Retro-revivalism is no easy gambit. Look at a team like Playtonic. I genuinely find a lot to love in their games, but the Yooka-Laylee brand of revivalism is fundamentally limited. That first game is just too familiar. It takes very few strides to legitimately learn from what came before it, even finding new problems with bloat the original Banjo-Kazooie never had. The epitome of this is the quiz, a fine enough gag until you realise it's played straight. Including the least-liked level of the original game unchanged five times bares to the world Playtonic's refusal to learn lessons from its predecessors. Following on was Impossible Lair, a total delight, as good a Donkey Kong Country game as the Retro Studios reboots. So much like one of those. These are excellent modernisations of the classic DKC formula, but Playtonic hardly iterates on them. They're just doing the same kind of modernisation. The issue with Playtonic's current output is the lack of any real vision for retro-revivalism (or even just pastiche) other than extensions of classic games other people have already done. The few distinguishing features between Banjo-Kazooie and Yooka-Laylee, such as the sheer scale, are ideas borrowed from Tooie. I like their games (mainly just Impossible Lair), but on the whole, they have failed as revivalists. They have not made the old new.
This is all to say Yacht Club Games are in rarified air. As a work of throwback NES platforming, Shovel Knight is a master class. You can see sparks of Castlevania, Mega Man, Super Mario Bros and a billion other titles everywhere, but the summation is unique. They recognise what is aggravating about games of the era. They don't blindly include these, nor avoid them entirely. They work through them. Checkpoints are generous but don't remove the demanding execution. The moveset still uses a simplistic two-button layout but is its own, with tons of ability variation to accommodate a modern sensibility. Platforming is satisfyingly challenging as NES games were, but Shovel Knight moves with precision and consistency the original era never saw. Bossfights feel classic to the era but are far more complex and rich than 80s games could accommodate. The spirit is here, but the realities are far more modern than they may initially appear.
The ultimate test is this. If the retro-revival game came out in the context of its throwback, what would be said? If Yooka-Laylee had been released as Banjo 3 it would be seen as a disappointing sequel, failing to expand on its predecessor's ideas and strengths. If Shovel Knight had come out the year after Ninja Gaiden, it would be crowned the most impressive and complex platformer ever made, reaching levels of ambition and precision never before seen. But it wouldn't feel out of place. That's revivalism done right.
Except for the spikes. You can leave that shit in the basement.
This is all to say Yacht Club Games are in rarified air. As a work of throwback NES platforming, Shovel Knight is a master class. You can see sparks of Castlevania, Mega Man, Super Mario Bros and a billion other titles everywhere, but the summation is unique. They recognise what is aggravating about games of the era. They don't blindly include these, nor avoid them entirely. They work through them. Checkpoints are generous but don't remove the demanding execution. The moveset still uses a simplistic two-button layout but is its own, with tons of ability variation to accommodate a modern sensibility. Platforming is satisfyingly challenging as NES games were, but Shovel Knight moves with precision and consistency the original era never saw. Bossfights feel classic to the era but are far more complex and rich than 80s games could accommodate. The spirit is here, but the realities are far more modern than they may initially appear.
The ultimate test is this. If the retro-revival game came out in the context of its throwback, what would be said? If Yooka-Laylee had been released as Banjo 3 it would be seen as a disappointing sequel, failing to expand on its predecessor's ideas and strengths. If Shovel Knight had come out the year after Ninja Gaiden, it would be crowned the most impressive and complex platformer ever made, reaching levels of ambition and precision never before seen. But it wouldn't feel out of place. That's revivalism done right.
Except for the spikes. You can leave that shit in the basement.