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The people who were around for the original punk movement and its derivatives are in their 60s, 70s, or even 80s now - isn't that crazy? My own dad, in his 60s himself, loves to remind me that he was actually there for Buzzcocks, The Clash, and Sex Pistols. His crown jewel "I was there" story is that he saw Diego Maradona score his first ever international goal at Hampden Park and then walked down the road to see Joy Division play their one and only gig in Glasgow later that day. Imagine living through that! When I go to a hometown gig and see a grey-haired dude or two hanging around the bar area, leaning on a walking stick or trying to sneak a breather, it's a surreal reminder that the ranks of "the older generation" are quickly being filled with people who raged against the machine before it was even a band. It's fun to imagine what these folks were like when they were young - what passions and dreams they held. How do I relate myself to them, and what do they have left to relate to me?

I'm not going so far as to say that Goichi Suda and his collaborators are synonymous with the occassional old men I see propping up the bar at their local PVSSYC#NT DIY show or Buzzcocks revival tour-stop, but the long-time staff at Grasshopper are, despite their pseudo-punk status, among the elder statesmen of game developers. Suda 51 has credits on 40 games that are spanned across three decades (will he retire at 51 games and release "The Suda 51 Games Collection"?!) and outside of secretive Nintendo legends like Miyamoto and Tezuka, I can't think of many individual game designers who are sitting on such broad production prestige and history. Travis Strikes Again, is, to my mind, the equivalent of one of those old greybeards finally sitting you down at a table in the beer-soaked venue and telling you all about their good old days stories - and how they're going to try and start a new band, too, of course.

It can feel somewhat ridiculous to attribute any video game to a single creator - as people often do with Suda - but Travis Strikes Again seems well aware of this, with frequent acknowledgements of the collaborative sacrifices that game developers make to create something that's either theirs or another's. It may feel unfair to the programmers and artists and guys who man the Twitter accounts, but I feel that it's imperative for games with "independent" spirit to continue transmitting truly single-personal perspectives in response to amorphous commitee-led industry dominators like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed, and one of the only ways to tell a personal story is to focus it on one person - often the writer, or the director. Or the guy who is both. And the guy who is both in this case has an interesting life story (that's still in development, sorry) that I'd like to hear.

Despite speaking so highly of Suda (and Grasshopper) here, I'd say it's fair to say that it's rare that I outright love any of the many games they've made. There's always some glaring, punishing flaw or Duchampian aggression against the status quo that just reminds me too much that I'm wasting precious time. Time-wasting feels like a trait that's almost exclusively reserved for video games, and perhaps it's a unique aspect of the medium that Suda just loves to take advantage of time and time again to differentiate his work from that of a movie or painting or book. But I don't often appreciate it! And while it's nowhere near as brain-mummifiying as The 25th Ward or FSR, Travis Strikes Again still likes to hold up your clock. It feels to me like the game is hamstrung by a perceived need to offer value for money - despite its attempts to stand apart as a genuine art-piece of personal history, it's still constrained on some level by a desire to be a consumable product that people can "get their $40 from" and put 6/10 or 4/5 star ratings or whatever against in a games magazine or website or review blog. It fills its levels with stuff that simply doesn't need to be there, feeling like a guitar solo that goes on too long. But that's punk, right?

The greatest artwork-transgressor is likely the combat itself. While surprisingly strategic and satisfying at times (especially in the later levels), it eventually boils down to the same patterns/plays as always, and ultimately serves as an overbearing obstacle that stands in the way of getting more personal insights and pseudohistorical musings from the remembering minds at Grasshopper. Golden Dragon GP and Killer Marathon are probably the most enjoyable Death Balls in the collection due to the generous ways they interrupt the monotony of streets of raging/geometry warsing across Pac-Man mazes, and I kinda wish the game had been a minigame collection that homaged the different Grasshopper genres. It might have been even better if Travis had just peacefully walked round an Unreal Engine recreation of Suda's headspace and history in a manner not unlike Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective; the game is at its best when it's just sharing its secrets and fun with you.

