Indie platformer homage to NES classics, brilliant in its design. Impeccable level design, numerous secrets, memorable bosses. One of the decade's best indie games. WiiU version benefits from amiibo features. Indispensable.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player7+
Description
A knight armed with a shovel battles armies of undead and creatures in a homage to 1980s NES platformers with carefully balanced difficulty. Published by Yacht Club Games, released in Europe and the United States on Wii U in 2015. Independent retro platformer featuring eight rival knight levels to conquer, evolving mechanics, hidden treasures, a shovel combat campaign, and multiple endings.
Shovel Knight review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
3/5
Story
★★★★★
"Solid"
Composed by Jake Kaufman with help from Manami Matsumae, the music resurrects NES chiptune in all its glory, heroic melodies to the fore. Each theme, terribly catchy, embraces the game's retro drive and galvanises progress. This chiptune triumph, vibrant and inspired, is hailed as an instant classic.
Shovel Knight, a Yacht Club Games retro platformer that revives the 8-bit spirit with acclaimed level design and humor, whose physical release was handled in a limited run. On a console with a sought library, its desirability rests on this status as a physical copy of an emblematic indie success rather than wide distribution. A prime piece for retro-platforming fans of the machine.
Is Shovel Knight still worth playing in 2026?
An indie 2D platformer by Yacht Club Games, Shovel Knight offers a retro 8 bit adventure where the shovel knight Shovel Knight explores dungeons to save his beloved Shield Knight. The sublime retro pixel art direction, precise NES tribute handling and memorable chiptune soundtrack make it an absolute indie platformer reference on Wii U. For anyone fond of retro platformers or seeking an absolutely essential indie, an absolutely essential recommendation today still without any hesitation truly here indeed.
