Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope

I own the Treasure Trove Edition of Shovel Knight... And I felt that it had to be said that the previous review doesn't seem to be for Shovel of Hope at all, but possibly for King Knight's "King of Cards" campaign? Didn't sound like it described Shovel of Hope at all. Anyway, this is the page for the original Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope game... And so I thought it would be helpful if someone actually reviewed this campaign and not another one... First, if you have never played Shovel Knight you need to. It's the best of Old School meets New School. Old School graphics, music, and difficulty. New School mechanics, storytelling, and balance for the difficulty. The world map is similar to Super Mario 3, and the levels are similar too. Go where you need to go, collect what you need to collect, reach the end. Try not to die. But, if you do, you have a chance to get some of your gems back. (Or you can die more and lose your gems permanently... which sucks.) Jump around, dodge enemies, use your shovel to dig up treasure, find hidden rooms, collect music notes, buy upgrades for your armor and your shovel! There are funny moments, and genuine tear jerker moments, too. The developers did a fantastic job telling this story, which sets the standard for the rest of the series. This game is pure gold. Though, truth be told, just get the Treasure Trove Edition. You would then get 5 games all together. (4 campaigns for 4 different knights, and Shovel Knight Showdown which is a Smash-Bros style fighting game using a ton of the Shovel Knight characters!) This seriously is a gem in the world of games. You won't be disappointed.

I would rate this game a 3.8 out of 5, if that were possible. Not to my taste but relatively ok old school 16-bit imitation game. I never had access to expensive consoles, which means I missed out on most of the Nintendo 16-bit era classics. Shovel Knight draws inspiration from the 16-bit era console games, with its limited color palette, animations, pixel-perfect movement etc. While this nostalgic approach works well for its graphics and music, I wish they had taken a more modern approach to gameplay. The boss battles, in particular, left me wanting more. The character movement in the game feels pixel-perfect, but I'm not a fan of characters that feel as clunky as a refrigerator. There's no double jump, and you only get access to limited "dashing" in the late game. The game often places enemies next to pits, ensuring that you'll take hits and lose coins when you die. This design choice frustrated me as it felt like it was being used to its maximum annoyance potential. On the bright side, the world-building in Shovel Knight is quite nice. There's a typical map where you select your next destination, and there are towns where you can upgrade your gear and interact with townsfolk. I appreciated the ability to revisit locations, which allowed me to grind the first area for two hours and max out my character. While this may seem slightly sloppy in design, it was a welcome option, as I found myself reluctant to revisit other areas due to their frustrating design elements, such as automatically scrolling sections. Boss battles were rather average. For instance, in one early game boss fight, the lights are turned off, leaving you with only 50% of the screen visible. Bosses are faster than your character, and the visibility of their projectiles is often weak. This made me resort to pogoing on most bosses while praying they wouldn't do something nasty. The final boss had better design and provided a more enjoyable challenge.

kind of a grind at first but addictive and super fun once you get going. It helps to know when to take a break if it's getting too frustrating

The game is great, i have played it before so i bought it for myself and it crashes on startup, nowhere on the product page specifies that!