It's cute that the Serious Moonlight section bills itself as a Shadows of the Damned mini-sequel, but how fun would it have been if they're actually tried to emulate that game's feel, even superficially? C'mon! It's Unreal! The engine that everyone and everything uses for TPS action! (Given how much this game honours Unreal Engine/Tournament, it's a shame that Travis hasn't flossed his way into Fortnite yet) Perhaps too much to ask of our developers, but I honestly feel like there's a human limit to how much mindless swinging of a beam katana one can do while waiting for their clinch super move to charge back up. I went to the UK National Video Games Museum recently, and it proved to me that there's genuine value in getting people to experience gaming history by actually playing those games in quick, sequential succession. I think an Any% playthrough of Grasshopper's entire history is maybe what Vicarious/Grasshopper wanted for Travis Strikes Again, but probably didn't have time to do. Again, video games continue to take away our time in ways other artworks don't quite manage...

It's interesting to parallel this game with something like this year's Iwata Asks book - Iwata's auto/biography has some insightful stories and letters, but doesn't truly bear any of the guy's emotion or soul much beyond vague pleasantries like "I respect the developers at Nintendo" and "Shigeru Miyamoto was my friend". Suda, by contrast, seems more than willing to (sparsely) share his silver threads of thought, often in ways that can be uncomfortable for players - the infamous "the CEO of EA is a woman-beating piece of shit because he didn't let me make my high-concept AAA RPG game wacky enough" is an ugly piece of thinly-veiled thought from Suda, but it's preferable to the Nintendo CEO's polite corporate mannerisming. If video games really want to take that next artistic step, they do need the space to let out some of the ugly problematic thoughts inside our heads (the need to "burn sadness like life-giving fuel" as Travis surprisingly says), and I feel like Travis Strikes Again is moving things in the right direction. This is arguably an art-therapy session for these old boys.

At its core, I guess that's what Travis Strikes Again is. Something that's kinda ugly and protracted and painful, but undeniably worthwhile by virtue of its willingness to be earnestly personal and transgressive. A game that isn't so much about the act of playing the game itself, but more focused on the process of putting your brain against a gamepad to see inside someone else's brain on the other side of the cartridge. It's been a long road to this point, and there's still a long way to go, but they'll keep going. 10 hours of video games a day.

In the human world,
the time for games has ended.
Nothing binds us now.

so much of re4 comes down to the tension of its moment-to-moment play, and i bear this in mind as i consider the possibilities of the remake and the crucial matter of how the action feels if the pacing and your maneuverability is significantly increased or 'improved' — as we expect it to be.

looking back at the original game (and its various ports), especially having now played the re2 remake and a number of similar modern tps games, there's a vaguely king's field-like sluggishness to re4 and its tank controls and slower forward movement. combined with its wild action setpieces and a synesthetic style resembling an arcade game (especially apparent in the character models, their faces and the particular expressiveness of their voices, the scope and flair of the boss fights, the button-mashing qte stuff, etc), this very deliberate and yet very flexible approach to action in balance with tension is something which continues to set re4 apart from the rest. in praise of games which offer interesting friction to your mobility, rather than endlessly seek ways of reducing it. amen.

The second iteration of Dennaton's over-the-top shooter, Hotline Miami 2 follows in the pure footsteps of its predecessor. Three years after the wisecracking Jacket, the 1991-era protagonists cheat their boredom with ever more ferocious violence, resulting in some very unsavoury scenes. The narrative choices are experimental and the character development is decently thought out. However, what made Hotline Miami so charming – psychedelic shootouts carried by adrenaline shots – only punctuate the game. The level-design, never bad, is more directional and offers less freedom in the way you can approach situations (enemies taking cover, specific corridors). This little deviation is perhaps already too much and turns the game into a sometimes aberrant grind (Beard II and III, damn it!). Not a bad experience, but perhaps a slightly disappointing sequel from a user experience perspective.

