⚓ Shovel Knight Poster UK — Shovel Justice Wall Art

Yacht Club Games · 2014 · Shovel Knight · Shield Knight · Plague of Shadows — confirmed at 98types from £3

Shovel Knight is the finest tribute to the NES era of gaming ever made — a 2D platformer that captures the visual language, mechanical precision and difficulty curve of 1980s Nintendo games while adding the design sophistication of a 2014 development team who understood why those games worked and how to extend them. Developed by Yacht Club Games and released in June 2014, Shovel Knight received 90/100 on Metacritic, sold over 3.5 million copies, and generated three free expansion campaigns (Plague of Shadows, Spectre of Torment, King of Cards) that together form one of the finest expansion programmes in indie gaming. The Shovel Knight poster at 98types is a confirmed individual product on 260gsm museum-grade archival matte paper. From £3, buy 3 get 1 free, same-day dispatch from Market Hall, Camden Lock Place, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8AL.

⚓ The Game — NES Design Philosophy in 2014

Shovel Knight is a linear action platformer in the tradition of DuckTales, Mega Man and Castlevania II on the NES. Shovel Knight, a knight whose weapon of choice is a shovel used as both digging tool and pogo-stick-style attack platform, seeks to rescue his partner Shield Knight from the Tower of Fate and defeat the Enchantress who has taken it over. His quest leads him through eight areas, each controlled by one of the Order of No Quarter and each featuring a distinct visual and mechanical theme.

The game's design sophistication is in its understanding of why NES games worked rather than simply how they looked. The controls are tight and immediately responsive. The level design places hazards where they teach the player how to avoid them. The boss fights are readable and fair. The checkpoint system (bashing a bag of gold to create a checkpoint, or letting the bag fill to take the gold but lose the checkpoint) is the most elegant checkpoint design in any indie game. The visual palette is authentic to the NES's technical limitations without being limited by them.

The Expansion Campaigns

Plague of Shadows: Stars Plague Knight, the alchemist member of the Order of No Quarter, in a completely different run through the same levels using bomb-based movement mechanics. The narrative reveals Plague Knight's relationship with his assistant Mona. Received 88/100 on Metacritic.

Spectre of Torment: Stars Spectre Knight, the ghostly leader of the Order, in a prequel to the main game using scythe-based movement. Received 89/100 on Metacritic.

King of Cards: Stars King Knight in his own story, adding a card game (Joustus) as a secondary mechanic. The most mechanically ambitious of the three expansions.

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