Various optional tools in the form of Relics may make some areas and battles easier, but you’ll need to explore every corner of every level to hunt them down or gain enough treasure to buy them later. Yacht Club Games effectively embraced the “learn by doing” style of gameplay in its offering of successive, themed levels that steadily, but fairly ramp up in complexity. Shovel of Hope, the first installment, has just about everything anyone could want in a challenging, retro-inspired platformer. That would all mean very little if the game wasn’t excellent, but both Shovel Knight and its first DLC, Plague of Shadows, met with critical and popular acclaim, and for a good reason. It includes the original Shovel Knight, Plague of Shadows, the new prequel campaign entitled Specter of Torment, and all the added bonuses such as two-player co-op (now no longer tied to amiibo), new amiibo features, body swap, and Challenge Modes for each campaign. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is the most comprehensive collection of everything Shovel Knight released thus far. It’s even more understandable now that Shovel Knight is available across just about any system you could possibly want to dig into it on, and with all subsequent updates free even for non-backers. Admittedly, a three-year timeline for backer rewards to finally be doled out sounds lengthy on paper, but given how consistently and frequently the developers have dropped such rewards and how much obvious work and love they’ve put into them, you can’t fault them for it. Three years after Shovel Knight’s initial release and still counting, Yacht Club Games continues to stand tall as a Kickstarter model done well. Time to raise thy shovel once more for another round of retro, dirt-digging platforming with Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove–now featuring our old friend Specter Knight, too. By Rebekah Valentine 5 years ago Follow Tweet

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