For followers of the Ace Attorney franchise, Dai Gyakuten Saiban appeared to be an unattainable mirage. Released in 2015 and never localised, the title was a distant beacon that players were desperately trying to experience. The situation had already happened in the past with Gyakuten Kenji 2 (2011). The game was a follow-up to the first spin-off which already featured Miles Edgeworth. In that case, the combination of the disappointing sales of the first opus and the impossibility of splitting the localisation team on both Gyakuten Kenji 2 and the upcoming Dual Destinies (2013) prevented the game from being released outside Japan. The Ace Attorney community being tenacious, they set about an unofficial translation, the quality of which must be underlined for amateur work. Thus, it was the Scarlet Study team that took on the unofficial translation of Dai Gyakuten Saiban, shortly after a playthrough with English subtitles was released online.

A titanic task if ever there was one. This fan localisation also shines through in its tendency towards professionalism and was well on its way to completing the entirety of the two games released, before leaks took the public by surprise, announcing the official localisation in a single collection, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. The following months would confirm these rumours and the localisation was carried out by Janet Hsu, whose challenge here is particular. Unlike the main series, for which the localisation embraced an Americanisation of all Japanese place names and cultural markers, The Great Ace Attorney only makes sense by respecting the spirit and letter of the terms used.

Indeed, the title places us in the shoes of Ryunosuke Naruhodo, ancestor of Phoenix Wright, and young Japanese student. His adventures will lead him to become a defence lawyer and to cross the globe to settle in the Victorian United Kingdom, with Herlock Sholmes. He is accompanied by Susato Mikotoba, a legal assistant caught in the conservative fire of legal institutions. This historical context is the cornerstone of the title's social and political discourse, as well as the narrative economy, so that it is impossible to transpose Meiji era Japan to a fantasy creation that copies the United States. This historical stability thus brings an element of complexity, since it is a question of translating dialogues, but also a continuum of reactions – drawn from reality – that underlie behaviours at the turn of the 20th century.

It would be difficult for me to set out here all the issues related to translation, as they are so rich and plural. Nevertheless, I would like to insist briefly on the ability to transcribe strangeness in the official localisation, something that is lacking in the fan localisation. Indeed, for a Western audience – especially if they are familiar with the mysteries of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction – the Victorian spirit should not be too disorienting. For our protagonists, the situation is quite different, and conveying this impression of surprise and novelty is a difficult operation, when all the text is in English. Susato and Ryunosuke use idioms and comparisons with Japanese elements to express their perplexity and it is the translation of such elements that is the great challenge of the localisation. For more on this, I can only recommend the extremely interesting blog posts by Janet Hsu.

But what about the game itself? I'm not ashamed to say that the title has quickly become one of my favourite games, crowning an exceptional franchise in my opinion. The Ace Attorney formula is generally well known: a succession of four or five cases, in which our protagonist alternates between investigation and trial sequences. In the former, the gameplay is close to traditional point&clicks, in a tradition that may remind us of The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983) and all the games that follow. The trial phases are visual novels with cross-examination sequences where the aim is essentially to dismantle the testimonies by pointing out the contradictions they have with the case file. If the formula has always worked well, it must be said that certain recurrent criticisms point to the length of the investigation phases and a certain artificiality in the rhythm of the cases. I agree with them overall and was very surprised to see that The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles sweeps away these problems with exceptional ease.

For the first five cases, the pace is impeccably supported by a single investigative sequence, followed by the trial court portion. Even when the traditional formula returns for the last four cases, the pace is judiciously thought out, thanks to an elegant tangle of narrative threads. Indeed, in the vein of Gyakuten Kenji, The Great Ace Attorney has several overarching mysteries, within which are nestled smaller mysteries, solved with each case. This matriochka structure keeps the dramatic tension high and highlights the corruption that permeates the British Empire and its Japanese counterpart.

The Great Ace Attorney is a far cry from Apollo Justice and does not omit the political aspect in its criticism of the judicial system. This was very bland in the main series with a dark age of the law that had no formal consequences, so it was more of a background that awkwardly justified Phoenix Wright's suspension. Here, the corruption is felt in the gameplay from the third case onwards, and it persists throughout the rest of the game, through subtly revolting elements that challenge Ryunosuke and Susato's certainties.

