Let's Talk... Shovel Knight

It would hardly be controversial to say that retro-inspired indie platformers, with their 8/16 bit style and punishing sensibilities designed to invoke feelings of nostalgia, have become something of an over-saturated template for independent games in recent years. The novelty of "hey, remember what games used to be like?" is hardly enough to carry a game these days. Thankfully, Shovel Knight's extremely tight controls and varied and meaningfully unique level design allow it to easily stand out as more than just another pixel platformer, and prevents it from feeling like yet more more shallow exploitation of your memories of old games.

The game's rather pretty 8 bit art style

Naturally, the most noticeable part of Shovel Knight is its gorgeous 8 bit art style, which the developers claim to be as close as possible to something you'd actually see running on an NES. (Obviously, that's something of an exaggeration since it is running at a much higher resolution with much higher sound fidelity and the likes) Nonetheless, Shovel Knight's visual and audio design is certainly well-done and is a large part of what gives the game a lot of its charm, and although this kind of style isn't particularly unique, or even especially interesting, anymore, the level of quality and dedication to the look and feel makes it a lot more respectable than most games that attempt this style. The aesthetic of Shovel Knight serves as a great reminder that, when done well, this style can still be extremely charming, no matter how over-used it may have become.

Now, you obviously can't have an 8 bit-styled platformer without including various elements of 8 bit game design, no matter how frustrating or out-dated they may feel in this day and age. Some of these design choices, such as being knocked back everytime you get hit, feel somewhat intrusive and a little bit forced (in that these games don't include such mechanics because they're fun or challenging, but simply because they were in old games and so we're going to use it just to keep it loyal to what you remember), whilst others, such as the inclusion of the classic NES Megaman thing of enemies only appearing once the next screen has fully transitioned, feel like a fun and charming thing to include into a game that obviously doesn't need to do that for the same technical reasons. For the most part, Shovel Knight does a good job of balancing mechanics and features that make you remember that, despite what your memories keep telling you, old games were actually kind of clunky and frustrating, with elements of smart design that remind you of the numerous minor design choices that gave a lot of old games their weird charms.

An example of one of the game's later, more complex stages

Despite the games many clear inspirations, the actual core gameplay is most reminiscent of the original Megaman games. You move through relatively long levels based around a certain theme (which include things like a water level, an air level, an underground level etc.) and make your way through various level-relevant enemies to eventually reach the boss at the end of each stage. Unlike Megaman, you don't earn special weapons defeating bosses, but you are, however, constantly accumulating treasure throughout levels which can be spent on health upgrades, mana upgrades, and unlocking more spells and abilities (which range from fireballs to temporary invincibility, all of which costs mana to use)..Along the way, you'll be able to purchase a number of more specific suit upgrades that offer more powerful abilities like being able to unleash a stronger charged-up attack, or your next attack causing more damage after performing two consecutive bounce attacks (much like the one in the Ducktales' games). These upgrades and extra abilities offer some nice incentive to keep going and generally offer enough variety to remain interesting through the game's 5-6 hour length.

Ultimately, Shovel Knight is an excellent execution of a game that is both respectful and smart with the way it manipulates nostalgia for games from the NES era, whilst also offering enough unique hooks and tight gameplay that looks great and plays well. Even if you've grown tired of games that go for the same old nostalgic hooks, Shovel Knight is still well worth checking out, and actually manages to be fun even without any of the requisite nostalgia and fond memories of the games of old.