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!important}.ng p{font-family:'Arial', san serif;font-size:1em !important} </style> <article id="entry-top"> <div class="float_wrapper"> <header> <div class="header-container"> <h1 data-remote-headline-edit="title" data-remote-admin-entry-id="5606221">Shovel Knight review: rewrite history</h1> <p class="byline"> By <em><a href="http://www.polygon.com/users/griffinmcelroy">Griffin McElroy</a></em> <a href='http://twitter.com/griffinmcelroy' class="twitter">@griffinmcelroy</a> <br /> <span class="timestamp">on June 26, 2014 at 9:00a </span> <span class="m-entry-admin-button" data-remote-admin-entry-type="button" data-remote-admin-entry-id="5606221"></span> </p> </div> </header> <div class="m-share-buttons"> <div class="m-share-buttons__inner-wrapper"> <div class="p-button social facebook"> <a href="#" onclick="window.open('https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u='+encodeURIComponent('http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5842180/shovel-knight-review-pc-3ds-wii-u'), 'height=279, width=575'); return false;">Share</a> </div> <div class="p-button social twitter"> <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Shovel+Knight+review%3A+rewrite+history&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygon.com%2F2014%2F6%2F26%2F5842180%2Fshovel-knight-review-pc-3ds-wii-u&via=Polygon">Tweet</a> </div> </div> </div> <section class="body" id="review-body"> <div class="review_table"> <div class="pane"> <table> <tbody> <tr class="info_title"> <td> Game Info </td> </tr> <tr class="box_art"> <td> <span class="game_img" data-original="http://cdn3.sbnation.com/hermano/small/7242/small_shovelknight.png" style="background-image: url(http://cdn3.sbnation.com/hermano/small/7242/small_shovelknight.png);"></span> </td> </tr> <tr class="platform"> <td> <small>Platform</small> <strong>Win, Wii U, 3DS, Mac, Linux</strong> </td> </tr> <tr class="publisher"> <td> <small>Publisher</small> <strong>Yacht Club Games</strong> </td> </tr> <tr class="developer"> <td> <small>Developer</small> <strong>Yacht Club Games</strong> </td> </tr> <tr class="release"> <td> <small>Release Date</small> <strong>2014-06-26</strong> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> <div class="ad_article_right"> <div class="ad"> <div id="open_x_ad_unit_304992" class="open_x_ad" data-cb-ad-id="Half page" data-cb-dfp-id="unit=304992"> <script type="text/javascript"> SBN.OpenX.showAd(304992); </script> </div> <div id="open_x_ad_unit_305001" class="open_x_ad" data-cb-ad-id="Tablet half page" data-cb-dfp-id="unit=305001"> <script type="text/javascript"> SBN.OpenX.showAd(305001); </script> </div> </div> </div> <p class="m-entry__intro intro"><span class="large"><em>Shovel Knight</em> is inspired by the past in all the right ways — but it's far from stuck in it.</span> </p>  <div class="chorus-snippet single_column large" style="max-width:43em; margin-left:Auto; margin-right:auto;"> <p>Countless games have attempted to exploit our nostalgia for the 8 and 16-bit golden age, but none have cherry-picked the era's best attributes as judiciously as <em>Shovel Knight</em>. It's the stuff our childhood dreams were made of, assuming you dreamt of combining your favorite platformers from the '80s and early '90s into a single, streamlined package.</p> <p>The magic of <em>Shovel Knight</em> is how it accomplishes that recombination without becoming derivative. The all-too-common praise for these sorts of modern-retro projects is lauding them as "the best NES game never made." <em>Shovel Knight</em> is, by leaps and bounds, the most authentic retro game ever made, and might actually be deserving of that designation.</p> <p>Though tons of NES games make up <em>Shovel Knight</em>'s DNA, the most obvious mechanical comparison is Capcom's 1990 platformer DuckTales. <em>Shovel Knight</em>'s unique, titular weapon behaves like Scrooge McDuck's cane, allowing him to flip enemies, bounce over obstacles or unearth hidden treasures. Bouncing is really the main order of the day — it allows you to dispatch enemies without putting yourself in harm's way, and lets you cross gaps by chaining together head-stomps.