{"id":21976,"date":"2022-01-17T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=21976"},"modified":"2022-01-03T01:26:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T01:26:13","slug":"shovel-knight-pocket-dungeon-ps4-switch-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/17\/shovel-knight-pocket-dungeon-ps4-switch-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon (PS4, Switch, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The indie game Shovel Knight has really gained fame since its release.\u00a0 And for good reason, because it\u2019s a great game!\u00a0 The 8-bit styled 2-D platformer has gotten spinoffs with playable bosses<\/strong><\/a>, a Smash clone with Shovel Knight Showdown<\/strong><\/a>, and has even gotten kids meal toys at Arby\u2019s<\/strong><\/a>!\u00a0 And now Shovel Knight is starring in a puzzle action game!\u00a0 It\u2019s available on PS4, Switch, and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.<\/p>\n

In the game, Shovel Knight is at camp and just received a surprise package.\u00a0 But before he can open it, a little box pops out and sucks him inside!\u00a0 Now he\u2019s trapped in the puzzle dungeon and must find a way out!\u00a0 The game has three main modes of play.\u00a0 In Story Mode, you\u2019ll start out at a camp and can talk to characters and shop for items before venturing forth out in the field.\u00a0 In the game you move around a grid in any direction.\u00a0 Levels will have monsters, items, and blocks falling down from the top.\u00a0 If you bump into monsters or blocks, you\u2019ll give them damage and can take damage yourself.\u00a0 Before you lose all your health, touch a potion falling down to recover.\u00a0 If you can defeat monsters or blocks next to each other, you\u2019ll perform a chain and can earn more gems to buy things later.<\/p>\n

If you run out of energy, that doesn\u2019t mean the game is over.\u00a0 You\u2019ll drop your gold and float up to the top like an angel, but you\u2019ll reappear again at the top and can keep playing.\u00a0 But things will keep falling from the top while this happens, so you\u2019ll want to avoid this as much as possible.\u00a0 If the screen fills with blocks and you can\u2019t move, then the game is over.\u00a0 Sometimes, treasure chests will fall.\u00a0 Collect a key to open them and they\u2019ll sometimes have items inside that\u2019ll help you fight the monsters.\u00a0 Other times you can enter a shop to buy items as well.\u00a0 Open enough treasures and a door will appear.\u00a0 Collect a key to open it and you\u2019ll finish the level!<\/p>\n

Each level has different monsters that you need to learn how to defeat.\u00a0 Slimes can turn into acid so you won\u2019t want to go over those squares right away or you\u2019ll take damage.\u00a0 Ghosts can be hit once, then you must hit something else to make them vulnerable again.\u00a0 And there are a lot more for you to discover.\u00a0 At the end of a few levels, you can fight a boss from the main Shovel Knight game, but in puzzle form.\u00a0 And once you defeat one, you can play as them.\u00a0 Each character has different skills and strengths.\u00a0 For instance, Plague Knight may have less energy, but he can poison enemies with his attacks for extra damage.\u00a0 And King Knight has a charge move.\u00a0 When you are defeated in Story Mode, you\u2019ll return to camp and can buy items that\u2019ll be found in treasure chests when you play again.\u00a0 You can also switch characters here.<\/p>\n

The other modes of play include a VS. Mode where you can challenge another person or the CPU in a split screen match. You can also partake in daily challenges once per day, and view the leaderboards.\u00a0 You can also view info on each enemy and item you\u2019ve encountered, as well as view your \u2018feats\u2019 (Achievements or Trophies), and toggle options.<\/p>\n

Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon is really fun and implements the Shovel Knight themes well into the puzzle gameplay.\u00a0 But I had some problems with the game, too.\u00a0 The game has too many \u2018roguelike\u2019 elements for my tastes.\u00a0 You will die a lot and have to start back over, buying items each time in hopes to be stronger and get further in the next run.\u00a0 But to me, that just slows down the feel of progression.\u00a0 Plus, like the original game, this one is way too hard!\u00a0 If it was a bit easier, I probably wouldn\u2019t have lost interest as quickly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.\u00a0 If you defeat enemies, they just disappear.\u00a0 When you lose all your energy, you just float up to the top of the screen like an angel before reappearing.\u00a0 Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The indie game Shovel Knight has really gained fame since its release.\u00a0 And for good reason, because it\u2019s a great game!\u00a0 The 8-bit styled 2-D platformer has gotten spinoffs with playable bosses, a Smash clone with Shovel Knight Showdown, and has even gotten kids meal toys at Arby\u2019s!\u00a0 And now Shovel Knight is starring in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21979,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976\/revisions\/21979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}