About seven years ago, a small indie studio comprised of some ex-Wayforward staff began the Kickstarter campaign for Shovel Knight, a delightful love letter to fans of 8-bit gaming. The project was a fairly big deal at the time, but few could have guessed just how much staying power it would prove to have. Several spinoffs and sequels, each more ambitious than the last, have sprung up in the years since, and Shovel Knight himself has gone on to become a modern gaming icon, making cameo appearances in countless other games. All this success wouldn’t have happened, however, if the initial release proved to be a disappointment, as many similar Kickstarter projects have proven to be.
That initial game, now given the retronym Shovel of Hope, still stands to this day as one of the finest examples of modern retro platforming. It strikes a near-perfect balance between traditional and modern game design, giving players a tightly-designed and deeply engaging platforming campaign that retains much of the challenge of traditional NES games without any of their archaic frustration. In short, Shovel of Hope is an absolute must-have classic, and if you haven’t already picked it up in some fashion, you owe it to yourself to give this new standalone release a shot.
Shovel of Hope follows the journey of the eponymous Shovel Knight, a brave adventurer who travels the world with his love, Shield Knight, in a continuous search for treasure. The two are tragically split apart, however, when an incident at the Tower of Fate results in the disappearance of Shield Knight. Shovel Knight goes into exile after this, but comes back into action some time later when an evil Sorceress named the Enchantress and her Order of No Quarter make a play to take over the world.
Though the plot set up is fairly basic, one way in which Shovel of Hope positively shines is in its excellent writing. Shovel of Hope understands the inherent ridiculousness of its main character wielding a digging implement as a weapon, so it’s not afraid to go to some goofy places in service of its plot. For example, there’s a cult Shovel Knight can encounter that worships the great Troupple King, which is a cross between an apple and a gigantic trout. Or, in the climactic battle against Tinker Knight at the end of his stage, the midget-sized villain runs around tripping over himself and spilling wrenches in a pathetic attempt at ‘fighting’ you. Shovel of Hope rarely takes itself too seriously and it’s all the stronger for it, making for an adventure that’s a joy to experience from stem to stern.
Gameplay unfolds like a typical action platformer would, with Shovel Knight shovelling his way through 2D stages themed after the knights they represent, and each stage culminates in a boss battle against another member of the Order of No Quarter. Each stage typically has several unique gimmicks and enemies to overcome, both of which gradually ramp up in difficulty as you near the boss fight at the end. For example, Specter Knight’s stage features sections that are completely obscured in darkness, save for the occasional flash of lightning to show you where to go next. Early on, these sections are pretty easy to get through, but later examples feature a more challenging variety of death pits and moving platforms that are much harder to navigate blind.
Level designs are always interesting, then, and they benefit substantially from hiding all manner of secrets and extra challenges. False walls and hidden treasure chests are everywhere, and though each stage ultimately has a linear path to the boss, there are usually several side rooms that feature difficult platforming sections that you can overcome for extra goodies. Those of you that just want to get through the levels and story can largely ignore the secrets, which highlights a larger idea in Shovel Knight of difficulty being a variable factor. For example, the checkpoints in each level can each be destroyed in exchange for a cash reward, but the tradeoff is that you’ll be sent further back if you happen to die. Each stage is then a matter of hedging a bet on your own dexterity, and the benefits of that bet can be great or small depending on how confident you are.
Regardless of how you play, it’s sure that you’re going to collect a lot of gold along the way, and this can then be traded in at a few shops for various upgrades to Shovel Knight. Buffs to both offensive and defensive power are available, the most notable of which are realized in the relics you can get along the way. Each main stage features a relic being sold by a man who lives in a treasure chest, and these relics act as Castlevania-esque sub-weapons that can change the way you play and make the adventure a little easier.
The Phase Locket, for example, grants Shovel Knight a temporary invincibility buff that can trivialize certain boss attacks or spike-ridden platforming sections. The only real drawback to this in-game economy, however, is that it hits its maximum a little too early. If you play diligently and search out a decent number of secrets, you’ll likely have bought everything you can well before you’ve fought the final boss, and this can take the wind out of Shovel of Hope’s sails a little bit. Still, even long after the treasure has effectively lost its value, there’s still a certain inherent joy to the simple act of collecting it that keeps the latter stages interesting.
From a presentation standpoint, Shovel of Hope delivers on its promises by offering up an authentically retro experience. Each stage is extremely visually distinct from the next, and the strong art direction ensures that very little disappoints. For example, when running through Plague Knight’s stage, bubbling vats of chemicals and Bunsen burners roaring out of control help to set the theme, while the acid trip multicoloured backgrounds dazzle the senses. All of this is accompanied by a soundtrack composed by Jake Kaufman, which suitably contains several catchy anthemic tunes to go along with the action on screen. Though it's clear from both the music and visuals that this game couldn’t possibly have been a real NES game, it captures the spirit and energy of the games of that era quite effectively.
