Okay technically I did Shovel Knight’s campaign, “Shovel of Hope” before the other campaigns were added so really this is about Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment and King of Cards! Not Showdown though as I’m not too interested in that currently.
Plague Knight’s campaign has me of two minds really. It’s extremely clear that Plague Knight was more or less forced in to Shovel Knight’s stages with small adaptations for unique content for them, and this wouldn’t be an issue if it wasn’t for fact that either you’re going to enjoy Plague’s movement, or hate it. I personally was in the “hate it” side, I found them too clunky to enjoy the platforming challenge, and certain setups of enemies in the stages just honestly was beyond frustrating for me.
But when I’m not having to deal with stages? When it’s not Propeller Knight battle at least, the boss battles are so fun! I loved working out how to melt faces and the best way to do it, even if I fell in to “old reliable” a lot. Overall though, currently as it is a platformer first, battler second, it’s ended up pretty low on my games beaten so far this year, 5th out of 7 currently, ho-hum
THIS IS WHERE IT’S AT. THIS IS THE BEST GAME IN THE ENTIRE COLLECTION. I WILL NOT BACK DOWN FROM THIS AND I’ll stop using caps now.
Specter may not have the damage output of Plague, but what they lack there they make up for having some of the most fun platforming in the entire collection of four platformers. This is how much I loved it:
I did this before I even played any levels beyond the opening plains. Sure I sank a load of time in to getting it but I was having fun the entire time.
And that’s the thing for me about Specter Knight, because the game was reworked for their movement, it was immensely fun! Platforming challenges and knowing when to do stuff with slick movement was immensely enjoyable, and it actually meant I 100%’d the file, all collectables and armour and a lot of treasure to spare.
It’s currently my favourite game I’ve beaten this year. That says a lot for me really, ‘cus I was kind of feeling low after finishing Plague Knight and worried about starting Specter’s campaign.
But then that set dread in, if I loved Specter Knight this much, what would I think of King of Cards????
I hate it. I got to the first point where I was forced to interact with the card game and it just sucked all the fun out of it for me.
Knight Knight’s platforming is… okay, a step down from Specter but it has it’s enjoyable quirks, but Joustus sucked all the fun out from the game for me I exited the game and I don’t plan on going back for a little bit…
I actually think if I tried this before Specter I’d have either begrudgingly trudged through or stopped and never played Specter of Torment, and that’s how it drops for me. A pity really but I got King of Cards effectively for free.
I did back Shovel Knight on Kickstarter before the campaign ended, but I only backed for a single key, them hitting stretch goals never really made a different to me as they were all free extras for the price of one game I paid for.
I’ll leave King of Cards for people who enjoy it and not yuck their yum…