Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Genre: Compilation / Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local), 1-4 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

One of the earliest reviews I wrote on eShopperReviews was a review for Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, but it never quite sat well with me that the review was basically just a review for the first installment of the Shovel Knight series, Shovel of Hope, with the other games mentioned as an after-thought. Indeed, they hadn’t even all been released at the time I wrote the review – Shovel Knight Showdown, the final part of the collection, had yet to be released. Well, now that the entire thing is out, and Shovel of Hope even has its own separate release on the eShop, it seemed appropriate to re-review both Treasure Trove and all of the individual games within it. So, let’s try this again…

Shovel Knight is an Action-Platformer that acts as a love letter to classic NES games in the genre while remaining its own entity. Originally released to multiple platforms in 2014, it would be later followed by four standalone expansions, all included here in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, released on the Nintendo Switch in 2017. Here is what I thought of each of them:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	A
tl;dr Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope is an Action-Platformer that is the first game in the Shovel Knight series. It 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.
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows	Action-Platformer	1	A
tl;dr Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows is an expansion to Shovel Knight, the first expansion out of four. This is an Action-Platformer that follows the Plague Knight boss from the first game, who has a fun and unique move-set built around using explosions to propel him through the air. The game design and level design here is every bit as good as the first game, though it does re-use both assets and much of the level design from the first game. Even so, this character controls so differently, and the story is so amusing that what’s old feels new again, and fans of Shovel Knight should absolutely give this game a shot.
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment	Action-Platformer	1	A-
tl;dr Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is a standalone expansion to Shovel Knight, the second expansion out of four. This is an Action-Platformer that follows the Specter Knight boss from the first game, who has a unique move-set built around a wall run and a diagonal air slash attack. The game design and level design here is every bit as good as the first game, though it does re-use some assets and Specter Knight isn’t quite as fun a character to play as his shovel-wielding contemporary. Still, this is a solid entry in the series and an excellent Action-Platformer well worth playing.
Shovel Knight: King of Cards	Action-Platformer	1	A-
tl;dr Shovel Knight: King of Cards is a standalone expansion to Shovel Knight, the third expansion out of four. This is an Action-Platformer that follows the King Knight boss from the first game, who has a unique and fun move-set built around combo-ing shoulder bashes into pirouette spins. The game design and level design here is every bit as good as the first game, though it does re-use some assets and makes some changes to the map that are a bit disappointing. Also, the newly-added card game is decent, but nothing truly great. Still, this is a solid entry in the series and an excellent Action-Platformer well worth playing.
Shovel Knight Showdown	Action-Platformer / Fighting Game	1-4 Competitive (Local)	B
tl;dr Shovel Knight Showdown is a standalone expansion to Shovel Knight, the fourth expansion out of four. This is a hybrid of Action-Platformer and Fighting Game that has the same basic gameplay of the Shovel Knight games, but now has a focus on multiplayer arena battles. The gameplay here is solid, but this isn’t as groundbreaking as Shovel Knight, and the AI is kinda’ dumb so you’ll definitely want to play with friends. However, if you do have friends to throw down with, this is definitely worth a look.

In short, there is a lot of quality content here. While each of the games re-use some of the assets from Shovel of Hope, they do add new graphical and musical elements as well, and the characters in each of these games plays differently enough, with level design built around their unique abilities, that playing through each game feels fresh even as you occasionally run through the same areas. Plague of Shadows is probably the best example of this – this is the game that probably retained the most level design elements from Shovel of Hope, yet Plague Knight controls so wildly differently that it’s a new challenge navigating these old areas again.

Also, I feel the need to point out that Plague of Shadows is not available on the Nintendo Switch outside of this collection – you can buy the other games separately, but Plague of Shadows is only found here.

In the end, Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope is still the star of this collection, but each of the other games brings something unique to the table, and there is just so much quality gameplay to be had here it’s impressive. Shovel of Hope was already a must-have game, but the addition of all of the other games in this collection make this without a question in my mind one of the most essential games in the Nintendo Switch library. Do not miss it.

tl;dr – Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is a collection of the Action-Platformer Shovel Knight and all four of its expansions, including Plague of Shadows which is not purchasable separately. Shovel Knight was already a must-have game, but this collection is so jam-packed with value it makes the entire package one of the best games to get on the Nintendo Switch. Unless you have this collection on another platform, you need to get it on your Nintendo Switch.

Grade: A+

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