It will stay where you dropped it, and so you will be able to recover everything you lost if you can make it back to where you died and pick it up. Instead, death will make you drop a portion of your total gem currency. At no point will you be forced to replay an entire level because you took too many risks experimenting with level exploration or combat. One of Shovel Knight’s best gameplay design elements is doing away with the entire concept of lives. These secrets are well worth seeking out as well, ranging from health and currency to new magic abilities that can lend new possibilities to both level traversal and combat. While levels can be played and finished by simply pushing forward through the most obvious advancing path, observant players will find plenty of secrets and bonuses just waiting to be discovered. Players who desire a bit more exploration in their games will be well served here as well. It’s a breath of fresh air, especially for players that have become weary of overwrought and overbearing tutorials. New core gameplay concepts are mostly introduced and taught through smart level designs, and this creates a sense of achievement for even minor triumphs. Rather than introducing endless new special abilities and complex controls as the game progresses, the levels are instead designed to help you discover new ways to make use of the limited move set you will have throughout the game. It takes the great elements from it’s NES inspiration, but throws away the elements that feel outdated. Yacht Club games have managed to take gameplay inspiration from NES classics like Mega Man and Castlevania as well as modern games like Dark Souls, mash them together while adding some ingenious new puzzle and level design elements and end with a game that miraculously manages to feel retro and modern at the same time. The way that Shovel Knight plays however, is seriously impressive.
Through playing, you will learn about the world, villains and Shovel Knight himself, but the story presentation never drags on or gets in the way of enjoying the experience. Much like the NES titles from which it takes inspiration, Shovel Knight opens with no long winded or overt narrative, instead a short and simple slideshow that quickly gets players up to speed with just enough backstory to set up the character’s motivation and those of the villains. Luckily that excruciating wait is behind us now, and after playing through the game, I found Shovel Knight to be one of the most enjoyable game experiences of this year.
It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it? Releasing in the US in June, it took over four months for developers Yacht Club Games to go through all the necessary stages to bring Shovel Knight to Australian Wii U and 3DS consoles. Originally published on for the eShop, the game is now available at retail.
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