Shovel Knight Review and Why Its Retro Design Holds Up

Plenty of games borrow the look of the 8-bit era and then forget why those games were fun to play. You get chunky pixels and chiptune music wrapped around a design that feels either punishing for its own sake or hollow underneath the nostalgia.

This Shovel Knight review comes after a full replay of the Treasure Trove edition, starting with the original campaign, Shovel of Hope, which took me about seven hours with most secrets found. More than a decade after Yacht Club Games released it, it is still the clearest example of how to make a retro platformer that respects both old habits and modern players.

What Shovel Knight is and how it plays

You play a small blue knight with a horned helmet and a shovel as your only weapon. Your partner, Shield Knight, has vanished, and the Enchantress has taken over the land with the help of the Order of No Quarter, eight themed knights who each guard a stage. The story is told in short, surprisingly affecting dream sequences, but the focus stays firmly on platforming.

The shovel does two jobs. Swing it sideways to hit enemies and dig through dirt piles. Press down in mid air and you bounce off enemies, spikes of dirt and bubbles like a pogo stick. That downward thrust, borrowed openly from DuckTales on the NES, is the heart of the game. Almost every room asks you to chain bounces in new ways.

You travel across a world map between stages, much like Super Mario Bros. 3, stopping at villages to buy upgrades, chat with odd residents and replay levels for treasure.

The level design in this Shovel Knight review

Each stage introduces one idea, tests it in safe rooms, then combines it with earlier ideas until the final stretch feels like an exam you have studied for. Propeller Knight's airship has wind gusts that push you off narrow ledges. Mole Knight's lava cave hides rising lava behind every dirt wall you dig. Polar Knight's ship covers floors in slippery snow and asks you to dig through it.

The bosses follow the same rule. King Knight teaches you his patterns quickly and has a big, readable tell before each charge. Specter Knight is much tougher, but even he gives you space to learn. None of the fights relies on cheap hits from off screen, and that clarity makes a hard boss feel fair rather than cruel. It is the same quality we praised in our Cuphead review.

Relics add variety without bloat

Hidden in each stage are relics, secondary tools bought with gold. The Flare Wand throws a fireball, the Phase Locket gives a few seconds of invulnerability, the Propeller Dagger lets you dash across gaps, and the Fishing Rod pulls treasure out of pits. You can finish the game with very few of them, but the best secrets need them, which gives completionists a reason to return.

Breakable checkpoints are a brilliant risk

Shovel Knight has checkpoints in each stage, and you can smash them for a pile of gold. Doing so removes the checkpoint, so if you die, you restart further back. It is a small mechanic with a big effect. Confident players can take the risk for extra money. Nervous players can leave them alone. The game lets you set your own difficulty without a menu.

Death costs you a share of your carried gold, which floats where you fell in little bags. Get back to it and you recover it all. Fall in the same pit twice and it is gone. That loss stings just enough to make you care without making you quit.

Why it is not as hard as people say

Shovel Knight is often listed alongside punishing retro tributes, and many players skip it because they expect a brutal test. I think that reputation is wrong, at least for the main campaign.

Checkpoints are frequent. Lives are unlimited. Health upgrades are easy to buy. A competent platformer fan will see a few deaths per stage, not dozens. The real challenge lives in optional content: hidden rooms, feats and a harder New Game Plus with fewer checkpoints. Compared with something like Celeste and its kind brand of difficulty, Shovel of Hope is the gentler entry point. If you have avoided it because you fear frustration, start now.

Music and art that earn the retro label

Jake Kaufman's soundtrack, with contributions from Mega Man composer Manami Matsumae, is one of the best of the decade. Tracks like Strike the Earth and the Tower of Fate themes stick in your head for weeks. The music follows the limits of NES sound hardware, plus the kind of extra sound chip some Japanese Famicom cartridges carried, and it never sounds cheap.

The pixel art takes similar small liberties. It uses a slightly wider colour palette and smoother animation than real NES games could manage, but never so much that it breaks the illusion. It looks like your memory of an old game, not the real thing, which is a smart trick.

The Treasure Trove campaigns

The full Treasure Trove adds three more campaigns, each with its own hero and mechanics:

• Plague of Shadows: Plague Knight builds custom bombs from parts. Clever, but the movement feels floaty at first.
• Specter of Torment: a prequel where Specter Knight runs up walls and slashes through enemies. The tightest controls of the set and my favourite.
• King of Cards: King Knight shoulder bashes and spins, with a full card mini game called Joustus. The longest campaign, at around ten hours.

Together, the bundle easily offers 30 or more hours of play, and it often drops well below its full price during seasonal sales on every major store.

Where it shows its age

Some stages lean on bottomless pits more than modern players might like, and a couple of the late game rooms have instant death spikes that feel more like trial and error than skill. The world map is also a little thin. Villages are charming, but there is not much to do in them after the first few visits.

These are small complaints. Shovel Knight remains one of the best platformers of its generation, alongside metroidvanias like Hollow Knight for players who enjoy precise movement.

Frequently asked questions

Is Shovel Knight worth playing in 2026?

Yes. The controls, level design and music hold up very well, and the Treasure Trove edition offers four campaigns for the price of one game. It is also a great choice for players new to retro platformers.

How long does it take to beat Shovel Knight?

The main Shovel of Hope campaign takes around six to eight hours. Finding all secrets adds a few more. The full Treasure Trove with all four campaigns takes 30 hours or more.

Which Shovel Knight campaign should I play first?

Start with Shovel of Hope, because it introduces the world, characters and core mechanics. Specter of Torment is a strong second choice. Save King of Cards for last, since it builds on the others.