</p> </div>   <div class="chorus-snippet image_overlay quote_only quote_right"> <div class="big_image"><div class="video-wrap p-scalable-video"><div data-chorus-video-id="49373" class="chorus-video-embed" id="chorus-video-49373"></div></div></div> </div>   <div style="max-width:52em; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;" class="chorus-snippet single_column large"> <p>Simple as it may be, it's amazing how well that one mechanic has held up. Figuring out how to combo-bounce through an entire screen of flying enemies, killer spikes and projectiles is endlessly rewarding, which is fortunate, because you'll do it a lot throughout <em>Shovel Knight</em>'s campaign.</p> <p><em>Shovel Knight</em> revives a lot of great ideas from the 8-bit era, but its biggest strength might just be what it leaves out. The (occasionally charming) obtuseness present in the games it draws from has been excised entirely — there's no repetition in its exploration, no confusion in how its systems operate. More notably, there's very, very little referential humor or retro-parody in <em>Shovel Knight</em>'s writing, making it feel less like a cheeky dissertation, and more like a franchise that actually could have existed (and wildly succeeded) on the NES.</p> </div>   <div class="chorus-snippet single_column_big_photo large" style="max-width:52em; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"> <div class="big_photo"><img alt="Campfire_narrow" class="photo" src="http://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/assets/4672103/campfire_narrow.gif"></div> <div class="float"> <p>Those lovingly reimagined mechanics are bolstered by a handful of more modern designs that help <em>Shovel Knight</em> establish itself as more than just a retro knock-off. It has a novel, almost Dark Souls-ian take on death, forcing you to drop a large portion of your collected gold when you die, but giving you a single chance to get back to the scene of your death and reclaim your loot. It's a system that reinforces constant, challenging risk-reward evaluations — can you even get back to that point without dying again, starting that cycle anew?</p> <p>The game's biggest achievement is how it has — no exaggeration — perfected the idea of checkpoints. If you ever find the distribution of checkpoints is making your playthrough too casual, you can, at any point, smash a checkpoint, granting you the huge pile of gold within. It's a huge gamble, as destroying a checkpoint renders it inert, ostensibly sending you way closer to the level's start point (and even farther from your dropped loot) upon death. Considering each level takes about a half hour to complete, that distance can become enormous.</p> </div> </div>   <div class="chorus-snippet browser_wide_media image_overlay"> <div class="big_image"><span> <img alt="Shovel_hero" class="photo" src="http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4672063/shovel_hero.png"> </span></div> <div class="overlay ng"> <h3>Kickstarter stretch features</h3> <p>When <em>Shovel Knight</em> launches, it will include some, but not all of the features that were added to the game's feature list as Kickstarter stretch goals. Elements that made the cut include a music player, Achievements, a New Game + mode and an entire level which recognizes some of the campaigns donors. Others, which will be added as free updates throughout the year, include a four-player Battle Mode, a Challenge Mode and additional player characters modeled after the game's bosses.</p> <p>Also incoming is a Gender Swap mode, which will affect the game's male main protagonist and area bosses, as well as the female Shield Knight and main antagonist, The Enchantress.</p> </div> </div>   <div style="max-width:52em; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;" class="chorus-snippet single_column large"> <p>And do not get it twisted: You're going to die in <em>Shovel Knight</em>, and often. Its earlier levels throw a few curveballs at you while introducing the game's mechanics, while the last few levels are just curveballs top-to-bottom. Spikes and bottomless pits are one-hit kills, and there are a lot of enemies (and bosses!) in those stages that are very, very good at pushing you into them. It's not quite as unfair as, for example, a Castlevania Clock Tower, but at points it does come awfully close.</p> <p>The game's sole weak link is its economy, which somewhat undermines the cleverness of its death mechanics. There's a bunch of upgrades, equipment and items to purchase from the vendors in <em>Shovel Knight</em>'s world, but you'll earn enough cash to buy all of them well before the game's ending. I cleaned out every store shelf when I was about three-quarters of the way through the game, making the remainder just a little less compelling.