Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local), 1-4 Competitive (Not Yet Released)

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Review:

(Note: This is an outdated review. You can find the updated review here.)

Shovel Knight is an Action-Platformer that acts as a love letter to classic NES games in the genre while remaining its own entity. It manages the balancing act of being both nostalgic and wildly original, bringing back some of the best qualities of old-school games while avoiding most of their flaws, and overall being an amazing revival of the sort of game design we haven’t seen in a long while.

Shovel Knight looks and feels like a classic NES game. Many of them, in fact – the game has a visual presentation like some of the better games of that era (technically cheating with a wider color palette and cleaner visuals than the NES could have ever pulled off), the soundtrack is arguably just as good as some of the best NES games, the main character has Scrooge McDuck’s pogo jump and treasure-hoarding, Mega Man’s themed levels and level bosses, Castlevania’s mostly close-range combat, Super Mario Bros. 3’s overworld map with roaming enemy encounters, Zelda II’s peaceful town areas… suffice it to say, this game cobbles together a “greatest hits” collection of game features and mechanics of the NES.

However, the game itself manages to keep its own identity, with loveable and extremely memorable characters, clever and inventive level design, and wildly imaginative boss design. And throughout the game, you’ll find yourself tackling all sorts of challenging (but mostly not punishing) levels and bosses, all with fluid, well-crafted gameplay that feels absolutely natural.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Treasure Trove version of the game takes things a step farther by adding in multiple additional campaigns through the game as some of Shovel Knight’s memorable boss characters, who control completely differently (and as such face their own challenges when tackling stages), and each have a different story of their own. As I write this, the game has yet to receive its third and final campaign or its 4-player competitive content, and even without this it feels absolutely packed full of content.

If you’re a fan of NES-era platformers, Shovel Knight absolutely needs to be in your collection. If you thought those games were too repetitive and unfairly difficult, Shovel Knight needs to be in your collection. And if you just enjoy good action-platforming gameplay, Shovel Knight needs… well, you get the point.

tl;dr – Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is an Action-Platformer that melds together some of the best parts of classic NES games to create something that is surprisingly original and nostalgic at the same time. Fans of platformers in general absolutely should have this game in their collection.

Grade: A

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