Ever since its release back in Summer of 2014 Shovel Knight has become one of the most popular 2D platform titles of the 10’s decade.  When it comes down to sales Shovel Knight has reportedly sold over 1.5 million units worldwide before the end of 2016 and was considered to be a success on various game consoles.  However, there are some who wonder whether or not Shovel Knight would have been as popular is back in the early 90’s.    When retro games look at games such as Shovel Knight the bright graphics and 2D gameplay reminds them of something from the Mega Drive or the Sega Genesis.

Shovel Knight looks like a game that could of thrived back in the 16 bit era of gaming.  However, one must take the console wars between Nintendo and Sega back in the 90’s.  While Shovel Knight is a great platform title there would of been a good chance that it could have been easily overshadowed by Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario games during that time.  Also, there many other 2D platform games such as Mega Man X, F-Zero, Zelda: Link to the Past that were very popular during the early 90’s which made the SNES very appealing.  Although, there weren’t to many games like Shovel Knight for the Sega Genesis so it could have definitely stood out for that particular console.