Review: Shovel Knight

For years Apple fans have clamored for Nintendo to bring its catalog of vintage games to iOS, and though that’s not likely to happen anytime soon, the arrival of Shovel Knight on Mac might be the next-best thing. Clearly inspired by the games of yesteryear, Shovel Knight feels like a lost classic from Nintendo’s 8-bit glory days in the best ways possible.

Like the nostalgic ’80s titles that inspired it, Shovel Knight doesn’t take itself too seriously — you’re a knight armed with a shovel, for crying out loud — and it makes great use of simple but inspired play mechanics. Using your shovel, you can dig up treasure, wallop foes, and reflect projectiles, but it’s the ability to use the shovel like a pogo stick to bounce off of objects or enemies that really makes the game fun. It also opens up creative possibilities for exploring the game’s levels and discovering hidden routes. 

Each themed stage features a distinct look, and often its own unique hazards — flaming floors in the laboratory, lights that go out in the graveyard, or wind that blows you around a massive airship, for example —in addition to platforming staples like moving platforms, collapsing floors, spiked pits of doom, and mid-stage bosses. Levels conclude with intense battles against members of The Order of No Quarter: a delightfully goofy troop of knights, each of which requires different tactics to defeat.

And the game doesn’t just play like an NES action-platformer; it looks the part, too, thanks to charmingly lo-fi (yet vividly detailed) hand-drawn graphics and a limited color palette. Admittedly, the developers cheat a bit at times (there are way more colors on screen than old video game consoles could ever produce), but Shovel Knight is more about delivering classic gaming as you remember it, not as it necessarily was. The appealing visuals are perfectly complemented by a catchy chip-tune soundtrack, responsive controls, and some genuinely amusing writing.

While the game is decidedly old-school in many ways, the difficulty, fortunately, is not. There’s plenty of challenge to be had, for certain, but a fairly generous checkpoint system prevents it from ever becoming too frustrating. There are also numerous ways to permanently upgrade your character, plus you can obtain limited-use secondary weapons — including a flame-spewing wand and a locket that grants temporary invincibility — that can really come in handy in a pinch.

The bottom line. Shovel Knight is a fantastic retro platformer from beginning to end. If you like console-style games, you’ll dig this one.