Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove review

Exceptional

by Dabzilla

When you first start Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, you will be asked which one of the four campaigns would you like to play first: Shovel of Hope, Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, or King of Cards. At least, that was the way it is set up now. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove was a game crowdfunded through Kickstarter, initially released in June 2014 and updated continually until the release of the full game in December 2019. At first, the game only had Shovel of Hope, the other campaigns were added in the subsequent years of development, not that there's anything wrong with that. It was highly rated, got many awards, and was recognized as one of the best games of all time.
 
I whole-heartedly recommend that you play Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove and consider it a must-play game if you are a fan of the 2D side-scrolling genre. It implements game design that teaches you its mechanics without relying on pop-ups or text, levels that for the most part are challenging yet fair, and a variety of items and upgrades for each campaign for the player to utilize. Although it has one major issue, I genuinely think that it will not stop most players from enjoying the game. For those who are not into the genre, I would recommend that you either play the second or third campaign first.

Stock full of excellent content

The game was generally good. However, the archaic physics and controls seemed to copy the worst of retro games and made it less enjoyable for me. It was also a little off-putting that when the world opened up the first boss I defeated happened to be coded as gay.

This game is exactly what a kickstarter strives to be. This game has four main storylines plus a fighting game and it's one of the biggest bang you can get for your buck. Shovel of Truth is the classic Shovel Knight story and is a wonderful tribute to NES/SNES games of that era while keeping the advantages of modern technology. Plague of Shadows is basically the same game as Shovel of Truth except with the Plague Knight. Although I like Plague Knight's movement a lot, it feels like the weakest add-on because these levels were designed with Shovel Knight in mind. Specter of Torment is by far the best part of the game. A crazy moveset, new levels, amazing music, and a neat, prequel story line makes this stand out. King of Cards is really neat and introduces a great card game where you collect cards in the same vein as Gwent from The Witcher 3. Not my favorite moveset, but the levels push King Knight's movement to the absolute limits and feels rewarding and satisfying.

8/10

Debatably the best 2d platformer and nostalgic throw back of all time. Shovel Knight's soon to be four campaigns take what made classics like Mega Man, Castlevania and Super Mario Bros 3 great and adds tons of modern improvements to make this the quintessential retro platformer. The game is available everywhere and is a must buy for anyone.

Every single bit of this game is incredible, and it manages to maintain a perfect sense of difficulty throughout. Not only is the main game great, but the additional character quests you can play are awesome. Looking forward to the King Knight DLC.