L.G.C. |Reviews| — Shovel Knight

This week your intrepid heroes embrace hipster-pixels, hate on checkpoints, and Shovel all the things.


Scale:

– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies


Game: Shovel Knight

Webzone: http://yachtclubgames.com/shovel-knight/

Devel: Yacht Club Games

Engine: Custom (C++)

Price: 14.99

Wazzat: Shovel Knight is a sweeping classic action adventure game with awesome gameplay, memorable characters, and an 8-bit retro aesthetic. If you love games with perfect platforming, beautiful art, infectious music, crazy bosses, humor and levity, and real heart… Shovel Knight is for you!


Makes with the working

V-

J-

  • Don’t need to restart the game to plug in a controller.   Plus

P-


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Shiny / Sounds

V-

  • Mario 3, Zelda 2, Ducktales, and Megaman jumped in a snog box and nine months later this poped out.
  • I played those games and they did not look this good. This is SNES level hipster pixel graphics.
  • And I’m not even touching the parallax scrolling holy war because some people will scream about Battletoads and Mega Man 3 (that’s not real parallax scrolling)
  • All in all it genuinely looks nice for what it is.
  • Now ze sounds. FK the soundtrack and the effects. They are hella accurate and equally hella annoying. Put on some Slayer and be done with it.

J-

  • Accomplishes it’s goal of emulating the retro look and sound
  • I usually play platformers without any sounds.

P-

  • Standard hipster pixel fare
  • I had to mute the music because it made my ear-drums bleed.

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Control

V-

  • It worked /w the Xclone controller OOTB
  • The jump jumped and the shovel shovelled
  • Now character movement. It feels sluggish; hell, the whole game feels like it would benefit from a 10% speed boost.
  • That said, the mechanics are spot on. I had no issues /w landing jumps or poking things /w my shovel stick.
  • Inventory management was even useable /w the controller organ.
  • Special attacks were a bit wonky but work considering the two button layout.

J-

  • My two problems are thus:
    • I am used to playing this type of game on a handheld, usually on a toilet somewhere
    • Games like these require a good d-pad, which the stock xbox controller fails to provifde
    • My hori precision controller don’t wanna work with this one

P-

  • Recognized my PS2 Dual Shock ootb.
  • At first I thought the way the character moved as far too weighty.
  • Then I realized it didn’t actually matter mechanics wise, because it was just the animation. The actual mechanics/movement are spot on.
    • And it really does make sense to have the character move like he’s heavy.
    • He is wearing full plate armor and carrying a steel shovel with him at all times.

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FUN?

V-

  • Is the game FUN? Yes, for a hipster pixel game this is on top of the nostalgia grab pile.
  • Is it NintendHARD? Pffft! It’s boringly easy compared to what I grew up with.
  • Does it have problems? Well, check /w the judge.
  • I had to put on a hard hat during the boss battles because they were beating me over the head screaming “hey! look how scripted our attacks are!”
  • Yeah, in the old old times /lawn the attacks were scripted but the devels (the good ones) did everything possible to cover that up. Figuring out the pattern took time and your accomplishment organ would swell /w pride when you sorted it.
  • Another thing hipster-pixel games lack is random slowdown. Remember when shite would go sideways when to much shite was going down? Bring that back.
  • Finally, where did the life system go? “But Venn Zelda 2 had battery backup and you could save progress with extra long BS codes!11!”
  • Bring that shite back! Make a battery meter or give me some FK you long code to write down.
  • Having a checkpoint system makes it too easy.

J-

  • I hate to say it, but this is the wrong platform for this platformer
  • I feel I would have enjoyed it more on the 3ds

P-

  • Not a big platformer fan.
  • I played a lot of platformers in the early 90s but that’s mostly because there wasn’t a whole lot for alternatives on the Master System.
  • This game does harken back to those days.
  • It does have the Metroid-Vania elements of only being able to get to specific places in a level once you’ve unlocked a certain ability/spell.
  • For what it is, the game is solid. But I don’t really enjoy platformers.

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Final –

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