One of the few games that was released back in 2014 that stood out to many people was an indie action-platform title developed and published by Yacht Club Games entitled Shovel Knight. The reason why Shovel Knight was such as big deal following its worldwide release in 2014 was because it appealed to many retro gamers who grew up during the 16-bit era of gaming back in the 90’s. Despite, the fact that Shovel Knight too old the game looks and feels like it came out over two decades ago while still being popular enough to turn heads within the gaming world. The plot for Shovel was slightly more intriguing than anything one would see in a 16-bit action-platform game. While most 2D side-scrolling platform games from the late 80’s-early 90’s seemed basic Shovel Knight was a bit more complex. While 2D side scrolling platform games like Sonic The Hedgehog was simply about thwarting the plans of the main antagonist Shovel Knight included the same formula added with elements that made the story more interesting. In the game Shovel Knight must battle the members of “The Order Of No Order” before encountering the main villain known as the Enchantress who is responsible for spreading malevolence throughout the world.
There were various different warriors similar to Shovel Knight but slightly different with gimmick names such as: Treasure Knight, Mole Knight, Polar Knight, Plague Knight and others which was somewhat reminiscent of the older Mega Man games of the late 80’s-early 90’s. Players could enter dream sequences after defeating certain knights before encountering the Enchantress towards the end of the game; this comes after battling Shovel Knight’s rival Black Knight more than once and eventually leading to revelations and unexpected plot twist. Towards the end of game Shovel Knight and Black Knight temporally put their differences aside as the deal with the Remnant Of Fate. The Remnant Of Faye was the entity the Enchantress became after going through an exorcism courtesy of the main protagonist in the Shovel Of Hope campaign. Shovel Knight had a total of four different campaigns including Plague Of Shadows, Specter Of Torment and King Of Cards along with a multiplayer mode which contributed to the game’s high replay value. Since its release Shovel Knight has been ported for various game systems including the PlayStation 3, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Shovel Knight was also considered to be one of the most high profile 16-bit titles of the 10’s decade. Shovel Knight was also pretty successful for a 16-bit game within the 10’s decade seeing that it reached at least 2.5 million copies in sales. While many people have different opinions on which campaign within Shovel Knight was the best; there is no doubt that it was one of the top 2D action-platform titles of 2014.
Gaming Hearts Collection 