In general, all the elements, beyond their comic and narrative strengths, aim to highlight structural problems in British and Japanese society, indirectly shedding light on very contemporary concerns. The plunge into Victorian London for Japanese students is highlighted by the main cast, but also the figure of Natsume Souseki, whose restlessness helps to convey the difficulty of adapting to a decidedly foreign society. The insistence on taxes points to the horror of the British social classes, in contrast to the aristocratic image that some characters give off – van Zieks, but more generally the entire judicial institution. Whether in the third, fifth, seventh or eighth case, The Great Ace Attorney is careful to highlight the problem of science at a time when a methodical revolution is taking place. The birth of forensic science and forensics allows the title to discuss what science is and what it can do.

For the game takes up the character of Sherlock Holmes – here localised as Herlock Sholmes, as Maurice Leblanc did in his time – but all the themes that are addressed in the Doylian stories. Shu Takumi shows a remarkable love for the Holmesian canon, reinterpreting and blending iconic investigations into his own universe, as well as classic detective fiction, as references abound and there are more or less sustained tributes to Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr, Edogawa Rampo and Gilbert Keith Chesterton. I would have loved to go into more detail about these references, but that would require a full explanation of the cases, and I prefer to leave the pleasure of discovery to the reader. In any case, lovers of classic detective stories can only be seduced by Shu Takumi's approach, which offers an exceptional recital on well-known themes and tropes.

Finally, a word on the technical achievement. If Ace Attorney has always been known for its exceptional sprite work and impeccable staging – thanks to a remarkable sound effects job – The Great Ace Attorney raises the discipline to the best of the franchise. The animations are exceptionally beautiful and the sense of timing is always perfect. While the first five cases use some animated scenes in its cinematics, the last five are content to use the game's engine, but there is no room for reproach, as the composition is so well mastered.

In this respect, the musical work is undoubtedly the best in the series, with a subtle play in the instrumentation, which marries Western orchestras with Japanese influences and instruments – in a way that also recalls the work of Yu-Peng Chen on Genshin Impact. On a personal note, The Great Ace Attorney has my favourite soundtrack of the entire franchise, for the enveloping nature of the tracks and its solemnity, which I particularly enjoy. The dubbing is not to be outdone, as it suits the characters perfectly; in particular, the fact that the actors for the Japanese students are British dubbers of Japanese descent – thus Mark Ota, Rina Takasaki and Ben Deery – contributes to the overall atmosphere.

I could go on and on about the characters being some of the funniest in the franchise and the sincerity that emanates from the game, but what can I say except that they contribute to one of my most cherished video game experiences? I've always had a foreign fascination with the late 19th century and pre-war era. To see characters evolve in this setting, in their fortunes and misfortunes, has been a source of exceptional joy.

No doubt the fact that I shared this experience with my parents – in that respect, how perfect is the Ace Attorney franchise for introducing newcomers to video games! – makes it special. But few games, in any case, are able to take me from tears to laughter in a matter of moments. It's a title that makes no concessions on its themes, on its political discourse, and that remains exceptionally sweet, with a high level of humanity. John Watson, in the Holmesian canon, observed of Mary Marson: "A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two, who had never seen each other before that day, between whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed, and yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other... So we stood hand in hand like two children, and there was peace in our hearts for all the dark things that surrounded us." The atmosphere in this quote is the feeling that The Great Ace Attorney evokes in my heart, when I think of it again. A masterwork, without any doubt.

What do I even say? What even can I say? While playing this game a melancholic feeling flowed through me across each level, as a creator took me throughout different stages of his life. From 80's arcades to early 2010 action games, a journey through his past and a look into the future he hopes for.

Travis is a completely different person now, and while I'd call it stupid and out of nowhere at first, I can't. There's no denying Travis represents a part of Suda, but he also represents you. Through Dr. Juvenile, we see what it means for the audience to connect to a creator via their works and how we come to understand them. While we may never meet them, we feel as if we know them, and how we have nothing but respect for them.

We're taken through worlds that echo a man's childhood, his aimless days and his magnum opus. Then it's all brought down as we're reminded of what we assumed he thinks to be an embarrassment, but he doesn't feel that way. Suda fully admits the faults with Shadows of The Damned, hell I think he may even be too meta with it, but he doesn't hold hate in his heart for it. He sees the good, he sees the bad, and asks himself to let go. Despite his ambitions being kicked down, it's not over yet.