Those of you looking for replayability will be pleased to know, too, that there’s a lot of content on offer here in Shovel of Hope. If you endeavour to take your time and see everything, the main campaign should take somewhere around ten hours to clear, and then a harder new game plus mode is unlocked to do it all again. On top of this, a large list of in-game achievements dare you to attempt various harder challenges, such as beating the campaign in an hour and a half or doing so without using a single checkpoint. For the fifteen bucks being charged at the time of writing, Shovel of Hope offers up quite a bit of bang for your buck.
That being said, the question still remains of whether you should buy this standalone release over the full-blown Treasure Trove variant. The answer to that ultimately lies in how much you enjoy retro platformers. It’s difficult to say for sure whether Shovel of Hope is the best campaign out of the four that Yacht Club has put out over the years, but it’s certainly a high-quality release that easily stands on its own. From that perspective, Shovel of Hope is worth the punt, but we’d still strongly encourage you to look into picking up the Treasure Trove release. Shovel of Hope is great on its own, yes, but you’re really missing out on the full experience by skipping out on the other campaigns, which are at least as good if not better than Shovel of Hope.
Conclusion
Shovel of Hope stands as an example of how excellent retro-themed platformers can be when you have a team of experienced and passionate developers working on them, and still to this day acts as a standard which other, similar releases are judged against. The interesting level designs, humorous writing, high replayability, and intuitive controls make this one an easy recommendation, although with the caveat that the full Treasure Trove release is still the better way to go. Even so, it’s tough to go wrong with this original campaign, and if you haven’t played it yet, we’d highly recommend that you do so.
Comments 45
Great game, playing through the bundle this week, and almost done with SoH. Anyone who is a Mega Man / 80/90s Capcom fan needs Shovel Knight in their collection.
@Dm9982 anyone who’s a fan of S-tier games (the witcher, persona 4 golden, the last of us, breath of the wild, halo 2 etc.) should play it. It easily ranks among the best games last decade and even best games of all time. Probably the best indie game ever, with minecraft pre microsoft being second and stardew valley being third.
@darkswabber I Concur, it’s great. I’m having a blast with it. Although, much like Mega Man, it does invoke the “blue air” around me. D*mned spikes and pits with insta death! 🤣😂🤣
One of the greatest games of all time, no doubt!
@Dm9982 without spoiling, keep an eye on the armour suits you can buy, they might help with your problem.
@darkswabber I wondered if gold armor or any of em had special abilities not listed. I’ve gotten most of the armors and shovel upgrades so far. Last stage I finished was Polar Knight or Tinker, I forget. Both epic bosses thou!
I don’t understand what exactly is new to this version. It’s the initial game, right? So why did it get a re release? Please help! I am
about to buy it maybe
@Domisan just a stand alone version I believe without the expansions
Ok thanks. I think thats ok then.
Great game; the series took a big dip with the second game and how the main character controls (in my opinion).
@coderkind it isn't really a second game though, just an expansion of the first. Plague Knight isn't my favorite character but I did enjoy the story.
I played through this along with Plague and Spectre's campaigns again after finally playing King Knight's game a few months ago. It's a wonderful series and the original holds up nicely. It's the most straightforward of the bunch. Fantastic game.
@coderkind that's a common complaint about Plague Knight's game. Obviously, that game worked well for some people and not so much for others. I loved it and thought it controlled great. I suppose that's likely to happen incorporating different game mechanics to make each campaign different.
I didn't know they were going to launch a standalone release, but anyway it's a great game and for once early adopters got lucky: all the expansions were free. And I'll always be grateful to the developers for that.
"Treasure Trove bundle is arguably a better buy"... how is that a "con"?
I can't wait for these guys to release "Cyber Shadow", the long-awaited tenth installment in the Ninja Gaiden / Shadow of the Ninja spiritual series of games.
The series:
Ninja Gaiden (NES)
Ninja Gaiden 2 (NES)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (NES)
Ninja Gaiden (Sega Master System)
Ninja Gaiden (Game Gear)
Ninja Gaiden Shadow (Game Boy)
Shadow of the Ninja (NES)
Return of the Ninja (Game Boy Color)
Ninja Spirit (TurboGrafx16)
Cyber Shadow (Switch)
Notice how every game contains either the word "Ninja" or the word "Shadow", if not both. I know, I'm a genius for putting together this list.
