I'd beaten Shovel of Hope and played through most of Plague of Shadows on 3DS back in the mid-2010s and thought it was really good!

Then I replayed Hope and beat Shadows and thought it was really great!

And then I beat Specter of Torment and King of Cards and that's when I learned to really love Shovel Knight.

Individually, these were already some of the best platformers of all time; together in one package, it's no contest.

Also, playing through King of Cards gave me the same dread I'd felt playing through the penultimate chapter of Live A Live - if you know, you know.