So, confession: I never played Shovel Knight before. I knew of it and I was always curious about it, but I never really got around to actually playing it. Now, thanks to Shovel Knight Dig, the latest game in the series, I finally was able to play this series and, yeah, it is fun! Though it’s not without flaws. The basic gist of the game is that your loot has been stolen by the evil Drill Knight and you must break a rule you learned in Minecraft and dig straight down into his lair and recover what is rightfully yours once again. A very simple premise yet it’s this simple premise that kept me hooked for hours on end, trying to get that perfect run without having to restart at the very top. But it’s not without flaws and there are two very big flaws that hold it back from being something truly amazing.
But before I get to the negatives, I want to begin by praising this game first. Starting with the artstyle, its pixel artwork and animations are some of the most charming I’ve seen in a while in any indie title. From the little reactions by the titular Shovel Knight to the exaggerated movements of many of the NPCs, there is a great amount of personality throughout this entire game. Same goes with the enemies as each one has unique animations and attacks to differentiate themselves from each other, making it easier to tell who’s attacking. My favorites, to be honest, were these rats in little helicopters that I actually hated killing as they were downright adorable. No joke, if there were plushies of these rats? I’d get a few of them. Granted, I did see a few enemies repeated throughout each run, like these little slime blobs that seem to be on every map, and there were a few annoying enemies to fight, but the rest of the roster was fun to fight.
Another praise-worthy aspect of the game is the world variety. You start out in Mushroom Mines before choosing where to go next, with worlds ranging from the grungy lava-filled Smeltworks to the beautifully serene Secret Fountain to the disgustingly grotesque Grub Pit which, honestly, was my least favorite area. The latter due to the whole idea of traversing a bug-infested area just kinda grosses me out and also gives me flashbacks to that one early level in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (ugh). Anyway, there are seven locations you can choose to visit, with each area consisting of three stages each and a boss stage. The boss fights are decent, for the most part, and I do like how their stages change each run to offer a slight challenge. My favorite boss was the Smeltworks as it starts off super easy then pulls a fast one and the real boss-stage begins. Each stage also has a randomly chosen modifier that alters how it’ll play, so you’ll rarely have the same run twice. If you manage to make it to the end of a stage and if you find three Gold Gears, you can unlock a drill that offers one of two items; Food or a power-up that lasts until you die.
As you traverse down to Drill Knight’s castle, you’ll come across special areas you can visit either by finding an entrance with a lamp or hitting a small crack in a wall. These areas either contain more gems or health/magic power-ups for you to collect or an NPC you can chat with. These NPCs consist of either a chef to heal you, a shopkeeper offering special items for you, a Knight who can give you a special move, and a mole with a lottery barrel where you can get either a randomly chosen item or health power-up. There are also nests that, if you manage to bring an egg to it without breaking, you earn a temporary pet that can assist you with either damaging enemies or healing you. However, you may find locked areas which require a special key to open. Like the eggs, when you find one, you have to avoid getting hit in order to use the key on said locked door or chest you can find. Outside of the fact that the eggs and keys can be destroyed after hits, I do like this idea and it does give incentive to avoiding damage as best as you can. There is one other area you can find but it’s one I’m not too big a fan of; This particular area has this beefcake of a red bug and he’ll give you a challenge to break blocks before a massive drill kills you and, if you succeed, you can choose any of the items you unlocked for free. Novel idea but, eh, I never really bothered with it as you can find most of the items for free out in the world by visiting secret areas of hitting a chest that floats by. That’s not to say everything you’ll find is underground as there are things to do above the ground as well. If you go right, you’ll find two special shops that can either build you new armor that offers unique buffs, once you find the blueprints during a run, or a shop that offers you a bigger bag which will allow you to carry more items during a run. On the left side, you can find a plethora of NPCs to talk to and a few side-quests you can do for treasure to spend.
Finally there’s the music and this is another high point for the game. Many of the tracks, though you may hear a few repeated on repeat runs, really have this 80’s metal feel to them. In fact, a few in particular I found myself either nodding along to or getting close to headbanging. There is one track in Mushroom Mines that stands out, though. It might just be me, but it kinda reminds me of the chorus to the latest song by the power metal band Beast In Black. It may just be a sheer coincidence but it was something I noticed or I could’ve just had the band on my mind when I heard it.
However, for all the praise I have to give, there is one glaring issue with this game that really does prevent me from really enjoying it and that is It’s inconsistent difficulty. I understand this is a roguelite and it is supposed to be hard, but a lot of roguelites I’ve played still have some air of easing the playing before throwing them into the lion’s den, so to speak. Here, for example, I was stuck in the same starting area for multiple runs until I had one lucky run that I was finally able to get past it. I think the biggest issue here is just how easy it is to get hit by anything, even if you’re a few pixels away. I don’t know if Shovel Knight has a weird hitbox or something but it felt like a lot of the damage I took shouldn’t have even occurred where the enemy was coming from. This goes double with the stage hazards as, most of the time, trying to avoid getting hit by them is a game unto itself. There is a bit of invincibility that comes up when you do get hit, but, I swear even in that state I took damage from something. It would’ve been nice if I could keep any upgrades I get in a run when I die but that’s not the case here at all. Heck, you don’t even keep health or magic upgrades when you die as you lose everything, unless you are wearing a certain armor you can unlock that can allow you to keep one item per run, which is nice but still feels disappointing. Now, I did see there is an Accessibility option in the Options menu and you can alter it to where you have tons of health and don’t take that much damage, which is nice. However, even with those options tweaked to where it is supposedly easier, I still found myself struggling to get past the second world with full health, let alone the first area.
Actually, speaking of the items? That’s another disappointing aspect to this game. Outside of one you need for a quest, none of the items really serve any practical purpose, which is a problem in a game like this. You’d think getting a better shovel attack or faster digging speed would be a blessing, but when dying means you lose that upgrade until you find it again in another run, you’re better off saving your treasure for armor at the shop outside of the dig zone and food, which the later can either heal your or give you a much needed health upgrade, which, again, you lose if you die. Truth be told, the only item I found to be of practical use and one I tried to keep in my inventory for every run was the horn and that was only because it could clear out a screen of enemies with no problems. Still, the fact that the only good items to get are healing items and the offensive/defensive items you can acquire in the game are pretty much pointless is a disappointment. This rings true once you get the Black Knight Challenges after your first successful run of the game as you’ll need the food as the challenges are, to be expected, challenging. Again, let me stress that I get that this is a roguelite and stuff like this is common in them. But, here though, it really feels like it hurts more than it should.
Still, despite the issues I had with the inconsistent difficulty and other aspects, it wasn’t enough to really sour my enjoyment of the game. Yeah, I did have that feeling of disappointment whenever I had a bad run and I did have to step away a few times and play something else to cool off, but it never got to the point of me wanting to get frustrated or angry. Roguelites aren’t for everyone and Shovel Knight Dig is definitely not going to set the world on fire, but for those who enjoyed the previous games or are into roguelites, I would suggest checking this game out. Heck, if anything, it gave me an excuse to blast WindRose’s Diggy Diggy Hole while I was playing it!