This game and its expansions get a solid 10/10 from me. It just buries the competition in my opinion.
An absolute all-timer this, a classic.
Seven years 😱 can’t believe it
I only played SoH and the Plague Knight ones years ago on the 3DS but I remember them being great at the time. I just couldn’t play this on the Switch, I’d need to get a better controller because the D-Pad is terrible. It might be ok with my Cube controller but the stick’s probably a bit stiff to play a game like this.
It's pretty good if a bit overrated. If you bought the original release before it became the treasure trove edition you did get a lot of bang for your buck though, I really liked the Plague Knight campaign in particular, still need to do King Knight at some point.
I might try this platformer, it looks great and I am liking the look of the concept!
I love the original Shovel Knight campaign. I was not a fan of the expansion quests, but they were free so no big deal.
Loved this game. Beat it on wii U then got the treasure trove edition on switch and went through that. Never got to any of the additional content tho but i will do one day. Easily in my top 10.
I still need to try Shovel Knight and its various expansions. While I plan to at some point, I'm currently on the fence on whether I should get this standalone version or dig deeper for Treasure Trove. It's mainly a time + backlog thing.
@Phostachio sure. The mechanics put me off playing it though, so didn't get through the story.
@Tyranexx You can't go wrong either way. Personally, I think the whole four game collection is absolutely stellar, easily worth the price. If you were only going to play one of them tho, this is the one I'd recommend.
@darkswabber and don't forget Hollow Knight 😉
That game is so much better than a majority of AAA games I've played, and the production values are off the charts for a project made by 3 people (if I recall correctly).
On topic: I remembered just now that I've yet to redeem the King Knight campaign on my 3DS.
I bought the original many years ago so I should be able to get it for free.
Hope it's as good as Plague and Specter Knight.
One of my favourite games. Bought it on WiiU, Vita, PS4 and Switch. We got so much free, high quality content updates in SK, I gladly bought multiple copies to support the devlopers. My favourite campaign is the Spectre Knight campaign, they really nailed the fluidity of the combat and movement in that one.
Yep fantastic game really fun and challenging but manageable. Got the other quests but have yet to dip properly but fantastic they were free x x x
@MajinSoul Are all the expansions on Vita? I’d much rather play it on that then because the Vita has the best D-Pad I’ve ever used, the click is so satisfying.
Shovel Knight is awesome! The I have spent around 200 hours on it and on my way to getting all the achievements for every campaign. Treasure Trove is more worth it than this.
I got it for 10 bucks on a sale for my 3ds and they kept updating it for FREE until it became what it is and I appreciate that so much that it became my only cross buy ever. Thats the kind of thing that makes this game legendary. I have no regrets helping these guys out.
@SwitchVogel Hmm...Gonna have to weigh my options and start planning; it'll depend on my gaming situation in about a month. Thanks for the recommendation!
The new name make it sound like it's another DLC expansion. Still though I'm glad they straight up tell you before buying that if you already bought Treasure Trove that you don't need to download this.
Treasure Trove gets a 10 or we riot
@retro_player_77 They retroactively named the original game "Shovel Of Hope" after the expansions were released.
It's probably a reference to the original 1977 Star Wars being renamed "A New Hope" years later.
I honestly don't see the point.
Just get Treasure Trove.
King Of Cards was probably my favorite of the games, in terms of gameplay, though I wish they could have went with an alternate timeline like Plague Of Shadows or let you make different decisions with the story, rather than just be a prequel; kind of a downer.
Plague Of Shadows is very close as well.
Absolutely loved it, great characters and the most original gameplay of them all.
Spectre Of Torment, while still excellent, was personally my least favorite of the games, due to it's more linear, confined nature compared to the others, but I understood what they were going for, the influences they were drawing from, with great gameplay and story.
@clvr Now, looking at my profile pic you may assume that I have a bias (and I do), but King Knights campaign was actually my favorite in terms of gameplay and level design. Highly recommend playing it when you get the chance!
@nessisonett Yes, the Vita version of SK has all the DLC campaigns. The Super Smash like game mode "Showdown" is not available on Vita and 3DS though.
And yes, the Vita is an amazing portable device
@Whispy thanks for the recommendation!
It's kinda hard to go back to my tiny launch 3DS after being used to the Switch, but I'll make sure to try it out soon!
@Impaler-D That's exactly what it is, they stated this in a semi-recent blog post on their site.
@SwitchVogel Exactly what is?
@Impaler-D The Shovel of Hope subtitle is an intentional reference to how the first Star Wars was later subtitled A New Hope
About to play through these games again. I beat them all except for King of Cards. Shovel of Hope is one of the greatest indies of all time.
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