learn the mechanics of the water level's elements, only to get killed and not see the water level again for another half-hour because you start from the very beginning of the game, thus learning the level design becomes a chore. This came to a head when I got to the final level, reached a part that looked like a dead-end, couldn't find out how to progress, and then the drilling machine killed me. What did I do wrong? I'm not gonna find out until I play literally the entire game over again! It wants the Shovel Knight difficulty but still wants the perma-death of a Rogue-like.

Speaking of the drilling machine, I can't help but be shocked you can't turn that off in the options. Pocket Dungeon had such versatile customizable difficulty right down to removing its time limit entirely if you wanted. Why can't I do the same with Dig? The game would certainly kill me a lot less if I was allowed to take my time more.

The procedurally generated level design also rides the fine line of being sort of mish-mash, but also having whole segments that you start easily recognizing more and more. Especially in the first level, Mushroom Mines. Shovel Knight got it so right because every bit of the level design felt intentional and well thought-out, where here it's feeling a little more scattered because segments don't organically lead into one-another as well.

In the end it's still as solid as any Shovel Knight game, but this feels like a notable step down from everything else under the name. At least the pixel-art is gorgeous and the music is a banger, as usual.

Shovel Knight Dig seems like a case of mistaken identity. All of the things that make Shovel Knight great don't lend well to a roguelite and all of the things that modern indie roguelites have done well haven't seemed to make their way into this game. Shovel Knight worked because its difficulty was complemented by hand-crafted level design, with all of a screen's hazard's visible at all times. Dig's procedural generation can result in frustrating enemy and trap placement that often feels unfair rather than fun. Getting hit by an offscreen obstacle or having a gem or cog destroyed right as the screen transitions is never a pleasant experience. The roguelite elements also become grating--the items seem to do mostly nothing useful, and hardly complement one another, making runs blend together instead of each being distinct. Having a large number of items that are either actively harmful or useless pollutes the already dismal loot pool, making only health upgrades useful to me personally. On top of all this, I just spectacularly sucked at this game--I don't think I'm terrible at roguelites, I've breezed through a decent number of them, but I actually had to turn on some of the accessibility options to make this one winnable for me.

Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIO1SbvACKk

Shovel Knight Dig is a decent game, but it lacks that juicy hook that keeps me coming back to roguelikes. Listen, I know there’s a difference between roguelikes and roguelites but I just don’t care. They’re all roguelikes to me. Now, what I love about this genre is how it feels like you’re always making progress, even when you’re not.

Dig don’t do dat doe.

Instead, you barely get any upgrades as you ram your head in to the wall over and over. Or, in this case; in to bed of spikes. I don’t say this very often, but I think this game is too hard. At the very least, it’s difficult in the wrong ways. It just wants you to keep trying but not really have much more of a chance the next time around. Sure, you vaguely pick up on a pattern of that one enemy that keeps taking you out, but that’s 25 minutes in to the run and you might forget your new strategy by the time you attempt revenge. Also, I feel like I never just get hit once. The majority of damage I took in this game was due to me getting hit by one thing in to another thing, and then potentially in to ANOTHER thing.

Your moveset is very lackluster. It’s just not that fun to use. Even the “upgrades” you get to enhance your shovel feel weak and mostly useless. I wasn’t ever excited to get to a shop and see how I could improve my kit. The only reason I was ever happy to see a shop was so that I could heal myself.

On a positive note, the music is great. I had it stuck in my head for a couple weeks. The pixel art is lovely and I didn’t have any issues with how it performed. The boss fights are pretty fun, until you have to repeat them over and over. This really highlights your limited moveset. There isn’t much opportunity to try to take down the bosses (or any enemies for that matter) in more than 1 or 2 ways.

Going in, I thought I’d have a great time. I liked Shovel Knight a lot and I LOVE roguelikes. I just don’t think they did it justice. It’s a solid game. If you like what you see, you might enjoy it. It’s pretty much exactly what it looks like. If you can handle repetitive punishment minus the usually satisfying payoff that roguelikes provide… try it out. You may appreciate it more than I did.

Honestly, the roguelike modifiers aren’t unique or fun enough to make runs distinct, the randomized level designs are really frustrating, collision and hit detection (especially on moving dirt in Drill Knight’s castle) is janky, and the Knightmares they recently introduced are 100% unfiltered bullshit. Despite all this, I had the game 100% complete before the recent Fate and Fortune update. I don’t think I have the patience to grind through the frustration of the new content they introduced here.

Game is fine with beautiful graphics, really good control and thoughtful attention to detail. But really flounders with progression and gets repetitive quickly. My favorite thing about roguelikes is making insane builds and skillfully using that to complete the game, but in this game there isn't any item you pick up that feels particularly broken when you combine it. Everything feels pretty weak actually. Couple that with complete lack of progression other than buying your way to the later levels. It can feel like throwing yourself at a brick wall constantly to beat the game.

This game is a must-play for any Mega Man fan. The rogue-lite mechanics are solid with an interesting variety of weapons, stages, item pickups, and enemies. Movement is fluid and feels great unlike other inferior Mega Man knock-offs/clones. My only complaints are that the map generation mechanics gets a little stale around the 10 hour mark, and occasionally I felt cheated by a certain section of the map by it's difficulty (sometimes the randomness gets in the way of progression, such as a damaging beam that is too high to jump over with your current build), but these are minor complaints and I was finished with the game shortly after this bothered me much. Overall it was a great experience solo, and I'm sure it would be even more fun playing with a friend.