Shovel Knight (PC, 3DS, Wii U, Mac, Linux, PS Vita, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, and select digging implements everywhere)

 

In a world of knights, kings, ancient magicks, hordes of treasure, and 16 bits there was an inseparable and unbeatable duo of knights, Shovel Knight and Shield Knight. Their adventures took them far and wide to the prestigious and dangerous Tower of Fate. A mysterious amulet wrought a dark spell around Shield Knight. As Shovel Knight came to Shield Knight was gone and the Tower was sealed. With a burden of shame too great for him — and the tower locked in any event — Shovel Knight went into exile. Some time later news reached him that the kingdom was dominated by the brutal Order of No Quarter lead by a bewitching Enchantress. The Tower of Fate has been unsealed and Shovel Knight vowed to figure what happened to his dear friend, no matter how many adversaries crossed his spade.

History

Shovel Knight is the inaugural title of Yacht Club Games, a collection of Way Forward Technologies employees who split from the company to go all in on this game. They started a Kickstarter Campaign to fund the project and it was backed three times over again. It was delayed for almost a year before its final release and it still has unimplimented features. There are three additional campaigns planned, with one released and two more on the way, and a battle mode in the works. All of these additional features will be free when they’re finished, I should note.

Shovel Knight draws a lot of inspiration on games from the past, Megaman especially.

Shovel Knight was planned for release in September 2013 but was actually released on June 26th, 2014. It’s competition was 1001 Spikes ( PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, 3DS, WiiU, Goddam everything), Valiant Hearts: The Great War( PC, Xbox One, XBLA, PSN, PS4), and Oddworld New N’ Tasty (PS4).

Experiences

Shovel Knight is like a lost and hidden gem of an experience. I bought it, beat it,  beat it again, and then bought the soundtrack. This was one of those deep binges. I completed the whole thing in three days, I just couldn’t get enough. I cannot think of another 2-D platformer in which I was more emotionally invested in the story. I wanted so dearly to see what had become of Shield Knight, what united the Order, and what happened in the Tower of Fate.

Gameplay

The Kingdom serves as the overworld map for the game and it’s a akin to Super Mario Bros 3 in many ways. Shovel Knight travels across it to different towns filled with helpful NPCs and upgrades, treasure troves filled with sweet loot, and enemy strongholds filled with baddies and a Knight of the Order –oh yeah, they all contain fun as well.

Complete with ominous clouds to prevent you from seeing further than you’ve unlocked.

Shovel Knight’s control scheme is shockingly simple. He can jump, strike with his shovel, and bounce on enemies — different enemies offer varying levels of bounce. For such a little guy he can dish out and take shocking amounts of punishment — and he’s agile to boot. Don’t be too afraid of dying though. The only thing you lose is treasure and there’s always more of that to be had.

The shovel is both a weapon and a tool in the hands of a capable Shovel Knight. As such he can dig through earth and enemy alike. Secret treasures, relics, and music sheets lay hidden everywhere so keep your eyes peeled and give your shovel a swing at any suspicious piles of dirt of background.

The Gush

SHOVEL KNIGHT IS SHORT! I mean literally, he’s a short character, as in not tall. I can’t rightly say why but I really like that. The last character I remember playing who had difficult time reaching the highest kitchen shelf was Lil’ Mac from Punch Out. That’s some serious under-representation of shorter characters.

The music in this game takes the limitations of 16 bit sound and makes them shine. Jake Kaufman truly outdid himself with this memorable and bouncy soundtrack. It perfectly builds mood and atmosphere along with the beautiful art direction

The difficulty curve here is incredibly smooth and well calibrated. This game will challenge you, it will be tough but there’s never a situation or enemy that is unfair. Everything has a tactic or ability you can use to counter them, you’ve just gotta figure out what they are.

Except for these Green Fan jerks. They’re LITERALLY impossible to figure out.

The story is scarce but it provides a skeleton of sorts. The player-base can brew their theories but there isn’t a lot of definite proof/ are not a lot of outright answers. I mean this all in a good way though. We’ll imagine a story that suits

Each of the relics you can find provide a powerful and interesting new ability for our digging implement related hero. They acentuate his strengths or cover up his weaknesses and in any event they provide a playground of design.

Every so often random minibosses will appear on the overworld. Should you cross their paths then there will be a rumble. Each of these opponents provides a quick but challenging boss fight — and a little treasure to sweeten the deal. Many of these were also created by Kickstarter backers who fronted a lot of money for the project.

The Kvetch

When Shovel Knight gets hit he gets knocked back just a bit. This will lead to many deaths due to pits or spikes. But the thing that frustrates me about it is that Shovel Knight gets knocked back relative to what direction he is looking instead of which direction he was struck from. It’s unexpected to bump right when Shovel Knight gets hit with a projectile that was coming from the same direction simply because he’s walking away from it.

