Let’s platform like it’s 1987.
Nostalgia
is an interesting thing and it’s the kind of thing we humans assume a lot of
wrong things about. Is nostalgia a good thing? Is nostalgia a bad thing? Do we
love something old because of the tertiary memories that accompany it? Do we
love something because it harks back to things you truly liked? Do we love
something because it harks back to things that aren’t done anymore? Nostalgia
is a tricky little bugger, one that can often be responsible for the
unnecessary clouding of our judgement and be responsible for the full blown
love or hate for something.
The
nostalgia-dripping thing I speak of right now is of the NES era – a simple time
encapsulated in 8 bits, chip-tune music and a lot of weird stuff in the real
world. It was also the first ‘true’ gaming generation, and the mighty love held
for series such as Megaman and Castlevania started here, in times of punishing
difficulty, tricky jumps and the charm of a limited playing field. But, is the
love we bear for this generation a fine sample of biased love for something
thoroughly flawed and unintuitive by other standard, or is there a spark in
this generation that we have lost?
As
images might suggest, Shovel Knight is an 8-bit game made in this day and age,
with a bit of Castlevania in its blood and a whole lot of Megaman in its
entirety. By all means, it is essentially a Megaman game albeit within a
fantasy setting and with some other changes, such as the fact that you have not
an arm-cannon but a shovel to attack and bounce off foes with. You generally go
through levels and face a boss named ________ Knight at the end of it, and you
get a special weapon based off the boss/level. The Castlevania bit creeps in in
the fact that these weapons are ‘relics’ that you find hidden in the levels,
and use a shared mana meter akin to hearts in Castlevania, and you can gather
more mana throughout the level, that and the fact that the default method of
using a relic is up + attack (thankfully, you are free to change that).
As
for my answer to the question a bit above: I believe that we have never truly
‘lost’ anything from prior generations, we’ve just adapted it or put it on the
side-line owing to a changing landscape. It’s a different way of saying ‘lost’
perhaps, but I firmly like to believe that we haven’t ‘lost’ these things but
they’ve just been buried a little bit, waiting to be dug out, polished a spell
and be presented again – and no, I’m not talking about misguided reboots of old
franchises, that would be yanking something out and then putting more mud on it
and moulding it till it looks like something presentable to everyone. Shovel
Knight is a case of pristine polishing, polishing so fine that it keeps so many
things intact and throws away so many things you realise you never loved in the
first place – like pet goldfishes. It’s less of an example of a raw old-school
throwback and more of a modern re-imagination of classic concepts imbued with
modern sensibilities and logic. And by ‘modern sensibilities’ I speak not of
attempts to appeal to the universe or attempts to stuff in popular culture, by
the graceful (and rarely seen) side of breaking things down to their bare
essentials, focusing on the ‘real’ good and excavating the ‘bad’ and
‘unintuitive’ for the trash compactor.
The
game is packed full of charm – starting with the story and its presentation, a
simple yet motivating tale about how Shovel Knight lost his travelling
companion, Shield Knight, and now fights to get her back. The introduction to
the story also gives us our first subversion of normal NES tropes in the fact
that the damsel in distress is not the damsel by virtue of being a princess and
having no means of self-sustenance but is a warrior capable of holding her own
and is more of a victim of circumstance – where the circumstance involved
obtaining an amulet of questionable morality and unleashing a tower of dubious
morality.
 |
| Boss fights are loads of fun. Don't use relics for even more enjoyment. |
Shovel
Knight’s similarities to Megaman go beyond the aesthetic and basic setup as the
controls most closely resemble the sharp, precision controls of the blue bomber
– not the restrictive jump arcs and casual walking pace of the Belmonts. He is
not married to his jump arcs or a single jump height, leaving his vertical
acrobatics in your control. His shovel has poor range but makes up for this
with his ability to bounce off certain obstacles and enemies using his shovel,
giving him a means of attacking, dodging and platforming. The relics add a fair
bit of versatility to Shovel Knight’s arsenal, but the relics follow this
general trend of being ‘overpowered as all hell’ and liberal usage of them will
make the game a hop through candy and butterfly lane. And indeed a complaint
that can be levied against the game is that it is rather easy, though a pickle
in this argument arises in the fact that the difficulty can be altered using a
formula of:
d
= 12 – (c + x/2 + z/2)
 |
| If I used relics I'd probably not have got out by the skin of my teeth. |
Wherein d is the derived difficulty of the
game, c is the number of classic Megaman games you have played, x is the number
of Megaman X games you have played and z is the number of Megaman Zero games you
have played. Needless to say, if you’re a ‘veteran’ of old platformers then
there’s a chance you might find Shovel Knight a little too easy for your
liking, which is why I’d strongly recommend doing a Shovel only run (coupled
with no Health upgrades for a good time). This is because artefacts turn Shovel
Knight from humble and often underestimated Knight, to a God of Death, capable
of annihilating obstacles and shredding bosses’ health bars.
