Shovel Knight: Not Quite Like the Round Table

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

Time Played: 42.5 Hours Total

Shovel of Hope: 5 Hours and 59 Minutes

Plague of Shadows: 6 Hours and 40 Minutes

Specter of Torment: 4 Hours and 13 Minutes

King of Cards: 8 Hours and 30 Minutes

Showdown: ~ 16 Hours

In 2014 a brand new indie company, Yacht Club Games, released their first game, Shovel Knight, to critical acclaim (So I'm a bit late on the review, huh?). They followed it with Plague of Shadows (2015), Specter of Torment (2017), King of Cards (2019), and Showdown (2019). Together, these became Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove.

Three of the four campaigns include a world map. The titular knight travels to a location, and explores the dungeon. Each dungeon is short. They are composed of rooms, displayed in the classic 2D style. Each room requires some amount of platforming and/or combat. Enemies, scattered around the castles, swamps, fields, and flying fortresses interfere with the knight's exploration. They are unlikely to kill the player with direct damage. Instead, foes mess with the player's platforming (causing them to fall), or use the pitfalls to attack from a distance. The variety of foe abilities, from one dungeon to the next, prevents the player from anticipating the threat. All four knights start with small health bars, which grow significantly with upgrades. Enemies are more likely to kill the player by causing them to miss or mistime a leap. When a Knight kills a foe, they drop treasure in one of six denominations. Treasure, appearing as six different types of gemstones, becomes cash when collected. If the player leaves a room and returns, or leaves a room, dies, and passes through again, enemies reappear but won't drop treasure again.

Enemies perform as auxiliaries for platforming. The key question is of responsiveness. Unless a game indicates otherwise, the character should be extremely responsive to the player's input. The areas to jump, and the locations to jump to, need to be clear. Shovel Knight demonstrates an exemplarly implementation of these basic, crucial concepts. While enemies only slice off a sliver of health, pits and spikes kill instantly. The variety of platforming puzzles is amazing and innovative. These hide the secrets packed into Shovel Knight. Every knight collects a different bonus token. These are hidden in breakable walls, outside the expected boundaries, and along secluded paths.

Regardless of the knight, levels offer abundant variety, every area furnishing its own twist. But unlike some games, which require the player to perform a new technique before abandoning it in future levels, Shovel Knight incorporates each skill, building on past experiences. Each level includes multiple checkpoints, saving the player's progress. A braver player than I, can break the checkpoints to retrieve the treasure inside. Most levels end in a boss battle. Bosses are remarkably easy, especially as the player accumulates health and magic upgrades, relics, curios, heirlooms, and arcana. In spite of this, bosses are also distinct and fun. Not every level is perfect. The icy levels, like the Stranded Ship, aren't slippery enough. Everyone's played a level, like Super Mario Bros. 3 Ice Land, where the ground offers no purchase, just a permanent skid. To compensate the player moves back and forth to stay in control. Shovel Knight's Stranded Ship (and other ice covered platforming) feels like sandpaper in comparison.

When I say easy, I don't mean I never died. I did. Quite a bit. Shovel Knight does emit a Dark Souls/Hollow Knight vibe. But it doesn't punish the player for errors. On death the knight drops some of their treasure. It appears in three floating sacks. The player recovers it by returning to the spot of death, and touching the bags. Levels are short enough, and have enough checkpoints, that no obstacle seems daunting. Levels seemed as if they were made just difficult enough to challenge the player, while allowing them to succeed on the first, or second attempt. Die once, learn from it, and don't die again. Each level includes an abundant supply of health and magic potions to supplement any losses. Even the final boss felt easy, though victory did require a few failures. In most cases, the platforming is trickier than the bosses.

The cash and collectibles reduce the difficulty. Neither of these are necessary to beat Shovel Knight, nor are they difficult to locate. If the player, during the course of a level, misses the hidden upgrades, a merchant, like Chester, sells them at an outrageous price. This isn't a problem because money is never an issue. Each level is like a treasure chest, packed with gems in every corner. Enemies drop gems, chests drop gems, checkpoints drop gems. If the player needs more they can repeat a level, as treasure reappears. Some of the collectibles make levels absurdly easy. The flying objects (Propeller Dagger, Staff of Surging, Hover Plume, Bubble Frog) and invulnerability items (Turn Coat, Barrier Lantern, Smoke Bomb, Phase Locket) are particularly powerful for navigating treacherous platforming. The weakness of items is in using them. On a controller the player cycles through them by clicking the LB or RB. With ten or more options, this prohibits instantaneous access. Instead, the player is pressure to pick one in advance and stick with it. In emergencies the player can pause, open the menu, and switch to the item they need. This solution is unwieldy. It's difficult to react to danger after unpausing, because the pause menu limits the player's view of enemies. This tiresome method of play, with its constant pausing and unpausing ruins the flow. There are almost too many different types of upgrades to mention, but this abundance adds significant versatility, along with something to work towards. There's even clothing upgrades for each of the knights, each with their unique bonuses and deficiencies.

It's easy to find most of the collectibles, but it's nearly impossible to find them all.

The precise, detailed, complex, and diverse gameplay of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is backed by retro style music, and visuals which are clear, and oddly cute. Along the way the player collects music sheets so they can listen to the different sounds of each level. But it seems, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the player can only listen to different music in the base, and not while in the levels. This makes a sort of sense, but the music isn't good enough to sit around and listen to in-game (or buy it and listen in car, like I did for Hades).

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