Shovel Knight is a sweeping classic action adventure game with awesome gameplay, memorable characters, and an 8-bit retro aesthetic. It’s a hot mashup of new and old! You play as the eponymous Shovel Knight, a small knight with a huge quest. Shovel Knight has come to this land with two goals: to defeat the evil Enchantress and quest for his lost beloved. He wields a Shovel Blade: a multipurpose weapon whose techniques have now been lost to the ages. Always honest and helpful, Shovel Knight is a shining example of the code of Shovelry: Slash Mercilessly and Dig Tirelessly!
But, between Shovel Knight and his beloved stands a cadre of villainous knights. These terrible foes, known as The Order of No Quarter, have been dispatched to prevent Shovel Knight from reaching the Enchantress, and will pursue their mission at any cost. If you love games with perfect platforming, beautiful art, infectious music, crazy bosses, humor and levity, and real heart… Shovel Knight is for you!
| Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
| CPU | Intel Celeron E1500 Dual-Core 2.2GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ | Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 3.06GHz / AMD Athlon II X2 270 |
| VRAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| RAM | 2 GB | 2 GB |
| OS | Win Xp 32 | Win 7 64 |
| Graphics Card | nVidia GeForce 8600 GS / AMD Intel HD Graphics 2000 Desktop | nVidia GeForce GT 440 / AMD Radeon HD 5550 512MB |
| Direct X | DX 9 | DX 10 |
| SOUND CARD | Yes | DirectX Compatible |
| HDD Space | 200 MB | 200 MB |
| Game Analysis | Shovel Knight is a sweeping classic action adventure game with awesome gameplay, memorable characters, and an 8-bit retro aesthetic created by Yacht Club Games. You play as the eponymous Shovel Knight, a small knight with a huge quest. Shovel Knight has come to this valley with two goals: to defeat the evil Enchantress and save his lost beloved. He wields a ShovelBlade; a multipurpose weapon whose techniques have now been lost to the ages. Always honest and helpful, Shovel Knight is a shining example of the code of Shovelry: Slash Mercilessly and Dig Tirelessly! | |
| High FPS | 200+ FPS ( GTX 1060 ) | |
| Optimization Score | 10 | |
- Nice retro graphics
- Great music
- Good variety of level mechanics
- Grindy
- Annoying level design
Shovel Knight is an alright action platformer. My main point of critique is that the game is a massive grind, because the levels are all about memorizing. Each level is centered around its boss, resulting in each level being very different and showing lots of interesting mechanics. However the levels are designed in such away that you have to move in a very specific pattern. Which takes all of the fun out of the levels. You can finish each stage in 10 minutes, but on your first time it will take around an hour. In total it takes about 10 hours to finish the main game, which is a good length (but short for the price).
(Based on PS4 version)
It was breif, pretty frustrating, but fairly enjoyable. Like a metroid-vania clone with some actual personality. Just too brief to be epic though.
Score Breakdown
“The Tale”
Story- 7
Pacing- 6
Characters- 7
Originality- 8
Linearity- 6
Length- 9
Epicness- 8
“The Presentation”
Visuals- 7
Display- 8
Music- 9
Sound FX- 8
“The Mechanics”
Ease of Use- 4
Innovation- 7
Replayability- 8
Great Level Design
Superb Soundtrack
Great Art Style
Really Good Boss Battles
Tight Controls
Overall Excellence
Shovel Knight blew me away. Or should i say it dug me away. (That was an awful joke). Shovel Knight is the best game to come out of crowdfunding and it is one of the few games that actually is paying homage to the NES era whilst also being a great game. The game follows a knight. Shovel Knight. Who seeks revenge on the death of his beloved shield knight. The game takes the classic elements from old NES games and adds some of the best level design ever, a superb soundtrack and wraps it all up with charm and some pretty difficult levels. Also it has great boss battles.
Conclusion: Overall Shovel Knight is one of the best games this decade so far and will be treasured in the hearts of gamers and fans much like the original super mario bros and mega man 2 were back in the NES era. 10/10