Perhaps that's why this game has nothing but the utmost respect for the indie scene, as it boomed right around the time where most would say Suda was at his lowest. There's definitely something to be admired about indie games and their raw passion, which I think he felt was lost.

Each of the bosses represent something, such as Suda's past, his future, his fears and even his mentors. And every track accompanying the fight reminds you of this, the entire soundtrack is filled with nothing but bangers as you slice your way through as many bugs as possible. The gameplay didn't tire on me either, not one bit.

The first cutscene of this game calls it a "commemorative title", and I feel as though it's exactly that. A celebration of 20 years' worth of games, many of which I adore. Many of which also share one theme. A theme that also pulsates throughout this game like a beating heart. Each boss has something which is weighing them down, and you're reminded of those words everytime you fight one of them. Those three words that Suda wants to tell himself the most.

Kill the past.

What I Look For In a Life Partner: stereotypically Italian, makes pizza and knows how to perform a spinning piledriver.

You know what I'm tired of? Player characters who only do wimpy attacks like jumping on their enemies, or swiping with their dinky-ass little broadswords. What are ya gonna do with that buster sword? Tickle me to death? I'm here to grapple with every goddamn thing I see, and uppercut them through the ceiling straight into other enemies, initiating a combo and gaining points like an even more sadistic version of bowling. Like a demented pizza-making freight train I dash around colliding into everyone like an Ed Edd n' Eddy character straight outta Hell with nothing to lose. I do a sick body splash too. You see that stupid sunglasses-wearin' pineapple guy? I'm gonna beat the daylights outta him. I hate him! He ruins every pizza he touches! I'm gonna smash you into the ground Pineapple Man!!! BOOM! POW! SMACK!

BRUTALITY IS ME! I AM THE BRUTALIZER!

It kind of goes without saying what Pizza Tower is attempting to mimic. I mean, you know why I'm playing this, and I know why you're probably interested in it. Hell, it even has a golf stage perhaps as an allusion to the third game. Mario is jealous! He is so mad that Wario has better games than him! He can't take it anymore! He politicked to Nintendo and made Wario sit behind a desk to develop microgames for wee ant babies, while Mario continued to hog the spotlight! Denying us more pure Wario games with shoulder charging and butt smashing action! Say no more though, because a wacky Italian pizza chef straight out of some kind of What A Cartoon-ass 90s era CN show is here to deliver the good shit.

In the case of whether you're wondering if it pulls it off well, I personally think it passes with multiple flying colors of some sort. I would even go as far as to say it adds enough to become it's own identity regardless of it's painfully obvious inspiration. Peppino is a big-time brawler that I mesh with as well as tomato sauce and mozzarella, and just when you think the transformations are gonna start repeating they instead just keep cranking out more. Well, except near the end, they kinda go overboard on a certain one involving a semi-ranged weapon that people tend to hate in multiplayer. Still pastrami cool though, and it's gonna be really satisfying once you start making this game your main squeeze and master it to the nth degree.

THE CHECKLIST:
•Heavyweight character move-set with professional wrestling moves [X]
•Collecting shit, but not too much shit. [X]
•Blast Processing [X]
•Sick Boss Fights [X]
•Cartoon Aesthetic [X]

Yup, that's a bunch of boxes checked. Vee is in love maybe. Pizza Tower, I choo-choo-choose you to be my Valentine. Swoon

Not from the twisted mind of Suda51

much has already been said by writers (or racers) more skilled than i on this site, but i felt the need to stress how aesthetically and mechanically mesmerizing the R4 and R5 combo is for me. their epoch stands as one of the most unique representations of the shift in era at the time. R4’s sharply stylized mellow post-90s tones have now been smoothened out in favor of industrial Y2K aggressiveness in R5. bubbly synths with deep pulsating electronic baselines hang over photorealistic cityscapes - genuinely still starstruck by how well this holds up visually as well.
R4 recognizes that racers are frequently perceived as limbs for their team manager’s goals while R5 displays individuality in racers as promoted by the lack of direct narrative: the announcer is never shy in enlightening us that all racers on the track deserve our respect. furthermore he’ll happily declare our tight corning as wicked or crazy. the steeper difficulty curve is also indicative of the millennial shift as racing has become more commercialized and widespread; making it to the top requires more perseverance than ever. races are broadcast over the radio due to their popularity and thus require enhanced narration layered on from the announcer.
would undoubtedly assert R5 as one of the most important games during its release. as far as ps2 launch titles go, this, the bouncer, & evergrace are some of the best in communicating 2000 as a year towards greater things in gaming.

