After a long wait and a whole lot of funding on the part of Kickstarter backers, Shovel Knight has finally arrived. If you’re not already slaying dragons and collecting loot, you’ll want to check out our review for the low-down on whether or not Shovel Knight is your type of game (spoiler: it probably is). From there, you’d best get straight to playing one of the year’s most epic 2D adventures, before you lose your courage and resort back to the kind of shovelry found in gardens and greenhouses. In other words, the boring kind.
Related: Shovel Knight Review
What is it about Shovel Knight that sets it apart from the NES classics of yesteryear? Surely the lessons learned from Mega Man and Zelda II haven’t gone to waste decades later. I’ve been thinking about that myself, and have compiled some standout traits that make Shovel Knight not just a loving tribute, but a modern 8-bit classic.
Take a look for yourself below, and let us know if you agree!
Shovel Knight Gallery
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Rose-tinted glasses
There’s no shame in getting caught up in nostalgia. In fact, it’s debatable whether Shovel Knight and games like it would even exist were it not for the fond memories of simpler times, retained both by longtime players and classic-minded developers.
Still, it’s important to acknowledge that times have changed, and Shovel Knight makes this one of its foremost priorities. Yacht Club Games programmer David D’Angelo notes this in a blog post, stating that the team aimed to “create a rose-tinted view of an 8-bit game” rather than “emulating the NES exactly.”
Translation? “Some of those classic NES titles would be a pain in the butt to play now, so let’s build this new one from players’ fond memories instead.” Hard to argue with that.
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It’s only as cheap as you want it to be
One of Shovel Knight’s more clever strengths is its checkpoint system. Each stage has four or more checkpoints, represented in-game as glass lamps that illuminate when touched. If you die, instead of losing lives or resources, you’ll be forced to part with bags of cash and restart from the most recent activated checkpoint. If you’re savvy, you can reclaim the lost treasure when you reach the site of your death, and hopefully reach the next checkpoint soon thereafter.
But what if you aren’t jiving with the game’s stock difficulty? Worry not, brave knight. If the levels aren’t satisfying your proclivity for punishment, checkpoints can be destroyed for treasure at the cost of their complete cease of functioning. If you’re getting served even with checkpoints intact, armor enhancements and other doodads can greatly ease your pain. For example, the Mail of Momentum armor upgrade prevents knockback when hit by an enemy, which for me has easily prevented dozens of deaths. Pair this with some thirst-quenching invincibility ichor from the Troupple King, and you’ll be on your way to victory.
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The upgrade system is incredibly robust
As touched on already, the wealth of upgrades Shovel Knight has at his disposal is initially a bit overwhelming, but choosing what to buy as you progress ends up being one of the game’s most rewarding activities. In addition to armor upgrades and magical ichors, Shovel Knight’s actual weapon -- his trusty spade -- can be ameliorated in a number of helpful ways.
One upgrade enables your shovel to fire a powerful spark toward enemies when at full health, for example, while another powers up your downward pogo-spike after it’s used twice in succession. Aside from the aforementioned Mail of Momentum, other armor sets’ functions vary, from a suit designed specifically for magic-users (it lowers defense but boosts mana) to a gold-plated outfit that does nothing but allow Shovel Knight to perform flamboyant, sparkly frontflips. The latter is how you’ll want to take down the final boss, obviously.
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Bosses feel tough yet modern
Maybe I was just bad at games as a kid, but I threw a lot of controllers. The wall-dents are there to prove it. The eight Mega Man-esque enemy knights you’ll face while traversing Shovel Knight’s medieval land are challenging in creative ways, but unlike their Capcom-developed ancestors (don’t get me started on Mega Man 3’s Gemini Man) they, rarely induce gamepad-hurling. It could simply be because I’d never toss my 3DS against a wall, but even Shovel Knight’s toughest foes are a pleasure all said and done.
Take Polar Knight. An old friend of our beshoveled hero, he’s turned to evil and must now face his former companion. His attacks are largely absurd -- hurling bombs, rolling snowballs, flying, and generally hopping about with reckless abandon -- yet his moves never result in cheap deaths or a feeling of unfairness. Study his attack patterns and devise a strategy, and you’ll eventually come out victorious. Thanks to the game’s many upgrades, items, and combat relics, there’s far more than one way to do so.
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The soundtrack uses advanced Japanese Famicom tech
I knew Jake Kaufman pretty much nailed Shovel Knight’s soundtrack (I mentioned it in my review), but what I didn’t know is that it was actually created in an environment used only by a precious few NES games in Japan, such as the overseas version of Castlevania III. The added on-cartridge tech allowed for three additional sound channels, which makes a world of difference in both complexity and depth of tone (here’s a comparison).
The coolest thing about this is that the software used to create Shovel Knight’s soundtrack, called Famitracker, can actually export created tunes into NES machine code, which means any real-life NES equipped with the right hardware can playback Shovel Knight’s songs in their entirety. As a result, in this particular case Shovel Knight’s music isn’t just benefitting from a modern perspective -- it would actually be one of the best soundtracks even back then! At least from a technical perspective.
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An expanded color palette that stays true to the hardware
Despite their effort to create a purely NES experience, Yacht Club have made some contemporary visual enhancements to Shovel Knight’s aesthetic. In other words, the game has more colors in more places than your average NES game. The adjustments aren’t always drastic, but the results certainly go a long way. Just check out that ominous purple sky.
Other visual tricks were employed for convenience as well. An original NES would often struggle with “sprite flickering,” which would occur when more than eight sprites appeared on the same horizontal line. Shovel Knight nixes this limitation. Yacht Club did abide by traditional NES color-per-sprite rules, though, and the process apparently required a whole lot of tweaking to get right. Regardless, many of the sprites (and scenery, and backdrops) look much more lush than what you remember from the 80s, and its thanks to subtle contemporary nips and tucks.
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Highly functional overworld design
Some classic platformers execute their overworld maps in such a way that I begin to wonder why they’re even there at all. I specifically remember Donkey Kong Land (a Gameboy game, to be fair) preventing backtracking for no apparent reason, while it wasn’t until the SNES that Mario perfected its map traversal with Super Mario World and subsequent sequels. Meanwhile, many games from the NES area lacked a way to easily hop between levels at all.
Shovel Knight’s map is simple, but smartly dodges pitfalls the moment they appear. At one point in my adventure, the road was blocked by enemy bosses that move from point to point each time you complete a level. I wanted to head back to town and spend some cash on upgrades, but it appeared I wouldn’t be able to. Ah, but alas! With perfect timing, a square marked “Shortcut?” appeared, and upon entering the mini-level attached to it I was able to utilize a massive catapult, which promptly fired me back to town square. This is but one example, and I encountered the same feeling of pleasant surprise on multiple occasions.
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A tale worth fighting for
There are definitely NES games with compelling story, but they’re few and far between. Outside of the original Ninja Gaiden and maybe some later Dragon Warrior or Double Dragon titles, I haven’t personally encountered anything capable of tapping into player emotion the way modern games do. Even Zelda, known now for its Miyazaki-like heartstring-tugging, took many years before it reached such affecting heights.
Shovel Knight is no narrative masterwork, but its simple and well-framed tale hits all the right notes -- albeit charming, pixelated ones. The dream-sequences that sometimes occur after a tough boss encounter are particularly emotive, both offering a look into the masked protagonist’s thoughts and giving his quest meaning. Be it a NES game or a 60-hour next-gen epic, it feels good when your adventure has purpose, and coming to Shield Knight’s aid is as good a purpose as any.
