Shovel Knight: A Duel to the Death, Or to the Diamonds

Shovel Knight:

Shovel Knight: Not Quite Like the Round Table

Shovel Knight: Four Quests for the Kingdom

Shovel Knight: A Duel to the Death, Or to the Diamonds

Simultaneous with King of Cards, Yacht Club Games released Showdown (all of which is included in the Treasure Trove).

Chronologically Showdown occurs between Specter of Torment and Shovel of Hope, as a result of the first, and influencing the latter. As Specter Knight forces a confrontation with the Enchantress, his friends in the tower seek to help him. They try to enchant the magical mirror, but screw up. It draws all the major characters into its shining surface.

Showdown includes two game modes; a four person melee, and a short story mode for one or two players. In the story mode the player chooses one of eight starting characters. Each character has their own story. The story mode requires the player to win seven matches, destroy targets in an arena, and fight the final boss. Four scenes relevant to the character are interspersed after matches. The introductory scene (which is 90% the same regardless of character) reviews the situation. A short dialogue occurs between the player's character and their foe/friend halfway through. Another dialogue occurs with the same character before the final boss. A completely unique scene resolves the plot after the final victory. These mini story elements flesh out many of the non-protagonists that didn't feature in a game. Especially the epilogues which look iconic.

Beating a character's story mode requires between ten to fifteen minutes on Easy mode. Showdown includes twelve unlockable characters, and numerous arenas. My first attempt at Story mode, as Shovel Knight, on Medium difficulty, was unreasonably difficult. The enemy fought with inhuman reflexes, blocking, dodging, and feinting for devastating victories. It was as if they could read my mind. After failing on Medium, I tried Easy difficulty. It is pathetic. While the foes sometimes attack, they prefer to stand aimlessly, not even seeking objectives. They are so bad they die by falling into pits. I've beaten levels without hitting a single enemy, just waiting for them to kill themselves. This works especially well on maps which scroll to the left or right (most arenas are a single, stationary screen). Easy difficulty reduces the skill of the opponent, but also increases the bonuses of the player. It awards additional lives in a match and more continues in the event of failure. With these advantages, even the final boss, who is the same for all characters, is too easy. But after playing Easy and Medium, I shudder to think of the difficulty of Hard mode. The only reason to attempt additional difficulties is for the challenge, as it appears all content can be unlocked on Easy.

Matches are played in one of the twenty-nine arenas. Each has its own advantages and pitfalls. Some of those pits are deadly, while others merely irritate. Most battles occur on a single stationary screen. These allow the combatants to walk off the left side, and appear on the right. Maps feature a variety of unique mechanics, from the pure simplicity of a field of grass, to marauding mobs, spiked flails, deadly lava, and bouncy goo.

Aside from the target level, and the final boss, the victory condition is to exhaust the enemies' lives, or collect a specific number of rubies. In elimination each character begins battle with a specific number of lives, and four hits per life. Each attack does one damage, while falling into pits, or touching lava, is an immediate death. The last character standing wins. The Treasure matches are nearly as simple. Collect the most gems. An indicator marks the spot of an arriving ruby. After a brief wait, the ruby appears. The first character to touch it claims it. A recently hurt character can not claim gems. When a character dies they drop one ruby near their body, but retain the others. On Easy, enemies are particularly inept at figuring out how to recover rubies. Levels require between five to twelve gems to win. The Treasure mode benefits characters with exceptional mobility. Among the twenty heroes, some can fly, double jump, hover, climb walls, or swing through the air, while others can ... jump once?

This brief list highlights the variety of characters, which matches the diversity of arenas. Most characters have a melee attack, ranged attack, special attack, jump, special maneuver, and down attack. Not every character follows this list exactly (Every character also performs two wicked taunts). Even though they share this basic toolkit, their actions vary wildly. For example, the ranged attack includes boomerangs, fireballs, snowballs, potions, and wrenches, all of which move in different ways.

One of the more confusing aspects of combat is the interaction of the many different attacks. Not all attacks are equal. They all inflict one damage, but there is a strange hierarchy of which attack wins if two crash into each other. Some ranged attacks cancel each other upon contact, but that isn't true when two melee attacks collide, like Plague Knight's Staff of Surging (a mobility move that also attacks upwards), vs Black Knight's Shovel Dive (diving downward, shovel point first). My notes say that Plague Knight's attack wins, which seems strange (imagine attacking the point of a shovel with your head – magical sure, but still), but I am now uncertain if the specific angle of attack (or timing) was the reason for the outcome. When hit, a character becomes briefly invulnerable, but unable to pick up gems (they are also knocked back, suffering a temporary moment of paralysis). Different sources of damage seemed to inflict longer or shorter instances of invulnerability. For some characters it seemed possible to land two attacks in quick succession.

In the end, the Story Mode of Showdown doesn't add significantly to the story. It's main purpose is to unlock the additional heroes for the multiplayer battle. Most players will need at least four hours to unlock every character in Story Mode. The Battle mode allows up to four players, human or computer, to fight in three different modes. Players can fight to the death, with the last man standing wins. The second is the Treasure mode, in which victory is possible through collecting gems, or eliminating the other players. The third mode is Chester's Choice. This randomizer picks the arena and victory conditions for the players. It also adds strange effects; teams, giant mode, low gravity, one hit kills, massive knock back, and over abundance of items. An options menu allows the player to choose any of these special effects if they desire. Showdown is only available on a shared computer, no internet matchmaking. If they don't have four, players can add AI opponents with a difficult scale from 1 to 9. Which number aligns to the Story difficulties of Easy, Medium, and Hard?

After completing the Story mode, I played quite a bit with my four and six year old sons. They love it! I find it merely serviceable.

In a separate conclusion, Showdown's Story mode is either too difficult, or too easy, and a slog as a result. The Battle mode for friends is pleasing, if you can somehow assemble your friends for a battle royale. But neither offers any single player experience worth noting.

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Relevant:

Shovel Knight: Four Quests for the Kingdom

Titan Souls: Made by a Sadist to be Played by a Masochist

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