Yacht Club Games has made a comfortable living plagiarizing the Darkstar Skateboards mascot guy for close to a decade - and thats probably the only reason why they never slapped Shovel Knight on skateboard merch or licensed a cameo of him to Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5.
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Im gonna be upfront: Shovel Knight irritated me for a long time. There was a period during the early twenty-tens of what I might call "Retro Essentialism" - the idea that only classic games could offer fun and interesting experiences. At this point, that was a long time ago, things have moved on. I think the gaming landscape has cultured a bit more, I think the scope of my experience is much wider now.

So after finally finishing the last Shovel Knight campaign (King of Cards) nearly 8ish years after Shovel Knight originally released, I think I wanna talk about:

- The essentiality of Shovel Knights retro-aesthetics
- How the campaigns evolved from one iteration to the next.
- Thoughts on remixing one game for 8 years
- Shovel Knights commitments to its inspirations

And as always, I consider these aspects under 4 key questions:

o

What is Fun about Shovel Knight?

If Im being honest, this is where Ill be the most harsh on Shovel Knight and its various campaigns: with the exception of Plague Knight, nearly all of Shovel Knights platforming feels like its comprised of arbitrary restrictions and funky platforming flow. King Knight cant do a second shoulder charge until after he pogos once (and you cannot pogo without shoulder charging first), Spectre Knight requires other objects to be able to platform at all 80% of the time, and Shovel Knight himself is just slow Ducktales (likely the original inspiration).

Not that theres anything inherently "flawed" with that but I think the result is that the game feels very unintuitive sometimes, actively inhibiting a flow state - and its easy to compare experiences here cuz Plague Knight feels the opposite. Plague Knight is all about launching himself with explosions, and while this still comes with a similar set of mechanical restrictions they are much more logical and natural-feeling. Plague Knight could work in any level you put him in, King Knight and Spectre Knight can only work in curated spaces designed to support their play concepts - and you can definitely feel that.

Two things make up another major component of each of the character campaigns: what Ill call “Accessories” and Upgrades. “Accessories” are secondary items (Relics, Arcana, Curios, Heirlooms) with a wide range of uses: from traversal, to different kinds of attacks, etc. “Upgrades” covers all the various things each character can purchase for themselves, such as armor variants, health increases, etc. While this whole system adds a small RPG like depth to the game, Yacht Club has a habit of making some of them FAR more useful than others in ALL situations. Im all for diegetic difficulty assignment but some of these feel like get-out-of-jail free cards when paired with the clunky restrictions on character actions - need what feels like 10 seconds (exaggeration) of invincibility for any tough spot Shovel Knight runs into? Rats that save you whenever King Knight accidentally shoulder charges in an area where he cant follow the action up with a bounce? Should Hard Mode be the characters base gameplay? Elements of accessories and armor upgrades were fine-tuned a bit by King of Cards - but idk. These things laid out on paper dont sound very attractive to me, but maybe Im crazy.

I think the truly worst thing to me tho, as a fan of Mega Man (a clear inspiration here) is how disappointing the Boss behaviors are. Considering the Knights of No Quarter are featured in all of the character campaigns, their design quirks impact the campaigns all equally. These mfers are zip-zapping and bob-bappin all over the room in what feels like completely random order - but more to the issue, they move and react in ways that feel nearly indifferent to the actions the player is taking. Sure, for the characters that pogo, bosses might cover their head in response, but at best the game offers a very tacit reaction. Victory often feels like an accident, just a series of fortunate (or unfortunate) moves that caused them to take more hits than you did - and many player attacks will accidentally hit the boss like 2 or 3 times just as a result of the physics interactions. Thankfully, the bigger setpiece bosses feel alot more intentional, and the original bosses created for the later campaigns tend to feel slightly better designed - but not by much. It just feels sloppy. It feels like an afterthought. It doesnt feel good when it doesnt feel like I can reach positive outcomes with much volition.