 |
| Adrift in the air. |
The
levels are the main highlight of the game, and follow the general trend of each
one having its own set of gimmicks. These gimmicks only exist in their
respective levels and never overstay their welcome, often changing things up
significantly and giving each level its own distinct flavour beyond the
aesthetic. The Flying Machine involves gimmicks wherein you are not in control
of progression but rely on external forces (sometimes quite literally) to make
your way through the level, truly helping you feel like you are drifting along
a gust of wind… and surprise, surprise ‘wind’ is the main focus of the level.
However, levels follow that trend of taking NES tropes and subverting them
lovingly, giving us what we love in often very different flavours – which helps
mix things up and gives, I repeat myself, things their own identity. Don’t
expect Platforming 101 cookie-cutter levels, but expect some rather amusing and
interesting ‘alternative’ takes. The bosses follow this trend of being
interesting and ‘alternate’ takes on general Megaman tropes – often not even
embodying their level’s main ‘theme’ and instead representing in an indirect
fashion, such the diving-suit enclosed and anchor-wielding Treasure Knight who
is the boss of the game’s water level.
 |
| A different kind of rainbow road. |
The
game uses an 8-bit aesthetic, but it’s rather clear that the developers didn’t
call it quits by doing their bare minimum by sticking to the actual limits of
8-bit technology (if they did we’d be experiencing a whole lot of slow down as
well) and have taken their fair share of liberties within the bounds its
aesthetic. Everything is simplistic, but there is a level of detail far above
that of any NES game and the same can be said about the fact that the game
features parallax scrolling, which is as NES-like as the removal of ‘lives’ as
the source of your ability to go on. The game has a Dark Souls-esque mechanic
wherein you drop a bit of your gold where you died (and it floats above the
spot with tiny wings) and can collect it, but if you die again it’s gone for
good. This is a welcome change as the lives system can often feel archaic and
unnecessary, having to repeat the entirety of parts you are capable of breezing
through because you were bested by a later part can be a bit strange, and the
system does help… the first time through, but loses all immediacy once treasure
starts being useless. Yes, an unfortunate thing is that after a while, after
you unlock everything, treasure becomes utterly useless – giving you no reason
to discover hidden stashes and to go off the beaten path, which is a shame
because finding secrets and surviving the treacherous things between avarice
and you was great fun. This dents the replayability a fair bit unfortunately. 
Talking
about Dark Souls, this game contains another reference (indeed, I believe the
developers have stated they are fans of the series) in the fact that you get to
see Shovel Knight resting before a bonfire after every level, a little quiet
moment (with ‘secret’ treasure of its own) before you continue shovelling… but
a quiet moment that can lead to the game’s equivalent of ‘bonus rooms’ in
Shovel Knight’s dreams, a fine example of story and gameplay mingling hands as
Shovel Knight has to hold off waves of enemies (each dropping a massive bounty)
as Shield Knight plummets towards the ground, trying to do her best impression of
an impression upon the ground. A little thing, but it’s when there are little
things to help punctuate the rest of a good game that a game can become great…
and there are plenty of ‘little’ things such as small bonus areas, a side-level
that is a bit of tongue-in-cheek kickstarter humour, boss fights against other
adventurers and so on. And what truly completes a great game is some great
music, and the music isn’t great, it’s phenomenal – some of the best 8-bit
music you’ll ever hear in your life and easy candidate for ‘best soundtrack of
2014’.
 |
| - Catch her - |
Yes,
I’d say that Shovel Knight is a great game as it is rooted in the NES era and
the nostalgia surrounding it, but doesn’t use its aesthetic style as a crux, instead
marrying an old formula with sensible decisions and a
strong sense of creativity. The only reason you shouldn’t get it is if you have
some sense of disdain for the aesthetic, and prefer all your visuals top of the
crop – to which I’d reply by taking your ass and punting it in the direction of
the closest overused CG department.
All
in all, I’m saying all in all because that’s something I’m trying to make my
thing. Oh dear, I’ve said so many positive things, my teeth hurt.
No comments:
Post a Comment