{"id":22689,"date":"2022-10-21T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T00:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=22689"},"modified":"2022-10-08T12:56:51","modified_gmt":"2022-10-08T12:56:51","slug":"shovel-knight-dig-switch-ios-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/21\/shovel-knight-dig-switch-ios-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Shovel Knight Dig (Switch, iOS, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yacht Club Games has really seen success with their indie title Shovel Knight.\u00a0 The original game seamlessly blended challenging NES style gameplay with one of the best 8-bit soundtracks since Mega Man.\u00a0 And there have been lots of fun spin-offs, too, like a Smash style fighter and a puzzle game.\u00a0 And now they\u2019re dabbling into roguelikes with Shovel Knight Dig.\u00a0 In the game, the evil Drill Knight has stolen Shovel Knight\u2019s loot bag and escaped underground, and now his tunnels are causing earthquakes up above.\u00a0 So as Shovel Knight, you must dig down to face him!\u00a0 Shovel Knight Dig blends elements from the original game along with some from classics like Dig Dug and Mr. Driller, and presents them in a randomly generated level format where each run is different every time!\u00a0 It\u2019s currently available on Switch, iOS, and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll start the game at Shovel Knight\u2019s camp, but there\u2019s a big hole in the middle of it.\u00a0 When you jump down the hole, you\u2019ll start the game from the beginning.\u00a0 Your goal is to dig down vertically scrolling levels as far as you can.\u00a0 You can swing your shovel and dig through dirt in any direction except up, and you can also swing at enemies to defeat them.\u00a0 When you jump, you\u2019ll automatically have your shovel downward so you can hop on things like a pogo stick.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll also want to hurry because a giant excavator is chasing you from above, and if it hits you it\u2019s a one-hit kill.\u00a0 When that happens or if you lose all your energy otherwise, the run is over and you\u2019ll start back at camp again.\u00a0 You won\u2019t keep all your gold you\u2019ve collected, but you can keep some of it as well as any permanent upgrades you\u2019ve bought.\u00a0 Sometimes you might get a special magic attack you can use with a separate button as well.<\/p>\n

During your runs you\u2019ll travel through three of the same type of area and then a boss.\u00a0 You\u2019ll repeat this four times until you get to the end.\u00a0 This means the game can be pretty short, but there are TONS of hidden secrets, branching pathways, and even whole levels you may miss on a run.\u00a0 In each area are three hidden gears to collect.\u00a0 If you collect all of them, at the end of an area you can put the gears in a drill machine and choose between a power-up or a health refill, so you\u2019ll want to get as many of those gears as possible as well as all the gems you can find.\u00a0 At the end of three of these areas sits a boss.\u00a0 Some are new characters like Spore Knight, while others are returning enemies with a new coat of paint for attacks, like Mole Knight in a water level or Tinker Knight in a lava area.<\/p>\n

Back at camp, more and more people will gradually appear and let you spend your gems on temporary or permanent upgrades.\u00a0 Another character will let you skip worlds for a price if you want to just move the story along or not have to repeat earlier worlds.\u00a0 When Shovel Knight first came out, I thought it would be cool if they made a 16-bit style sequel called Super Shovel Knight, and then a 3D game called Shovel Knight 64.\u00a0 Well this is probably about as close as we\u2019ll get to the 16-bit game.\u00a0 I like the retro yet detailed graphics and the music sounds like it\u2019s coming directly from a SEGA Genesis.\u00a0 The songs aren\u2019t as good as the original game, but they\u2019re still catchy.\u00a0 Some of the level design ideas are cool, too, like a magic landfill area with warping portal walls and magic dirt that zips you in one direction.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Shovel Knight Dig has a few problems that kept me from enjoying it more.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a big fan of randomly generated levels personally. \u00a0Especially since they make you repeat areas over and over again, which makes progress feel slow. And aside from a couple of items and pieces of armor, most of the upgrades don\u2019t give you any noticeable perks.\u00a0 And like the other titles in the series, this game is just too darn hard!\u00a0 Luckily you can give yourself more energy in the option screen.\u00a0 But I still don\u2019t think it need to be that hard.\u00a0 Especially since most enemies move twice as fast as you.\u00a0 But otherwise, this is still a heck of a fun time while it lasts, as long as you don\u2019t mind randomly generated levels and a high challenge.<\/p>\n

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

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

Shovel Knight Dig is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t really notice any blood, but sometimes the ESRB counts squishy slime guts as such, but it\u2019s all pixelly.\u00a0 You whack baddies with a shovel and they just disappear or fall off the screen when defeated and that\u2019s about as violent as it gets.\u00a0 Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.\u00a0 Because of that, I\u2019d say it\u2019s best for older kids only.<\/p>\n

Here are some more of my Shovel Knight reviews:<\/p>\n

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Shovel Knight Showdown (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon (PS4)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Shovel Knight Toys in Arby\u2019s Kid\u2019s Meals!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yacht Club Games has really seen success with their indie title Shovel Knight.\u00a0 The original game seamlessly blended challenging NES style gameplay with one of the best 8-bit soundtracks since Mega Man.\u00a0 And there have been lots of fun spin-offs, too, like a Smash style fighter and a puzzle game.\u00a0 And now they\u2019re dabbling into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22689","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\/22689","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=22689"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22691,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22689\/revisions\/22691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}