I labor over all these points to say: theres an issue with cohesion here. These things arent even that bad - I think a fair bit of the time they dont get in the way of classic feeling platforming. But theyre just not great, theyre un-aspirational, theyre disappointing. Its like several good foods that dont go together, or that arent put together very thoughtfully. You wanna know what some of the best gameplay is in Shovel Knight? Its the fuckin card game in King of Cards, the card-playing sections in a platformer. Why is Plague Knight several leagues better than the other 3 gameplay styles, how do you accidentally make excellent platforming mechanics? Like its not especially important that Shovel Knight is not The Best Platformer Ive Ever Played but Im also definitely gonna express that opinion about it.

One thing I think is consistently fun and thoughtful about Shovel Knight across all the various campaigns tho, just to balance this section out a tiny bit: the Progression systems. Yacht Club spent alot of time making sure this aspect of the game was fresh and inventive so that each campaign was sufficiently distinct and engaging and I think it worked. The things youre investing in during Spectre of Torment will be slightly different to the upgrades and items at your disposal in Shovel of Hope or King of Cards, especially considering the card game Joustus. It lends purpose to all the secret chests and hidden collectables and even just the notion of risking your neck for big gems. I have no notes here, its a fun time as far as progression is concerned.

o

What is Shovel Knights Vibe?

Unlike the Fun section I think I mostly have good things to say about Shovel Knights vibe. Most readily its best quality is its character. I dont think I appreciated it so much for Shovel of Hope when it originally released but playing as hapless villains in a world full of apple-trouts and zany village people and minions is a very charming experience. But this also balloons out into an internally consistent world over time. I dont think making the same game 4 times did any favors for the game designers but the writers could really take their time building a rapport for the players to take roots in. As much as it doesnt matter, seeing King Knight, in full golden Knight garb, begging his mom to stop flirting with another king is just very endearing for a character youve fought like half a dozen times in the past decade.

It is of course, also important to mention Shovel Knights dedication to NES hardware limitations in its art and music direction. Now Im not a hardware enthusiast, so Im not the person to ask about how faithful it adheres to NES constraints - but I can say its very clear Yacht Club enjoys using those limitations in incredibly expressive ways. Especially where environments are concerned, having 4 campaigns worth of locations and transitions and backgrounds adds up to an incredibly lush world constructed with nothing but limited color palettes and authentic parallaxing rules. In 2014 it seemed pretentious to suggest “new games cant look good, were going back in time” but after a whole decade its stopped feeling like a retro aesthetic and has started feeling like Shovel Knights own personal charm. Its weird to say but its less like "NES graphics" and more like "this is what shovel-medieval games look like".

I think its worth noting the range of tones here between the 4 campaigns also. While of course, there are wacky elements present in each, each campaign has its own thrust, its own flavor. Shovel of Hope has a sort of adventurous, lonesome yearning to it as Shovel Knight struggles against the Knights of No Quarter to save his fair Shield Knight. Plague of Shadows however has a sort of manic clandestine feeling to it as Plague Knight returns to his secret chemistry lab scheming to make the ultimate potion. Spectre of Torment is a story of loss, regret, betrayal, and self loathing with a gothic twist as you play as the ghoul Spectre Knight. And of course King of Cards is an absurd satire of kingly-ness as the man-child King Knight attempts to earn a crown and a kingdom by winning (cheating) his way through a card game tournament gone wrong. Yacht Club deserves the credit for really taking care to make sure each campaign could stand on their own (which was probably necessary considering the risk they were running of just making the same game 4 times(and also probably why started charging for them separately even tho these were Kickstarter stretch goals originally))

o

What is Impressive about Shovel Knight?

