Shovel Knight
Yacht Club Games, 2014

For those of us that are a certain age, some current indie games tend to strike a certain chord. They might remind us of our youths. And nostalgia is a powerful thing, my friends. But of course, we sometimes look at our favorite games from yesteryear through rose-tinted glasses. And alas, even a mediocre game of our youth can outshine a better game of today that's just trying too smurf-hard to shoehorn in old references. But Shovel Knight somehow seems different. It's a new game, yet it throws in new experiences that gaming has developed via the benefit of time. And yet somehow, it's something you can also feel nostalgic about. In short, it's the sort of game that anybody who spends time reading retro video game websites would want to play.





The thing that makes Shovel Knight so great isn't a thing at all; it's many teeny-tiny things stitched together to create a wonderful pastiche of old and new. As a result, the game manages to feel both fresh and classic. It creates a familiar atmosphere that keeps you on your toes. For example, there's a level that begins with you inside of a clock tower. And for those of us coming from a certain frame of experience, it's easy to feel the sweat start to form above your brow. You wince with the impending doom of floating Medusa heads...only to realize that this isn't that sort of clock tower level at all. And that's just one of the sort of interesting choices you'll see throughout the game.

Whereas past "love letters" to retro games have tended to lean far too heavily on the "hey, remember THIS part from THIS game" trope, Shovel Knight is happy to do its own thing all while wearing its influences on its sleeve. I mean certainly the pogoing on your shovel wouldn't exist without Duck Tales, but Shovel Knight is intent on being its own entity instead of just cashing in on Duck Tales nostalgia. In many ways, it feels far more successful as a retro-throwback than the Duck Tales remake proper.



Perhaps this weaving of old and new is best illustrated by the game's score. There are two composers who have their names featured in the credits: Manami Matsumae and Jake Kaufman. Matsumae's resume is littered with classics (Mega Man, 1943 Kai, Mercs, Trip World), while Kaufman (aka "virt") has built up a reputation in the last decade working with Way Forward on fan-favorites like the Shantae series, Contra 4, Bloodrayne Betrayal, Double Dragon Neon and even the aforementioned Duck Tales Remastered.

The look of the game is less blurred. It generally sticks to a NES-style color pallet, with animations that are a bit more expressive and akin to a 16-bit title. But outside of the soundtrack, nothing is aesthetically modern as far as appearance goes. Indeed the overworld map hearkens back to Super Mario Bros. 3 (complete with roaming enemies) and the townsfolk bring back strong memories of Zelda II. A Wonder Boy In Monster World comparison is perhaps even more apt when discussing the leveling system, which allows you to collect loot and bring it back to villages to gain new items, weapon upgrades, power-up abilities, and maximum hit points.


Perhaps the most modern convention of the game is the save system. First off, you're not limited to a set number of lives. Instead, dying within a level causes you to drop a portion of the loot you've collected. This means that quitting the level will cause you to lose it all for good. You must instead make your way back to the point of defeat and re-collect the dropped loot to carry on. The checkpoint system is just as innovative. While checkpoints are abundant within levels, they can also be destroyed and cashed in for more loot. This means that while you're heavily rewarded for destroying a checkpoint, you've also now got a much further way to backtrack should you die before the next checkpoint. It's a very interesting mix of risk and reward.

I suppose that to a degree nothing I've written up to here would matter if the game itself weren't fun. And luckily, it is. The platforming is spot-on. It just feels right as soon as you pick up a controller. The levels themselves are not overly long, but certainly well-designed and often challenging! The boss battles at the end of each level are a treat. None of them are overly difficult, but they're each unique and a heck of a lot of fun. Certainly they echo classic Mega Man games, including an eventual boss-rush before the final boss.

Shovel Knight is a really great game. It's one that can go above and beyond your expectations of what an indie retro-throwback game should be. I think in time it will sit along with such cult-classics as VVVVVV or Cave Story. In fact, depending on your personal taste, you may even find it eclipses them. Personally, I'm hoping that Shovel Knight is only the first in a long-running new series.

Permalink | Comments [15] | Digg This Article | Tweet