Idle Digging - Shovel Knight

[Bjorn]

So I only had a passing interest in Shovel Knight until reading some of the reviews for it this morning.  The checkpoint system sounds badass.  You can have an easier game thanks to plentiful checkpoints, or you can destroy checkpoints to get more money, but potentially putting you much further back if/when you die.  And it has a Dark Souls element of dropping all your hard earned cash when you die, with only one chance to get it back.  I'm probably going to have to buy this now.

[Twig]

This sounds really cool and suddenly I'm way more interested in Shovel Knight (where I previously had zero interest, assuming it was "yet another pixel platformer", which I like, but I have a lot of already).

 

Dangit.

[SecretAsianMan]

I initially had a casual interest in it but like Bjorn I'm seriously considering getting it now after reading some stuff about it.  My money's a little tight at the moment but I plan to pick it up eventually.  I haven't decided which version I want, but I'm leaning toward the 3DS.

[coaxmetal]

I just watched giant bomb's quicklook of this, and it does look really good. I'm going to get it on steam for sure, though perhaps not immediately as I am playing other things right now.

[tegan]

I think I'm gonna be picking this up for Wii U next week. My friend is playing it and tells me it's great. Also, he tells me there's an area called the Exploditorium.

[JonCole]

If you buy it for Steam, you get 1.5 summer cards which can be sold for a not completely insubstantial profit. That's what I'd be doing if I wasn't absolutely broke right now.

[RubixsQube]

I bought the 3DS version since I am so much more likely to play and complete this because it's portable. Now I have to hope that I can take advantage of some of the streetpass features. I'd love it if I could have gotten it also for the WiiU, but that's not how Nintendo rolls. I am SO EXCITED to play this game, it is a mixture of everything I want in a video game.

[Trip Hazard]

Jake Kaufman (aka Virt) has been very enthusiastic on Twitter about this, reminding me of how excited I initially was when I heard he was working on it. I'll be picking up Shovel Knight for sure, first chance I can.

[Griddlelol]

Delayed in the EU. So sad. Oh so sad.

[coaxmetal]

Has anyone said that they really dig this game yet?

[undermind9]

Has anyone said that they really dig this game yet?

[tegan]

I bought the 3DS version since I am so much more likely to play and complete this because it's portable. Now I have to hope that I can take advantage of some of the streetpass features. I'd love it if I could have gotten it also for the WiiU, but that's not how Nintendo rolls. I am SO EXCITED to play this game, it is a mixture of everything I want in a video game.

 

This and 1001 Spikes have been the first instances where I've really wished that cross-buy were a thing that Nintendo would do. I think it's theoretically possible for a developer to implement it on their own, since there's precedent for games being discounted depending on what games you've bought before. 1001 Spikes gets discounted to $10.01 for anyone who's bought a previous Nicalis game, for instance. Presumably you could discount a game to $0.00 if someone already bought the other version, but it's not really fair for devs to have to implement it as a workaround.

 

Also, let me know how that Streetpass content is, because I'm still a little torn between which version I want and Streetpass stuff is a big part of the reason why.

[syntheticgerbil]

I have a WiiU code from the Kickstarter, I guess I should try it out over the weekend. I wasn't sure if I should go with the 3DS version because they had a neat little streetpass usage thing going on. Maybe I'll get both at some point.

[RubixsQube]

Here's the polygon article about the shovelknight streetpass and miiverse stuff. Essentially, for the 3DS, you can challenge your streetpass buddies to a "blind face-off," where you record a five second clip in an arena area, and then these get matched up with theirs, and the winner is decided, netting them gold. Then you can watch the little battle, and tweak your strategy. Like a more complicated rock-paper-scissors. I don't know if I live in a large enough city to find a lot of other Shovel Knight-ers.

 

I played an hour or so, and it's quite well done. The control is tight, the 3D is exactly what I was hoping for, there are secrets everywhere, and while I died a few times in some cheap ways, the checkpoint system is really great. Effectively, you can destroy the checkpoints for more gold, which means you backtrack farther if you die. Also, when you die, you lose gold which you can collect if you restart at the checkpoint and head exactly to the spot where you died to collect it (Dark Souls style). Neat.

