Shovel Knight

The pixelated retro knight shows off imaginative enemies and excellent level design. Inert controls and some exceptionally finicky bosses are common as well, though.

It’s a melting pot of nostalgia, and the result is an amazingly well executed and polished title, which builds the mechanics of these other titles into something new.

If you spent your childhood playing DuckTales, Super Marios Bros. or Contra on your NES, no one can convince you that a pixel art indie game can bring that feeling back. Except for Shovel Knight. Shovel Knight can. [Sept 2014, p.68]

It’s the perfect example of a passion project done right, one that realises that it is important to look back, in order to move forward.

A love letter to the NES era, Shovel Knight is punishingly difficult, a game of quick reflexes and exacting precision. [Sept 2014, p.112]

There is gold in these old genres, and Shovel Knight is a successful dig.

Shovel Knight is all that we once held dear at the tail-end of the eighties, distilled into one beautiful new game.

Shovel Knight is a love letter to games from the NES era but also a great little contemporary game, fun, consistent and with the right amount of challenge.

Shovel Night brought us back to a time where platform was the bedrock of gaming and dying didn't use to scare the players.

A lack of new ideas is compensated by solid design and the simple story is diluted by charming humor. Yacht Club Games managed to create a distinctive game in intriguing world offering old-fashioned exciting adventure for a few hours. [September 2014, p. 80]

You may imagine that it's mainly going to be a tribute to games like Mega Man, Castlevania or Duck Tales, but Shovel Knight is a unique game with its own original ideas, an incredible level design, a perfect feeling and great visual and audio that appeal to all nostalgic gamers. Out 25 years ago, it would probably be considered as a classic nowadays.

Shovel Knight's greatest feat is disguising itself as "old school" when it's design philosophy couldn't be any further from it. While at first glance it may seem like just another 8-bit homage, the quality and polish make it so much more. Rather than a spirited look at the past, Shovel Knight instead reminds us just how far game design has come

One of the best games of 2014 so far, and you’d be remiss to let it fly by under your radar. Even more so if you grew up in the NES era and have any sort of fond memories of the great games during that time.

With a charming 8bit esthetic inspired by the era of the NES, Shovel Knight delivers an easy but addictive, beautiful designed and well executed experience.

Shovel Knight is a beautiful tribute to the era that used to be. With it's graphics and gameplay it refers to 8-bit games, but it does have a unique touch of its own. It might be a bit short, but it sure has a strong personality.

One shovelful after another of classic NES game inspired goodness.

Shovel Knight is all about learning patterns. [Sept 2014, p.106]

A masterly-made platformer and a tribute to 8-bit classics at the same time. It looks great, it is playable even better, it is challenging but also clever. It presents a pleasant challenge for old tirailleurs – the young ones are peacefully allowed to take a peep at time when replaying a game did not mean you would automatically finish it.

A varied and charming platformer, only blighted when it lets players get a little overpowered.

A modern retro platformer that plays in the same league as the classics.

Shovel Knight works well because it knows exactly what it wants to be. The people behind it have a clear love of retro games, and that collective passion has created something great. So often we play games that try to prey on nostalgia in the cheapest ways possible, whether it’s half-hearted HD remakes or blatant ripoffs. Shovel Knight is one of the few games that not only honors the past, but something we may be reminiscing about for years to come.

Shovel Knight is a genuine success.

Yacht Club Games has delivered more than anyone ever could have hoped for, and created an experience that gamers young and old will thoroughly enjoy.

Gripes with the latter stages aside, Shovel Knight is still a fantastic game.

Shovel Knight is my favorite game of 2014 so far, and a true testament to the power of the old-school. Whether you were weaned on an NES like I was, or don't yet know what you missed in a time before you were born, Shovel Knight is an absolute must-play.

Shovel Knight feels and plays alright, but it's far from perfection. It's an ode to Mega Man, a bow to the 8 bit era, but it plays it safe, too safe. Infinite lives and a too many checkpoints are the major flaws. And, from the technical point of view, the lack of colors sometimes is really sad.

Shovel Knight is a game that could have been released in the NES era. The best elements of the games of the past and the innovations that come from the games of today are combined brilliantly. The game may perhaps be over too soon, but Shovel Knight does not take a cheap route to your your nostalgic feelings, and goes one step further by being a great stand-alone platformer.

The cumulative effect is a game that is as bright, rich, and lovely as nostalgia would have us believe our favorite NES games always were.

Shovel Knight is a solid sidescrolling action-platformer influenced by such classics as Mega Man and Duck Tales. Graphics, soundtrack and game mechanics will surely bring back childhood memories for past NES-owners. Same goes for the challenging difficulty level, but responsive controls and a few clever modern touches makes the game feel fair and fresh. All in all an impressive achievement by another Kickstarter-funded game.

A courageous display of old-school honor, Shovel Knight delivers in every aspect, although it becomes a little stiff after a while.

Imagine in the glorious old times of NES that we'd have the chance of playing with a game that mix the jumping style of Ducktales, the cities from Zelda II, the map and secrets in the levels of Mario Bros. 3 and 8 enemies like in Mega Man, the magic weapons of Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania, and all the epic from the Sword & Sorcery Genre.

Take a shovel. Take a knight. Sum them up. Shake with a NES cartridge. The result is probably a masterpiece.

Shovel Knight lovingly recreates the simple pleasures of 8-bit platformers and improves on them with modern ideas that make every level different and worth playing.

Not only a charming love letter to NES classics, but a deeply enjoyable game in its own right.

While on the surface the game is easy to dismiss as a yet another old-school platformer, Shovel Knight is anything but. [Aug 2014]

Shovel Knight is so much more than a love letter to the genre — it is, in fact, the kind of game people write love letters about.

The game’s map is straight out of Super Mario Bros. 3. The villages you visit are right out of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. The game’s eight knight-themed bosses are a clear reference to Mega Man as are the various powers you accumulate along the way. The game’s magic system comes straight out of Castlevania 3.

Shovel Knight is really a unique game that appeals, without fear and full of passion, both to new players and to the old retro games lovers.

Shovel Knight is an amazingly fun romp, offering precision platforming at its finest. Only at the end did I feel the game began to falter a tad, as it delved into some unwelcome cliches. But aside from that, this game brought back memories in the best way possible, all supplemented by a soundtrack that will ring through your head for a long time.

The work of the Yacht Club Games is a tribute of the highest quality, which is not reinventing anything but that remixes some of the great masterpieces of the past and features a solid gameplay.

A fun action platformer that remains incredibly frustrating by taking a few too many cues from Castlevania's jerkiest moments, Shovel Knight is satisfying and infuriating in equal measure. It's also a damn fine callback to the days of yore in a world where callbacks are a dime a dozen, and rarely this well done.

Shovel Knight is a loving homage to an era we left behind long ago. The graphics, gameplay, and soundtrack are all pitch-perfect for an NES game... all you're missing is the original cartridge. Yacht Club Games has crafted an amazing experience from beginning to end.

Even though the 2D retro action-platformer formula is being abused these days, this one does it in such a personal and outstanding way that is a must-have for those interested in the idea.

Unless you absolutely must have your games made of polygons or completely hate the indie movement, you need to have Shovel Knight in your video game library.