As much as working on one single title for such a long time feels like a bit of a privilege and a maybe creatively safe move from the company, I think the result speaks well for Yacht Club. I think there were even safer, easier routes they could have taken if all they wanted to do was cash in, so I think its impressive to some degree that they took the opportunity to make the Shovel Knight campaigns a little bit special and unique. Im not gonna give them ALL the credit here, cuz respectable game releases should be the norm and not the exception - but its commendable all the same.

Likewise, I touched on this in the Vibes section but I do find it impressive that they held to Shovel Knights retro inspirations, honoring the creative exercise the whole way through. Their collaborations on the spinoffs, Pocket Dungeon and Dig, dont follow the same sort of restrictions and I think it was very responsible by keeping these projects separate. Its admirable, the creative discipline on Yacht Clubs part to compartmentalize these commitments so well.

But beyond that, it has to be said: they have probably wrung the NES platformer angle pretty dry by this point. Some of the fun lil quirky tricks they mimicked were novel in 2014 have become background noise in 2023. As fun as Joustus is to play, it very clearly has no analogue in the NES library and its evident Yacht Club was maybe ready to move on to new ideas and inspirations.

I also feel compelled to mention boss design here as a disappointment. Ive tried not to whinge about it too much as I suspect my issue might be partially preference - maybe its perfectly faithful to NES platformer boss dynamics of old. That hasnt been my experience, but maybe Im just unfamiliar with some larger trend during the NES days. What I can say tho, is that even in that case its still just not as fun. Even just within the game of Shovel Knight, the bosses are the low point of the content compared to the general level design and the larger bosses. This is a waste of potential, cuz I think the character design is fun. The fights simply dont do them justice and as it stands, the main benefit of their inclusion is merely to pay tribute to something else.

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What is Interesting about Shovel Knight?

I think Shovel Knight is most interesting as a sort of case study: Does the NES approach hold up more than once? How do you iterate 4 times on one gameplay concept? If new ideas come up during the course of a long term project, how to integrate those, how do you make a pivot that is sensible and responsible? Its clear that Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows were made in the same framework but something changed heading into Spectre of Torment. The dramatic shift in storytelling as well as the advent of the "Treasure Trove" pricing model were unexpected, especially for what were originally stretch goal - so it must be that new ideas incubated as they worked on them and a new direction emerged.

Also noted in the Vibes section, but another pretty interesting thing is seeing how Shovel Knight grew around its core aesthetics and concepts as time went on. In 2023, for me, its presentation went from "silly game tributing classics with a retro art style" to the art style feeling like it represents some sort of historical view of a land with knights and fairies - like somehow 12th century Europe had been historically represented in 8 and 16 bit images or something like that. That “old graphics” and “ye olden times” would be adjacent enough to each other to bleed over. Its a very interesting sense of transposition, that the influence would work in both ways somehow. Pretty cool (entirely accidental).

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Closing Thoughts

Something I wanted to keep kinda separate from the review of the game, was the acclaim Shovel Knight got the year it was released. Notable for being one of the most successful Kickstarters ever, for some people Shovel Knight might as well have been made by Nintendo themselves. Famously, Shovel Knight himself has made something like 30+ cameos in other games, even managing to score a cameo in Super Smash Bros. This would also seem to corroborate the fact that Yacht Club has been sustainable with Shovel Knight being their only project for such a long time.

So its interesting to see the future follow-up to Shovel Knight, Mina the Hollower, not receiving quite as fervent a following. From what I can tell its kickstarter received support, it doesnt seem like itll flop - but it doesnt seem to have made the same wave that Shovel Knight did. Compare to the people out here that might sincerely kill someone for a drop of news about Silksong (the sequel to the suspiciously similarly titled Hollow Knight). It makes me wonder if it was something of a fluke - and tts just interesting to sit here and ponder what the shape of Shovel Knight looks like half an age later. I know for me Shovel Knight was only ever an alright game, but I wonder if Shovel Knight will still seem like the best game ever made to people another half-age into the future. It seems to me like Yacht Club will have to move on at some point, inevitably. But for me I think Im ready to close the chapter on the original Shovel Knight. I wonder if Pocket Dungeon and Dig will hold up as well.