I don't really know how to rate this one because of how mixed my feelings are on it.

I didn't really care that much for the main campaign back when the game was new. I still don't. But now that I've come back to this and tried the new campaigns, both Plague and Specter Knight are so, so, so much more interesting and intuitive to play than Shovel Knight himself.

I'd suppose for Specter, say this is a 10/10. Plague, not so much, just because the flow of bomb switching slows the gameplay down a bit more than I'd like. It's still a really great mechanic! I just spent.... maybe more time than I needed to dropping everything to concoct the PERFECT bomb for the situation every single screen transition.

Shovel and King.... ehhhhh...... I dunno.... Shovel just felt like a weird mix of Ducktales and Castlevania that didn't control as nicely as either, and King didn't really hold my interest past the intro stage for me to think I wanted to go through the game a 4th time in a row. I probably would've been more interested in King's campaign if I didn't already play Plague and Specter's... and considering that was the last piece of content released for this game, I feel like that's a little bit disappointing for a finale.

I know they had a vote and all that but..... King Knight, man? Really? The easiest boss in the game? Not Treasure with his grappling anchors, not Propeller with his flight fencing, not Mole with his gigantic claws and furnace abilities? The majority of people didn't want to play Black Knight with the teleports and charges, or the Enchantress so that they can get a taste of what the final boss is capable of?

King Knight?

Goddamnit, dude.
Oh well.

Too much to talk about so I will try to keep it short. I liked this game and it doesn't really have any major flaw, what did bother me is the amount of stuff it takes to do a 100%, I really didn't like having to beat the game all over again just to get specific achievements. You may say that this is a non-factor and these feats only try to add replay value for future playthroughs but it just bothers me when I beat a game and do not try to finish everything it has to offer as a completionist. But yeah, I feel like beating this game again and again will make you start to hate certain aspects of it which are totally harmless, it totally affected my rating here and I won't lie that this game probably doesn't deserve 7/10.
On a side note fuck those hooded flying enemies in tower of fates 2.

This is definitely one of the best "retro" games you could ever purchase. The core game is already great on it's own, with its challenging levels, fun and creative level design, items and bosses, and even a big potential for speedruning, accompanied of wonderful chiptunes... and then there's the extra content.

Plague of Shadows... is OK. I like Plague Knight and I had fun playing through the campaign, but some elements like the bomb customization don't feel very useful at all, as you'll mostly end up sticking with one combination that you like. Even if it is still good, it's the only one that actually feels like DLC.

Specter of Torment is incredible and easily my favorite game of them all. The overhaul the game receives is spectacular and Specter Knight himself controls perfectly, plus the idea of having a "home" to return to after stages was genius. Hell, I even got invested in the story. Splendid.

Finally, after a bit of delay, we got King of Cards, and as usual, it was a blast to play through. Even though I personally wasn't a fan of the more bite-sized stages, it was more than made up with the fantastic new locations, and of course, the always on point gameplay. Plus, Joustus is simply a delight to play and waste hours on, trying to complete your collection.

Yacht Games put all their love and care into this project, and they went out of their way to deliver on everything they promised back when they started their Kickstarter, I admire their dedication to this project and I'm grateful for getting to play it, as I had a big smile on my face during the whole time I was playing this. Its only downside is that Plague of Shadows is a slightly sore thumb in the catalogue, but even then that's only due to how amazing the other games are. This is absolutely worth every one of your pennies, you need to play this.

Imagine you buy this amazing game, which is extremely well polished and has plenty of content, mechanics and abilites.

Then imagine the devs went fuck it and gave you three more entire games with their own unique characters, movesets and stage layouts, all for free if you owned the original game.

This is one of the best platformers I have ever played, and I have 100% completion in all 4 games. It's a must play if you like retro style platformers but with modern controls.

there’s like 20 amazing games in this collection. I paid $15 for it in 2017 and they still keep adding stuff for free. There’s a reason why Shovel Knight started this big indie revolution. There were games like Cave Story that did what Shovel Knight did but 10 years earlier, however this game really started something. It proved that there was a BIG market for these kinds of games. Shovel of Hope, Plague of Shadows, and Spector of Torment are all must play games. These games aren’t just “oh it (x series) was an nes game”. These are all their own and unique games that you can’t find anywhere else. Don’t let the 8bit indie graphics fool you, this is not nostalgia bait. It’s nearly been a decade since the game has been released, and honestly I don’t know if we would have some other amazing games like Celeste without this.

my order of shovel knight campaigns from weakest to greatest
1. shovel of hope
2. plague of shadows
3. specter of torments
4. king of cards
shovel of hope just feels really clunky to me in a way i can't describe, combat in shovel of hope also boils down to just spamming your down attack until the boss dies or you respawn to do it again,
the rest though i have no issues with. plague knight is my favorite knight even if the other campaigns are really fun i like building different bombs and obliterating bosses with the bombs i've made, specter knight focuses solely on making the platforming and combat more fun and succeeds and king of cards is a wario landesque campaign that comes with a card game that kicks ass, get it if you want but you may not want to start with shovel of hope

This game is absolutely EXPLODING with content without having any grinding and has tones of replay value on top of that. Each campaign (there's 4) is excellent with each knight having their own distinct gameplay style and (with the exception of 1) all having completely unique level layouts. While it seems that Specter Knight is the obvious fanfavorite out of these (and I'm inclined to agree) ALL OF THEM are top quality and worth your while. On top of that there's the added little mini challenges and a whole ass platform fighter in here as well (though it is a bit simplistic). Aesthetically wonderful too, this pixel style really appeals to me and it's complimented by a great soundtrack. Play this game.

Overall package to me be scored like this
Shovel of Hope: 10/10
Plague of Shadows: 6/10
Specter of Torment: 10/10
King of Cards: 9/10
Showdown: 6/10

Wonderful masterpiece of an indie game. Took me a while to get used to it since it’s been a while since I’ve played a platformer but once I did I was hooked. Fantastic gameplay, simple but charming story with a lot of heart and emotional beats, great enemies, characters and locations (Propellor Knight Tower🖕), and my personal favorite part of the game, the bosses. Fun and unique in their own ways I loved it all. Also the most of the dlc is better than the main game (which is already like how I described). This game with a little blue knight with a shovel stole my heart and reignited my love for indie games

Very nice collection of Shovel Knight games. It could be considered the Complete Edition.

My favorites by far were Specter of Torment and of course Shovel of Hope.

Didn't have a single problem running it on Linux.