Shovel Knight: A Pristine Pixel Crown

If I asked you, what's the best 8-bit game, what would you say? Castlevania? Mega Man 2? Both are classics, no doubt. But. The best 8-bit game by far is Shovel Knight. 

Never heard of it? That's because the game just recently came out. A brand new 2D adventure that's guaranteed to flicker your pixelated love pump. Start rotating those thumbs, you'll need 'em to be primed.

Shovel Knight is a 2D action-platformer, made to resemble old 8-bit games of yesteryear. In an industry that rotates triple-A games like used up socks, this may seem like madness. Yet one company (Yacht Club Games) dared to dream in pixels, and launched an ultra successful Kickstarter project that has materialized the most talked-about game of 2014.

taringa.net

Seeking treasure to unearth, Shovel Knight and his companion Shield Knight have entered the Tower of Faith. While exploring the tower, the two knights become spellbound by a powerful dark amulet. Moments later, Shovel Knight awakens without his comrade.

What's a noble to do, but ready his shovel and brave the challenges ahead!

The graphics are sharp and vibrant. And the sprites – while pixelated – are surprisingly clean and detailed. The colour palette mirrors Nintendo's entire range of bustling 53 colours, with about 12 colours displayed at a time. Add some solid parallax scrolling for depth, and you got a game. A game that is not about the graphics; but about depth of gameplay, and a renewed crusade for innovative play mechanics.

It's all about the soul within it the armour: remember that, all you future squires.

There are shops to visit, castles to storm, and errands to solve. Doted across the mini map are numerous locals in need of good ol' shoveling. Each castle is home to a unique knight, that must be dethroned to progress farther. But getting to the last screen is no easy task, perils are everywhere. The jumps need to be timed PERFECTLY, enemies need to be utilized as living platforms, magic needs to rationing, and bonus abilities have to be unearthed to make progress a bit easier -- this game's everywhere you wanna be.

wired.com

You're not considered a gamer until you've balanced yourself while bouncing on a moving gear, just to execute a perfectly timed vault over a chasm, while phasing through that one flying foe that's about to ram you into a pit. Luckily, there are many useful skills/items to purchase and find: fireball wand, a rustic gear platform, arcing anchors, rolling blob balls, and several armours to craft. While the game is challenging, it's never unfair, because every time you perish you only loose a portion of cash – which can be recovered, providing you make it back to reclaim it.

The game's world is filled with quirky characters, who spout offbeat lines, making you smirk every time a text box pops up. The writer has a flair for penmanship, unleashing streams of text that flood your cerebellum with goodness. Chatting with an NPC is never dull. On par with the writing, are the lovable characters: anthropomorphic horse maidens, goat scholars, frog gentlemen, twisted tree-bards, propeller wearing mice, shifty ghosts and sleepy yellow dragons! It's a strange brew of men and beasts, oh so delightful.

indiepitome.com

The Boss Knight encounters are very a la Mega Man: with foes unleashing patterned onslaughts, which can only be quelled by practiced counter-attacks. I don't want to give away too much, but this game will demand that you remember your repertoire of moves quickly. It's quite amazing how much personality is contained within all those pixelated sprites. And since ROM is not an issue, the game contains a fair amount of lengthy content, and lots of chiptune music that will shovel its way into your groove veins.

Shovel Knight pays homage to the glorious and memorable games of your youth, and unlocks that special time and place you've stored away inside a nostalgia box. The game reanimates that perfect freeze-frame in time, where you're pulling on the controller as if it's going to extend your jump trajectory. Or that moment when you have finally managed to defeat the last boss, and you're stomping about the basement, joyous and victorious, at 2 am.

This clever title latches onto that youthful magic, and asks only to be enjoyed wholeheartedly and repeatedly. And what it gives back is totally wonderful: A continuation of the best time of your life. I tip my golden chalice, and wish for all the Lord Knights to return once more.

Shovel Knight gets five jewel-encrusted shovels out of five.

