Preface: this write-up is only for the base game of Shovel Knight, as in all of the content up until Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows' release. I will be writing up various separate reviews for the DLCs as I play them. Shovel Knight is a passion project to the fullest extent, with healthy nods to at least a dozen classic NES titles - especially
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link [リンクの冒険],
Castlevania [悪魔城ドラキュラ],
Super Mario Bros. 3 [スーパーマリオブラザーズ3], and perhaps most importantly the
Mega Man [ロックマン] franchise and
DuckTales. The gameplay is centered around two button presses only, feels optimized for a d-pad, and follows a very straightforward, gated level structure. With a couple modern features like autosaving aside, this basically plays like the best NES game ever made.
The best two parts of Shovel Knight are the fantastic controls and level design, which feel completely in sync. The low overall level count produced a non-stop stream of quality, with every single screen feeling well-tested and tightly designed with the level's core mechanics in mind. Each new enemy or platform mechanic is introduced in a safe way and ramps up the difficulty of the challenge iteratively, with the most difficult ganutlets guarding treasure in tucked-away secret areas. I pretty much never felt like I was losing control of Shovel Knight, or that the level was designed in a way that was unfair. Each main stage has a copious amount of secrets to find and treasures to collect, and a really fun boss fight to close it.
SK also has an item system that works similarly to the item collection in Simon's Quest, where you'll buy them from a shop and then can use them in stages for various effects. There is a simple magic system that is a bit like Casltevania's hearts, that limit abuse of these items especially during boss fights. They often double as weapons and utilities, but none of them ever felt over-powered in combat scenarios (outside of the the Phase Locket), and even with the ones that increase your mobility, you can't just Rush-boost through a room. For the WiiU version specifically, the gamepad works as a sort of quick-select for subweapons, though I never was so good that I was able to use this setup effectively. The game is pretty tough in some spots, though I'm not sure it's as difficult as any of its inspirations, mostly because of how far we've come in terms of player control since the late 1980s.
There is also no life system, an antiquated piece of game design that I have written a lot about hating because gates content based on a "streak" of good play. Instead, you lose a percentage of your money and have a chance to retrieve it if you return to your place of death. Not all money bags are retrievable, but this option is significantly more player-friendly, especially when compounded by the checkpoint breaking mechanic, where checkpoints can be permanently destroyed for a bit of coin. So if you're confident, you can bumrush through the stage with the hopes of returning a greater fortune. I will say that I never once found this necessary, since there was not a lot to buy and there was plenty of treasure to discover, but it's an interesting player decision that rewards multiple playstyles.
Aesthetically, I enjoyed pretty much everything the game had to offer. Aside from a much deeper color palette, the art direction is charming and well-drawn. The animation is kept simple to great effect, and the retro "cutscenes" like the King Troupple dance feel period-appropriate (and adorable). That said, the star of the presentation is without a doubt the ridiculously good chiptune soundtrack by Jake Kaufman and Manami Matsumae. Melodically it's just out of this world from front to back, with over a dozen immediately classic tracks that I was humming for days after playing. The soundtrack has an emphasis on immediate tone-setting, which is great because the game flips between a campy adventure and an emotional journey pretty quickly, not to spoil much about the plot. This is a strong contender for best soundtrack of 2014, period, and it's listenable outside of the game with little effort.
After finally getting around to it in 2019, I feel kind of silly for waiting half a decade to jump on the bandwagon. This game is insanely well-designed in just about every aspect - I genuinely don't really know where to critique it. The only things that really stick out to me are some in-game economy imbalances not really requiring the player to take the risks the game presents, the Troupple ichors being obviously unbalanced in favor of the Ichor of Renewal, and NG+ changing extremely little about the game besides turning wall chicken into bombs. Outside of that, I fail to see what Shovel Knight does not accomplish in the scope of its vision.