You know, Shovel Knight is one of those games I thought I would never enjoy due to it being a platformer (which is my least favorite game genre); but maybe I hated the genre too much.

At the time of me writing this, Shovel Knight is one of my favorite games of 2022. Granted it’s only February, but I don’t care, I love this game.

The story is very simple: Shovel Knight has to go rescue Shield Knight, who is trapped in the Tower of Fate. The Order of No Quarter is there to stop the knight in blue from reaching the said tower. Personally, I think the story could have been more detailed and larger, but the game’s story really doesn’t affect the main part of the game: the gameplay.

When I could barely beat the first level, I thought of dropping the game right then and there because the “shovel hop” ability was too confusing for me to understand. But after going through a couple more levels, I started to understand the controls and mechanics a lot more and I found the “shovel hop” to get easier and easier to use. Like mentioned earlier, I don’t like platformers; I find the gameplay too boring and redundant. But for some reason, Shovel Knight’s gameplay was so fun for me to play. I found myself wanting to keep playing until I beat the game.

It was cool that every level, even the towns, had a secret a part of them. I loved looking for the secret song scrolls and trying to find all the gems to buy new gear and abilities. I also found the concept of getting extra HP to be a cool concept.

I think the reason I am giving the game a 4-star rating is the difficulty spike. Especially in the early game, the bosses’ difficulty spikes so high. By the end, they’re pretty easy to defeat; but the first two bosses I found challenging. While you’re stuck with four HP, the bosses have eight HP, which can be difficult to fight, especially if it’s your first attempt. It was infuriating dying to the same boss over and over again. I luckily beat these bosses, but I was frustrated. Luckily, the farther you get in the game, the easier the bosses are due to abilities and extra HP on your end. But, the farther you get, the harder and more complicated the platforming is; so, it’s a trade-off.

Overall however, I found myself enjoying the game so much. I’m so excited to play the next game, “Specter Knight”. I recommend playing the game; even if you aren’t a fan of platformers, give it a shot. This game for me was the catalyst to start playing other platformers.