Review: Shovel Knight from Yacht Club Games!

I know, you’re saying Gogeta, Shovel Knight has been out for a long time. Well, you’re right. I just discovered it, or should I say finally ponied up the dough to buy it, and I’m sold! Thus I thought I would give our readers who haven’t given it a shot or who aren’t quite sure if they want to spend the money, my opinion and maybe swing them to the dark side! LOL

So, let’s start with the fact that Shovel Knight is more suited for a NES than PS4 if you look solely at the graphics but once you dig deeper into the game you realize that it’s a extremely fun platformer reminiscent of MegaMan and Mario Bros. When I first saw the game I thought it looked hilarious. After all, it’s a knight that, instead of using a sword, has a shovel that he whacks enemies with and also bounces on their heads with the pointy end. Quite amusing if you ask me. After watching some gameplay I thought it would be a game that could be very enjoyable and also challenging. Boy was I right.

When you start Shovel Knight you’re just thrown straight into combat. No tutorial or instructions but at the same time the entire first area is designed to get you completely familiar with the controls and combat. You’ll be a regular knight by the time you leave the opening area. There is a town where you can upgrade your health and magic meters by paying gold and also a vendor that sells magic items that will aid you on your quest. The farther you progress in the game the more items become available. Sometimes you’ll come to an area and think, there’s no way I can get over there. Fear not, for in the coming stages you’ll be given a purchasable magic item to aid you. Also, a little later in the game there is a vendor that will upgrade your shovel to give different attacks and a blacksmith that will sell you alternate armor.

There is a singing fish-king that will give you “Ichor” that fills purchasable containers and you can use it to do several things, one of which is refill all your magic and health. The enemies in the game can be challenging but I’ve found overall the biggest enemy of all is yourself. You will get ahead of yourself and die. You’ll jump at the wrong time and fall in a pit or you’ll be trying to get an item and get killed by an enemy because you’re not paying attention to your health, there are several ways to be your own worst enemy.

Overall the combat is fairly easy but not so easy that you’ll march through without any trouble. I have yet to make it through an area without dying. The graphics are spot on for a retro style game and the controls are so simple that a 5 year old could easily play while you could also hand it to your mother and she could do it.

The best thing about Shovel Knight, in my opinion anyway, is that it’s a cross-buy. If you have a PS4, PS3 and Vita you can play it on all three for one price. Also, another great thing is it has cross-save built in so you can play the same game on all three consoles. It’s also available on XboxOne, PC, WiiU, 3DS, Mac and Linux.  Beat that! It’s $14.99 USD on PSN but like I said, for the ability to play it on three consoles that’s not too bad. I was uncertain of whether I wanted to spend $15 on a retro-style game but quickly found out that it was well worth the money. The funny part is the game feels completely different on all three consoles. I find it to be the most difficult on PS4 but you may feel differently. I am obviously playing the PSN version but each one has a different cameo appearance in it. PSN has one, Xbox is a different one and Nintendo and PC are different as well. I won’t spoil it. Either way it’s a great game and well worth the money. Let me know your thoughts on it in the comments!

That’s about all I have so thanks for reading and as always… HAPPY GAMING!!!