</p> <p>It's not just the mechanics of old-school games that <em>Shovel Knight</em> nails, though; it also has that undefinable, metaphysical look and feel of an NES classic. The game's setting is memorable and quirky, with inexplicable animal-human hybrid inhabitants like the Goatician, a goat-man Magician who sells health upgrades, or the Troupple King, a gigantic, apple-shaped fish who, after a ceremonial dance, spits out various flavors of helpful potions. It's a bizarre, lovable world that can stand toe-to-toe with any Hyrule or Mushroom Kingdom.</p> </div>  </section> <section class="wrapup" id="review-wrapup"> <h4>Wrap Up:</h4> <blockquote>Shovel Knight is the kind of game people write love letters about</blockquote> <p> <p class="large"> There is a reason we can all remember so much from games that are almost 30 years old, and <em>Shovel Knight</em> has tapped into that reason in a profound way. We don't love the brands of our youth; we love the characters, the settings, the way actually playing those games made us feel. <em>Shovel Knight</em> doesn't settle for acknowledging those aspects; it includes them around every single corner. <em>Shovel Knight</em> is so much more than a love letter to the genre — it is, in fact, the kind of game people write love letters about.</p> <p><em>Shovel Knight was reviewed using code provided by Yacht Club Games. You can find additional information about Polygon's ethics policy <a href="http://polygon.com/pages/ethics-statement" target="_blank">here</a>.</em></p> </p> <a class="about_reviews_link" href="/pages/about-reviews"> About Polygon's Reviews</a> </section> <section class="reviews"> <div class="review"> <div class="review_meta"> <div class="review_score score_90"></div> <div class="review_scores"> <div class="score"> <strong>9</strong> Win </div> </div> </div> </div> </section> </div> </article> <div class="carousel wide tall latest_reviews"> <h5>Latest Reviews</h5> <div class="pane"> <ul class="carousel_list"> <li> <a class="carousel_img vox-lazy-load" data-imgkey="34853627:portrait:18" data-original="http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/34857931/ufc-hero.0_portrait_347.0.jpg" data-ratio="0.7" href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5846322/ea-sports-ufc-review-xbox-one-ps4"> <em class="score">5.0</em> </a> <div class="meta"> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/reviews" class="type">Review</a> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5846322/ea-sports-ufc-review-xbox-one-ps4" class="title">EA Sports UFC review: losing ground</a> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5846322/ea-sports-ufc-review-xbox-one-ps4" class="byline">Arthur Gies</a> </div> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5846322/ea-sports-ufc-review-xbox-one-ps4" class="review_score"> <em class="score score_50">5.0</em> </a> </li> <li> <a class="carousel_img vox-lazy-load" data-imgkey="34817507:portrait:18" data-original="http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/34834929/jellyfish_hero.0_portrait_347.0.png" data-ratio="0.7" href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5842180/shovel-knight-review-pc-3ds-wii-u"> <em class="score">9.0</em> </a> <div class="meta"> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/reviews" class="type">Review</a> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5842180/shovel-knight-review-pc-3ds-wii-u" class="title">Shovel Knight review: rewrite history</a> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5842180/shovel-knight-review-pc-3ds-wii-u" class="byline">Griffin McElroy</a> </div> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5842180/shovel-knight-review-pc-3ds-wii-u" class="review_score"> <em class="score score_90">9.0</em> </a> </li> <li> <a class="carousel_img vox-lazy-load" data-imgkey="34754875:portrait:19" data-original="http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/34783247/spirits_hero.0_portrait_347.0.jpg" data-ratio="0.7" href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/25/5839108/the-last-tinker-review-pc-windows"> <em class="score">7.0</em> </a> <div class="meta"> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/reviews" class="type">Review</a> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/25/5839108/the-last-tinker-review-pc-windows" class="title">The Last Tinker review: rainbow connection</a> <a href="http: