Shovel Knight Reviews
Shovel Knight is a fantastic game, which deserves all of the praise that it's received since launching last year. Now available on the Xbox One with iconic bonus content, it's even better than before and is a no-brainer of a purchase.
Shovel Knight is yet another indie not to be missed at all. The metroidvania genre reaches its peak with a game that is not a simple ready-made, but a title with its own identity. If you haven't experienced the 8-bit era on your skin, maybe you'll struggle to fully appreciate the game of the small Californian team; the excellent control system and a wide variety of enemies and settings will satisfy even the youngest and most demanding gamers, who will nevertheless have to deal with punitive gameplay and a not indifferent difficulty curve.
Review in Italian | Read full review
It is surprising that, so many years after the birth of 2D platformers, we can still design a title that bases at least half of its charisma on level design, especially without upsetting the fundamental canons of a long-lived and probably immortal genre. Shovel Knight shows that studying the past can be the first step in reinterpreting the great classics in a modern way, even going so far as to lap the quality of the milestones of game design.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Due to its impeccable level design, art direction, memorable soundtrack and addictive gameplay, Shovel Knight established itself as a true contemporary classic, a tribute to a golden age of the platform game genre; an indie that will be remembered for many years.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
If we first have the impression that it will be only a sequence of winks addressed to Mega Man, his main and avowed inspiration, Castlevania or Duck Tales, Shovel Knight remains a unique title. Beneath its NES-typed game nature are treasures of original ideas, level design and maneuverability combined with an overall creation that will seduce the nostalgic. Released 25 years ago, it would probably be considered a cult today.
Review in French | Read full review
Bringing back all that made older classics into unforgettable games and pushing aside all their technology constraints using modern methods of game design, Shovel Knight is the perfect flagship of a piece of retrgaming made in the 21st century.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Shovel Knight is one of the best "8-bit" video games to come along since the actual days of 8-bit systems.
This isn't just a nostalgic copy of the games of the medium's youth, but also a fever dream of what the 8-bit era was capable of.
Shovel Knight combines everything that was great about some of the best games from the NES era, and turns those beloved mechanics into something fresh. It's a brilliant 2D action-platformer, which simply demands your attention.
Easily one of the best games of the year, Shovel Knight does the unthinkable. It maintains the style we've come to expect from the NES era of old, and yet somehow provides enough contemporary design and gameplay to make it easily fit into this generation of gaming. You'll absolutely dig it.
Shovel Knight is a pretty stellar homage to simpler times, but it's so unabashedly an homage that it never steps out of the shadows cast by the components it's built from—DuckTales, Mega Man, Simon's Quest. And while derivative doesn't necessarily mean bad—far from it in Shovel Knight's case—it certainly doesn't make it any less pandering in a lot of ways.
With some of the tightest controls and game mechanics I have seen in years, Shovel Knight acquires an excellence that I seldom experience in games nowadays, making this game a class act well worth the $15 price tag whether you get it on Wii U, 3DS, or Steam. With a phenomenal soundtrack to accompany the thoroughly crafted lands and lovely 8-bit visuals, there's a lot to love and help you become enthralled in this retro-style world.
Still, it's so very refreshing to find a true gem in the ever-expanding rockpile of retro-influenced games, and Shovel Knight is a wonderful love letter to some of the classics that many of us grew up with. You will dig it.
It seems like forever ago since I first heard of Shovel Knight and with the continuous delays, the wait was never an easy one. It\'s no secret that I\'m a massive fan for old school Mega Man, so when Shovel Knight was classified as a "melee-focused Mega Man," it instantly became my most anticipated game. I purposefully ignored all of the trailers and previews, so I could go in blind and complete the nostalgia, pretending I just picked this game up off a store shelf without knowing much about it. It\'s rare that a game can live up to the hype and rarer still when a game surpasses it. I had no idea that Shovel Knight was going to be as good as it turned out.
The game aims to target older players in which they want to awaken their nostalgic childhood memories sitting by archive consoles. For them, it's almost an obligation to play this game. And the younger ones should at least see what the games looked like at the beginning and what a long journey they've come. Recommend.
Overall Shovel Knight is quite simply one of the best side-scrolling platformers in recent years and in my opinion ranks up there with the best of them. Not only does the game look and sound fantastic it also plays well and has a surprising amount of depth. The level design is some of the strongest I have come across in a long time and I appreciated the tight and responsive controls that are critical in a game like this. Its clear that this is a game that was carefully crafted with a huge degree of love and care and is easily one of my favourite games in recent years. I can’t recommend this game enough, so if you haven’t played it you should do so right now.
Make no mistake, Shovel Knight is a classic, side-scrolling, retro platforming, and if that’s the kind of game you’re looking for, it’s one of the best out there.
The Xbox One edition of Shovel Knight adds an exciting challenge to the Battletoads, which alone, for the most avid nostalgics, could be worth the ephemeral cost of the ticket, but the real reasons to download it are the same as those already highlighted in previous reviews, starting with an immediate and fun gameplay and passing through a soundtrack to applause.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Creating a title like Shovel Knight requires a boundless love for the great classics of the NES era, as well as an absolute understanding of their mechanics. The work of Yacht Club Games is a tribute of the highest quality, which does not reinvent anything but shuffle the best of the masterpieces of the past to the great and boasts a gameplay with enviable solidity. Put simply, it's yet another indie not to be missed. Nostalgic or not, give us a thought.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Shovel Knight is a game that you should buy, plain and simple. It takes what could have been a simple nostalgia trip to a new level and shows that shovelry is alive and well.