Take damage in a section like this is a near death sentence! Also, sweet flame rod.

Trying not to spoil things but Shield Knight is dangerously close to being a damsel in distress when that’s definitely not in her character. A few small tweaks and I think this game would be a little more woman friendly.

This one is really small but I wish there was a quicker way to access Shovel Knight’s relics. I can scroll through them with A and S but enemies are still moving during that time and it’s extremely stressful. The alternative is pausing and opening the relic menu and selecting what you need. It’s just a little too slow for my tastes.

The Verdict

Shovel Knight retails on Steam for $15 and I would say that pricing is perfect. If you were itching for an old-school platformer or you wanted to understand what your dad’s been railing on about all this time then Shovel Knight is a great place to start. Oh yeah, I did mention something about an expansion pack right? Well…

Next Week: Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows

No Time to Explain Remastered (PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Xbox One)

You from the future bursts through the wall of your home with a giant laser cannon. You know it’s you from the future because the first words out of his mouth are, “I am you from the future. There’s no time to explain.” And before he can say another word he’s grabbed by a giant crab and drops his cannon. You take it upon yourself to travel through time… a lot and save yourself — I mean you from the future. And other yous from other futures or something. Just jump around and shoot your cannon all over the place in this puzzle platformer.

Everything you need to know right here.

History

No Time to Explain started out as a flash game on Newgrounds by Tom Brien. After it garnered a couple of thousands of plays Brien contacted Alex Nichiporchik and formed tinyBuild Games to make a larger full release. They started a Kickstarter to fund this full version and they raised $26,000 — $19,000 more than their $7,000 goal.

No Time to Explain was released on August 15th, 2011 and a Remastered version was released on July 17th, 2015. It’s 2011 competition was Bastion (PC), From Dust (PC), and Temple Run (iOS).

Experiences

This game is I Wanna Be the Guy lite. If you’re not familiar with the masochism simulator of a game I Wanna Be the Guy is then all you need to know is that it’s hard. Although No Time to Explain can be quite difficult it’s never unfair. As a platformer puzzle game with plenty of checkpoints it’s totally possible to brute force a solution and continue on. The game just keeps getting sillier and sillier, I keep playing just to see the crazy stuff that’s gonna happen next. the plot is incredibly difficult to follow because they game takes full advantage of the multiple universe and time travel heavy setting it takes place in.

Gameplay

You play as a dude using a laser cannon as a jetpack who uses it to travel through time. If that doesn’t grab your attention right there then this game has got nothing for you. Each level requires you to go through a bunch of obstacles that become increasingly difficult to navigate in order to reach a time portal that leads to the next level. These obstacles range from spikes, to water, jump pads, to walls that can only be destroyed by lighting them on fire with your own flaming body. Every world has got a boss and this game has got some crazy bosses.

This used to be strange, now it’s just Tuesday in the Multiverse.

The game’s challenge isn’t too punitive. Every time the character touches a stable section of floor it acts as a checkpoint in case they die. Falling into a bottomless pit or getting extremely dead — like immolating oneself — will restart the level however. The Remastered edition has sharpened the graphics and sound. It’s also added a lives counter to boss fights and lowered boss health. This is a mixed blessing as some boss attacks would kill the player and others would simply return them to the nearest stable platform in the classic version. Which would lead to situations where the player would dive toward attacks that wouldn’t kill them so it wouldn’t reset the boss’ health.

If you’re looking for an even greater platforming challenge then you can look for hats.

The Gush

This game has got variety. Just after the point I’m comfortable or bored with a certain playstyle the game throws something crazy at me.

Bullet Hell section while riding on a thief version of you shooting a dinosaur from the dinosaur universe? Very yes.

The movement mechanics change as often as the playstyle. One second you’re using the laser cannon and the next you’re playing a crazy psychic version of you that can move himself with his mind.

The plot is delightfully campy — fully equipped with an evil version of you with a goatee. It’s a little hard to follow with all the time travel shenanigans but even after I got lost I knew who the bad guy was and I knew enough about what was going on to keep playing.

It’s got Giant Enemy Crabs! What could possibly go wrong?

The Kvetch

You have to fire the cannon at the right time during a jump to get the maddest ups. Sometimes I can’t get the timing right when I’m almost damn sure that I am. Maybe I’m getting mad at video games but it’s really frustrating how small the sweet spot is.

The game can kinda drag a little bit. It’s great for short bursts but I’ve never been able to marathon this one — I know, I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

The Verdict

This game is a tight package. It’s $15 on Steam and I love it to death but I’m not sure it’s worth the price tag. It’s almost there, almost. Catch it on Steam when it’s 20% or something. The controls are a little wonky sometimes but the plot is wonderful, the music is catchy, and the core platforming is to die for. I recommend No Time to Explain.