Yacht Club Games built Shovel Knight out of borrowed parts and made them feel new. The studio developed and published the game, crowdfunded its development, and shipped it for Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and Windows in June 2014. Ports followed: OS X and Linux in September 2014, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One in April 2015, Amazon Fire TV in September 2015, and Nintendo Switch in March 2017. It is a 2D side-scrolling platformer with the 8-bit retro aesthetic the source describes.
The Shovel Blade and the Order of No Quarter
You play as Shovel Knight, an adventurer who attacks with his shovel, digs through dirt blocks, unearths treasure, and bounces off enemies and objects with the same tool. The base campaign, later retitled Shovel of Hope, sends him to rescue his partner Shield Knight while fighting the Enchantress and her Order of No Quarter.
Levels are themed around individual knights of the Order, feature several checkpoints, and end in a boss fight against one of the order’s eight members. Each section of the world map holds three knights, and you must beat all of them to move on.
Treasure is the second engine. A salesman named Chester hides inside levels, and his Relics — bought with treasure and powered by magic — include a locket that grants temporary invulnerability and a wand that shoots fireballs. You can also buy upgrades for health, magic capacity, armor, or the shovel, including one that lets the shovel fire damaging projectiles at full health.
Shield Knight and the Tower of Fate
The story earns its place. Shovel Knight and Shield Knight are renowned adventurers until an amulet curses her during an expedition into the Tower of Fate, sealing the tower and leaving him stranded outside. He gives up adventuring and goes into exile. The Enchantress rises in his absence, spreads evil across the land, and eventually unseals the tower.
He returns for Shield Knight, not for glory. Along the way he keeps fighting his old rival Black Knight, who finally reveals the twist: the Enchantress is Shield Knight, possessed by the spirit inside the amulet. Shovel Knight exorcises it, the amulet becomes the Remnant of Fate, and the two knights defeat it together. Shield Knight holds the monster back as the tower collapses; Black Knight carries Shovel Knight to safety and leaves him by his campfire. A post-credits scene shows Shield Knight beside him as he sleeps.
Music Sheets, Checkpoints, and Dying
Small systems do a lot of work here. Hidden music sheets can be given to a bard, who trades treasure and unlocks a sound test for every track. Dying costs you a portion of your treasure, dropped at the spot where you fell, and you can walk back to reclaim it.
The game drew critical acclaim, and with the later campaigns the original story picked up the retronym Shovel of Hope. The full package arrived in December 2019 as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, bundling Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, King of Cards, and the multiplayer fighter Shovel Knight Showdown. A spin-off dungeon crawler, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, came from a co-development with Vine on December 13, 2021, for macOS, Windows, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4. The roguelike prequel Shovel Knight Dig, co-developed with Nitrome, followed on September 23, 2022, for Windows, Nintendo Switch, and Apple Arcade.
The order the studio shipped things in:
- Shovel Knight, June 2014.
- Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, and King of Cards, collected in December 2019 as Treasure Trove.
- Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, December 13, 2021.
- Shovel Knight Dig, September 23, 2022.
- Shovel of Hope DX, planned for a future date.
Released 12 years ago, Shovel Knight still holds up because every mechanic points at the same idea: dig, bounce, and keep moving. The plot twist lands because the game spends its whole run making you care about a partner you never once control. What the source does not settle is whether Shovel of Hope DX is a straight remake or something more — Yacht Club Games has given no date, so the next real test of this game’s hold is still unannounced.
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