I’ve been seeing the excitement for Shovel Knight for the last couple of weeks, and the game just looked too darn adorable to pass up. I heard it was a call-back to the retro era, which I should have connected to mean platforming. However, I’m so glad that I didn’t make that connection, because then I would have avoided a really, really, really fun game.
I guess I’m not as terrible at platforming games as I used to be, or the older games (or in this case, the call-back to older games) aren’t as difficult as they are now. I really wanted to like Guacamelee!, but the combination of platforming with specific moves proved to be my undoing after just an hour. It was with a heavy, heavy heart that I put that game down and lamented my wasted dollars. If I had heard beforehand that Shovel Knight was a platformer, I most likely would have written it off as another Guacamelee! and moved on.
Thanks to my ignorance, I bought it, was instantly scared after the opening level, but then I found myself having an absolute blast with a platforming game. I haven’t had fun with a platformer since I gave up trying to get past the halfway point in Super Mario World. I never finished a single SMB game, not even the original, because that’s how terrible I am at platformers and how little patience I have to practice at them.
It helps that I think Shovel Knight has an original idea and gimmick, and I find a lot of dialogue quite funny. Granted, I haven’t been able to play much of it so far, but after completing the first boss fight and all that, I’m still eager to play. I didn’t get half that far in Guacamelee!.
I haven’t tried it out on 3DS, only the Wii U, but fellow writer Blake has enjoyed it on the 3DS. I’m certain he’s saying that because he doesn’t have a Wii U. The game is absolutely gorgeous on the GamePad screen alone. Simply put, if you have a Nintendo product, just do yourself a favor and pick it up. Don’t look for reviews, don’t wait for my final thoughts, just do it.
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