I mentioned once before that when Shovel Knight was first announced all the way back in 2013, I genuinely thought it was a joke. I hadn’t really been following it and only caught glimpses of it through online discussion and the odd media post. I remember seeing that image from the Kickstarter of a horned figure standing on the tip of a shovel and almost immediately wrote it off—assuming it would be some kind of Minecraft-adjacent thing attempting to chase the bandwagon of that game’s popularity.
I genuinely can’t remember what compelled me to pick up Shovel Knight one fateful night back in 2014 because I mostly remember going into it blind. All I know for sure is that my life was changed forever after I played it. It shattered my every expectation and left behind a legacy so enduring that it changed the landscape of gaming in a lot of ways.
I cannot overstate how much I love Shovel Knight. At one point I had the game installed on my Wii U, 3DS, and Nintendo Switch. I fought HARD to find the incredibly elusive Shovel Knight Amiibo—only to have former CGM Managing Editor Melanie Emile surprise me with its purchase. It’s with this love that today, after a full decade of its release, I think it’s worth taking a look at all the ways Shovel Knight was not only a masterpiece but a literal game changer.
It’s a little ironic to me now that I initially thought Shovel Knight was a joke because according to an interview with Gameinformer, that’s exactly how it started. But as we all know it’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish and Shovel Knight finished not only as a harmonious blend of Ducktales, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Mega Man—some of the NES games that inspired Yacht Club to make—but a stellar evolution of those same kinds of games.
Honestly, I cannot think of a game I played before Shovel Knight that advanced the very format of retro-style games the way it did. Shovel Knight was, debatably, the game that started the style of modern retro—it’s arguable that Kirby’s Epic Yarn did it first, but everyone complained that game was for babies. The way it removed unnecessary hindrances like level timers and lives allowed it to have a degree of challenge that went beyond frustrating knockback and infinitely respawning enemies.
Like Kirby’s Epic Yarn before it, the most valuable resource in the game—treasure—was directly tied to the challenge since dying could result in losing a significant portion of it. Unlike lives, treasure was a much more important commodity because it directly how you progressed through the game rather than if you could—since treasure was needed to buy useful upgrades and sub-weapons.
However, it made this far more interesting as it borrowed one element from Dark Souls—placing your lost treasure in the level, losing it permanently if you die again before recovering it. By applying modern sensibilities and interesting mechanics, Shovel Knight breathed new life into the genre of retro-styled games, which, as far as my memory serves, were mostly emulating the style of the classics rather than truly innovating them.
Lastly, and maybe most uniquely, Shovel Knight may be the only game I’ve played that approached checkpoints in the way it did. For those unaware, Shovel Knight puts an abundance of checkpoints throughout its levels. However, each checkpoint can be shattered for a sizeable treasure reward. Some can be small and some can be massive but if you shatter a checkpoint, you’ll have to go back to the last one you left untouched.
This creates an incredible risk vs. reward system since like I said, the treasure is the most valuable resource in the game, but if you want a big payout you’re theoretically making each level much harder. In some cases, you could end up going from the end of the level all the way back to the start, but the choice is always up to the player.
Heck, some of these design choices were so well-thought that even the grandfather of the genre, Super Mario would go on to implement them in later games. Super Mario Odyssey removed the archaic lives system and instead tied death to losing coins—which were far more valuable a resource in that game. Super Mario Bros. Wonder removed the archaic level timer, which not only gave players much more freedom but meant levels needed to be designed more uniquely since there was no timer pushing you through it.
But Shovel Knight wasn’t content to be an excellently designed game, complete with challenging levels, interesting characters and a compelling story. A year after its release, the game would completely flip the board with its first expansion Plague of Shadows, where players would play through the main game as one of the villains: Plague Knight. While the game and levels were largely the same, the way Plague Knight handled—using a combination of elements to create throwable bombs alongside a double-jump and burst-jump mechanic—completely changed the feel of the game.
Then again, in 2017, Yacht Club released Specter of Torment, where players controlled the villain Specter Knight. Since Specter Knight was so radically different from both Shovel and Plague Knight, the game was completely redesigned with a whole host of new levels to accommodate his playstyle.
Lastly, in 2019, Yacht Club released the final DLC for Shovel Knight, titled King of Cards. Not only did players control the villain King Knight in brand new levels designed for his unique playstyle, but they also included a playable card game that was central to the game’s plot. Shovel Knight had come so far from its humble origins inspired by classic NES games to a game so massive in size and daring in scope that few others can claim.
But I think it’s important to look at the other way Shovel Knight changed the gaming landscape and that was helping to solidify crowdfunding as a source of independent revenue. I remember when people first started talking about it, Kickstarter was seen as something of a joke with a lot of unserious projects looking to scam people for money—hell it was so ubiquitous South Park could make a joke about it.
But I know a lot of people who cite Shovel Knight as the first major success story for games looking to get made through Kickstarter—although it’s worth noting, Undertale also launched its Kickstarter around the same time. I daresay that if Shovel Knight hadn’t managed the success it did, or approached anywhere near the brilliance it did then people still wouldn’t have taken Kickstarter seriously.
Just think about it: without Shovel Knight, we might’ve missed out on gaming classics like Shenmue 3, Mighty No. 9 and Yooka Laylee. I joke, of course, because naturally, the pendulum swings both ways, and it was people viewing Kickstarting games as legitimate that we got good games like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, A Hat in Time, Hyperlight Drifter, Darkest Dungeon and even Yacht Club’s upcoming Mina the Hollower.
Shovel Knight was one of the first games that helped open the door to independent studios to not have to be bound by big publishers. It helped give individual games more of a voice when it came to supporting unique projects they’re interested in. I might go so far to argue Shovel Knight was one of the first games to really popularize the concept of the modern term of “indie game.”
Shovel Knight has had an incredible ten years behind it. What started as a love letter to the classic games the creators grew up with has not only evolved within itself but spun off into other genres—Shovel Knight: Dig is a fast-paced decent game optimized for mobile devices, and Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon is a unique take on falling-block style games like Dr. Mario or Puyo Puyo.
The titular character has even become so popular he was an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate further cementing his status as a true icon of gaming. With a supposed 3D sequel in the works, the future seems bright for this seemingly silly character, and I for one and looking forward to another 10 years of Shovel Knight.