[Twig]

That streetpass thing sounds kind of pretty fuckin' rad, actually.

Dangit I don't want to get it on 3DS.

[Bjorn]

And so now I'm super impressed with the level of thought the devs put into making Shovel Knight.  That Gamasutra article explains where SK is completely authentic to its NES roots, and where they broke the "rules" because it didn't make sense to limit themselves entirely to what an NES would have been capable of (like getting rid of flickering sprites and having music cut out when there are too many sound effects). 

 

I also learned some things about NES design that I never knew, like why some bosses were on black backgrounds.  It's because the boss was the background.  The top layer couldn't actually support large sprites without crazy flickering, so designers made the boss the background to avoid that, and made everything else black to obscure what they were doing. 

[BadHat]

Damnit, this is the same price as Transistor right now and I actually want it a little bit more. Watching SGDQ has put me on a real old school kick, this looks like it'd scratch that itch in a really big way.

[Jake]

I probably foolishly didn't request a wiiu code when I backed the Kickstarter. This sounds good.

[pkirkner]

I played through the first two stages this morning on PC and I'm really impressed. It has mechanics drawn from all sorts of NES platformers and they work really well together.

[RubixsQube]

I wish that Shovel Knight moved a little faster, but that's my only complaint about the controls. This game feels like the most recent Mega Man 9 and 10 games, where the people who designed and developed the game understand what made NES platformers so fun. Big sprites, and exciting music, and perfect controls. I really recommend people pick it up on the 3DS, because it looks so good in 3D. I mean, this is a game where, because it was developed for next-gen consoles and the PC, it looks good stretched out on a big HDTV, but damn if it's nice to have something like this on a portable console.  

[atte]

Finished the new game+ and I'm still amazed how well the game uses and recycles ideas from NES games while still feeling like a new and original thing.

That Gamasutra post about NES-tech is cool, and probably because I read it before playing, I had a strange feeling of unease when I saw the Polar Knight's cloak (its color is not from a NES palette). Having played recently this, 1001 Spikes and Kero Blaster I'm happy that there are current designers who are confident and creative with oldschool aesthetics. And yes, the soundtrack is wonderful too http://virt.bandcamp.com/album/shovel-knight-original-soundtrack.

Here's an interesting article/interview about Shovel Knight's inspirations: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/game-dev-recipes-shovel-knight
As a big Zelda II fan I'm delighted by that, though I understand why so many use the Ducktales comparison first rather than "You remember that special ability from that other 8-bit Zelda?". But besides combat mechanics and villages this might be the most important link to Link:

 

[syntheticgerbil]

I wish that Shovel Knight moved a little faster, but that's my only complaint about the controls. This game feels like the most recent Mega Man 9 and 10 games, where the people who designed and developed the game understand what made NES platformers so fun.

Yeah his run speed is what really disappointed me the second I turned it on. It does allow for much more precision jumping but I guess somehow I get in to Mario NES mode the second I turn this game on and feel like i need to fly all over the fucking place. I'm hoping maybe there's upgrades for speed later.

 

I will probably never get these achievements unfortunately. That's very painful for my OCD habits.

[N1njaSquirrel]

I just finished this game! It's fantastic! Really loved pretty much everything. I really liked how funny the game is, without it being referential humor to NES-era games, which so many modern games of this ilk so easily and quickly do.

 

Also you can complete the whole game with just the shovel. Sweet.

 

I also got a 97% item collection, which was surprising.

 

What does NG+ have to offer? Anything substantially different? Are there also alt endings and the like?

[atte]

What does NG+ have to offer? Anything substantially different? Are there also alt endings and the like?

Main things I noticed was reduced checkpoints (only two per level) and almost no health pickups at all, every platter had a bomb. There might have been more and harder enemies but nothing especially different from the first playthrough, it was quite an interesting challenge still - and playing the early levels with all your items and stuff was fun. I don't think there's different endings(?).

[pkirkner]

There should still be a fair amount of free DLC coming out to fulfill stretch goals from the kickstarter, too. I know a four-player local multiplayer mode that lets you play as the bosses and a mode that swaps the gender of all the knights are in the works.