Quick Review: Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

My shovel is ready! …My winter shovel, because that’s coming. But before that…

Our rival, Black Knight, is all black and red. And we're blue.
This is a really common hero-and-rival color thing, huh?

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is a game developed and published by Yacht Club Games, and released on June 26th, 2014. The eponymous character used to venture the lands with his partner Shield Knight, doing heroic feats as a team, until they had to enter the Tower of Fate. An encounter with a cursed amulet within the Tower led to Shovel Knight running away, and Shield Knight remaining trapped. Years later, the now embittered hero must face a new threat: The Enchantress, a rising new villain, and her Order of No Quarter, made up of several themed Knights who have taken over the land. Bring out the shovel – we’ve got heroics to do!

Many of the early boss battles can be cheesed thanks to the
magic relics system.

This indie game takes a lot of cues from retro platformers, with modern quality-of-life changes added in. Controls on PC start out with WASD for movement, and J and K for actions –mirroring a NES controller’s setup. (Personally, I’m not a fan; I switched it back to the arrows and ZX.) The difficulty makes itself apparent early on, with each stage using new tricks to put your skills to the test. As an example, an early level darkens the screen, and the only surefire ways to progress are the occasional thunder strikes lighting the area for a second, and the player remembering where each platform and enemy is.

Hm, how am I gonna get that money back...
I know! Trusty fishing rod, let's go.

To compensate for the difficulty, there is no system of lives; instead, when Shovel Knight dies, he drops some of his loot, and it will be up to the player to reach the area where he died and recover said loot. Every level has orb checkpoints, which are activated when reached; for the reckless, orbs can be destroyed for extra loot, at the cost of no longer being usable as checkpoints. Shovel Knight can dig out piles of dirt, his own campfires, and other areas of interest, to find jewels and money – he can even look for breakable walls, which may lead to chests or even brand new pathways!

A few bonus bosses roaming the land, as well as one or
two non-official "levels" that aren't quite part of the story.

You gradually unlock relics to purchase at the shop, so your
offensive options widen quite a bit over time! Makes the next
bosses equal parts not that bad, if you know what to do, and
very challenging, if you can't figure out a strategy.

Although the system is closer to a classic platformer, with precise stages, there are additional elements at play. As a throwback to Super Mario Bros. 3, wandering travelers can appear on the world map and be fought, like bonus bosses. You can spend your money on new abilities for your shovel, new armors, or a plethora of magical trinkets whose abilities can be activated with a button combination (in my case: Up+Attack), and which can turn the tides of the tougher screens and bosses. Those cost magic points, so use them wisely! Enemies can drop MP refills, so it’s not too bothersome. My personal favorites are the fireball, the bouncing ball of green energy, and the forward dash that can be used to evade pits or get to unreachable ledges! Oh, and there’s the fishing rod, too!

The other characters play VERY differently. As an example,
Specter Knight can climb walls and even wall jump - but
only on rocky surfaces. Grass is slippery, I guess.

Everything I just described? That’s only one game here, Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope. This is called Treasure Trove for a reason; there are four more games to play here. The next three are platformers that tell the stories of the first three bosses from Shovel of Hope: King Knight, Plague Knight and Specter Knight. Each storyline explores these knights’ backstories, and why we eventually found them working for the Order of No Quarter – some of these stories even feature minor characters from the main game! Each character has different combat and movement skills, and goes mostly through the same stages as Shovel Knight did, though with changes to accommodate their new mechanics. King Knight even has a whole card-based minigame!

Still not enough? There’s Showdown, a fighting game with a playable Story Mode for each character – all 20 of them. All four campaigns unlock their own New Game+ when finished, and you can even find a Challenge mode! Achievement hunters will enjoy this one, considering all the bonus tasks one can take on.

A good day for a swell ba- Oh wait, wrong indie darling.

You want to fight an Enchanter instead? That can be done.
You can even randomize every Knight's gender if you'd like.

The final element of note is mostly cosmetic, but significant: Body Swap Mode, available for Shovel of Hope, which allows you to pick the genders of every major character in the game (Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, the Enchantress, and the members of the Order) and how they’re addressed – including nonbinary options. Only downside is that it’s limited to one mode out of 5 (with Shovel Knight being the only character that can be modified this way for Showdown), but it’s the intention that counts.

Final boss, here I come! (I have, of course, already defeated
her, or him. I usually finish the games before I review them!)

I had been looking forward all year to this one, since Shovel Knight is part of the indie pantheon, with quite the reputation. And it did not disappoint. Great platformer. It’s tough, especially in the final stretch, but it was made fair (or at least less infuriating) thanks to modern gaming sensibilities built in. Not having to worry about lives is a godsend. The sprite work is fantastic, and the music is excellent. Despite the silly starting concept of a knight that fights using a shovel, there’s a ton of lore to discover in both the base game and the other knights’ bonus campaigns. Part of the difficulty can be up to the player if they decide to break every checkpoint on the way, or hoard their money by never spending it on extra hit points, magic, or any upgrades. Shovel of Hope is perfectly fine, but the controls and mechanics for the other three campaigns, while interesting, aren’t nearly as easy to learn or master. But hey, they’re there for whoever wants to play them, and so is the Showdown mode!

Shovel Knight is available on Steam for 39.99$ USD.