Developer: Yacht Club Games

Publisher: Yacht Club Games

Platform: 3DS, Wii U, Windows, OS X, Linux

Released: 2014

Genre: Action-Platformer

You'll Dig It!

 

2D Strollin' With A Boy and His Blob

I remember renting A Boy and His Blob from my local video game store. This was way back in the NES era when my friends and I would rent games for few days, and hope to have enough time between schoolwork to play. 

Right from the start, I was captivated by the game's goofy premise of having a shape-shifting blob as a partner on a treasure hunt. If I only knew it would take 20 years for the remake to appear, I'd probably rent the game a few more times. 

Once I heard about A Boy and His Blob for the Wii, I didn't take me long to seek out and play this, often overlooked, gem. The Wii version is definitely a nod to all the 80s kids who spent countless hours playing their NES instead of studying. Minutes into the adventure I got suddenly nostalgic, and felt as if my mom was about to barge into my room, yelling at me to stop playing and go to sleep. 

g4tv.com

World of Goo 

In this puzzle-platformer you control a human boy who is faithfully fallowed by an AI controlled companion, a peculiar white blob. Their task: stopping an alien invasion of Blob's homeworld. Boy and Blob strolling about and getting into trouble... anyone getting a buddy flick vibe? I'm a big fan of hand-drawn animation and love 2D games: this fresh title mixes both features exceptionally well. 

The backgrounds are painted with vibrant and clean strokes, seamlessly transposing everyday scenery into fantastically imaginative landscapes. Every stage has a surreal feel that will make you want to stop and scan the horizon: tranquil forests beckon adventures, caves and swamps test the nerves, and a nightly city mesmerizes the senses. The Boy and Blob's mannerisms and actions are smoothly animated with painstaking detail, which gives the game a distinctive quality – a la Saturday morning cartoon. 

videogamesblogger.com

Bellyful of Jelly 

Unlike a bumbling cartoon-y sidekick, The Blob does not spew nonsensical gibberish; It does useful things, like transform into objects by eating specific jelly beans. The Boy, being a regular human child, cannot do much except run along, push or jump. But with The Blob by his side he can achieve much more. 

Each jelly produces a delightful new transformation in The Blob. No ledge is too high if your partner can shift into a handy trampoline or ladder. Nowhere to go? Blob can help, by stretching across the ground and becoming a sinkhole (a useful tool for disposing enemies). If you grew up watching Roadrunner cartoons, and always wanted to drop an anvil onto a foe, just feed your Blob the right kind of jelly and bonk 'em.

Unlike to original game, the Wii version is much easier. There are unlimited jelly beans to ingest, and guidance posts to show which abilities will get you through specific parts of the levels. Some of the game's melodic music has a lulling kind of quality to it, which does not convey immediacy, and tends to slow the pacing a bit. However, all of the levels and boss encounters are quite fun, and require use of The Blob's myriad powers in always surprising ways.

dpadmagazine.com

Tale of Friendship

There's a certain story-book cuteness to this game, making it wonderfully appealing without being sappy or cheesy. The Boy's reliance on Blob's out-worldly abilities builds a bond between the two characters, which seamlessly grows with each new challenge. I dare you not feel wonderfully happy at the heartwarming way in which the Boy hugs The Blob, or how he carefully packs his companion into a knapsack so it can became a parachute. 

It's great to see a game that can convey emotions without relying on realistic graphic, or complex story lines weaved with over-top action sequences. WayForward managed to capture the charm of the original, no doubt. Action-savvy junkies may not like the slow and methodical way of progression in A Boy and His Blob; that's okay, because this is a game that reveals its elegance when played in a carefree way. The way you played games when nothing else mattered – not even your homework. 

“What! No, I don't have to finish my Geography project tonight, mom!”

Developer: WayForward

Publisher: Majesco Entertainment

Platform: Wii

Released: 2009

Genre: Platform-Puzzle

avclub.com