With the land’s heroes off the grid, an evil being known as The Enchantress claims dominion, along with her cadre of fiercesome knights known as The Order of No Quarter.

A despondent Shovel Knight – for Shield Knight also seems to be his girlfriend – goes into exile. Shield Knight is possessed by a powerful amulet, Shovel Knight is expelled from the structure, and the Tower of Fate seals itself shut. Shovel Knight and his companion Shield Knight have enjoyed their status as heroes, but after journeying to the Tower of Fate, things go terribly wrong. The game kicks off with a short intro describing current events: we’re in a land of magic, knights, legends, and adventures.

I’ll touch on the similarities as we go, and I would like to point out that it is not a rip-off or copycat – Shovel Knight is an extremely well done tribute/homage to these past games. 3, Castlevania (specifically the first and third entries on the NES), and Mega Man (particularly games 3through 6). Perhaps the 3 most direct and obvious influences are Super Mario Bros. Obviously influenced by the third generation of gaming in general, Shovel Knight also takes very specific cues from popular NES franchises. Shovel Knight immediately stands out as a game made both for and by fans of the classic gaming era, with just enough modern treatment to keep the pesky problems and limitations of the 8 and 16-bit eras at bay while retaining the aesthetic and reasonably simple mechanics. I still haven’t even flipped through it, but it’s nice to know it’s there. It turns out there’s an actual instruction manual inside! And a thick little manual at that. It took a few more days to get around to it, though I quickly noticed how unusually heavy the case was.

Shovel Knight may have been released way back in the summer of 2014, but I could swear that I only started seeing physical copies on shelves a few weeks ago… For some reason, as I walked through the Wii U games, the title caught my attention – maybe it was because of the upcoming Amiibo, or maybe it was stuck in my subconscious for another reason – and the fact that it was only $24.99 really caught my attention! I had the vague notion (or memory?) that it was meant to act as a game from the 8-/16-bit era but really didn’t know anything else, so I picked it up.

Wii u shovel knight