Shovel Knight: King of Cards – Review (PC)

By Dustin Furman Last updated Dec 9, 2019

Yacht Club Games keeps on giving over and over again. Back in 2013, Yacht Club hit all of their Kickstarter stretch goals and promised to allow players to play the Shovel Knight campaign as new “Boss Knight” characters. These characters would have new abilities, but with minor differences to dialog and story. King Knight is the last of the three promised characters but, just as with the other two releases, this is much more than a simple character swap and goes far beyond what was originally promised in 2013.

King of Cards focuses on the dimwitted but lovable King Knight in his pursuit to become an actual king. A new card game called Joustus is the latest obsession across the land and along with it is a tournament to be crowned the King of Cards. King Knight must travel along defeating foes, meeting new friends, and playing cards, all while uncovering a more sinister plot behind the scenes. The story is cute and lighthearted with many hilarious goofs along the way, and it ties nicely into the greater Shovel Knight story.

King Knight’s main move is a shoulder tackle, much like the dash attack in the Warioland series. He quickly charges forward to attack or to traverse to the next platform. What sets King Knight apart is that once he successfully shoulder tackles an enemy or a wall, he twirls into the air and can attack enemies by bouncing on them, similar to Shovel Knight’s shovel drop attack. Getting a good flow between shoulder charges and twirl bounces is at the core of the gameplay, and it feels fluid and satisfying when you get it right.

Advertisements

Like the previous campaigns, levels are completely remixed to account for the new moveset. The main shakeup though is the pace. Levels are now much shorter and usually only contain one or two checkpoints. Don’t get the wrong idea, because, despite the shorter levels, there are more in total than any of the other campaigns. It’s purely preference, the shorter bite sized levels really improved the experience for us. It was easy to play “just one more” over and over.

Throughout the adventure, new characters will join the crew of your airship to aid you in your quest to become the King of Cards. These characters often can provide upgrades, such as a home-cooked meal from mom to increase your health, or a quick suit tune-up to add new abilities. New special moves are found in special levels scattered across the world map. These new abilities can sometimes be hard to discover. In order to get the path to the level that unlocks them, you must find the secret exit in certain levels. Fortunately, no special abilities are required to proceed and simply add more variations to your playstyle. I found the bubble ability to be the most helpful in difficult platforming situations.

One of the most interesting additions to King Knight’s adventure is the ability to play Joustus. It’s surprisingly in-depth, with numerous cards to collect and countless strategies around which to tailor your deck. Players must capture a majority of the crystals on the tabletop to win, but cards can only be pushed onto them and not placed upon them directly. Each card contains arrows to show what directions it can defend from being pushed. As each game progresses it becomes a strategic logic puzzle, requiring you to always think one step ahead of your opponent. Though it can seem a bit difficult to grasp what moves you can and can’t do at first, the game does a decent job at easing you into it with less difficult matches at the beginning. It can be stressful at first, as each time you lose, your opponent gets to take one of your cards off of the playing field.

Joustus continues to evolve throughout the campaign through new cards, evolved playing fields, and bosses with unique abilities. Just when you feel like you’ve got it mastered, a new small change is made to make you rethink how to play. If card games aren’t your thing, don’t worry since it is completely optional and you’re not required to play in order to beat the campaign.

Though this review is specifically for the King of Cards campaign, it’s important to note that this and the multiplayer component Shovel Knight: Showdown are the final additions to the Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove collection. So if you already own Treasure Trove (or bought Shovel Knight before the rebranded package at launch), this campaign will be added free of charge along with Showdown. King of Cards will also be released independently as its own release, but it is highly recommended to pick up the Treasure Trove collection if you haven’t already. Yacht Club Games have created one of the most insane values in gaming. For $24.99, the package includes four excellent campaigns and a full featured multiplayer mode. King of Cards is a delightful romp from start to finish, and is one of the best 2D platformers since… well, Shovel Knight! Yacht Club Games has once again created a character that somehow feels familiar to play, yet fresh. The world and characters are enchanting, and the entire package is endlessly charming. Joustus is a thoughtful card game that never feels forced and adds surprising depth to the overall package. Overall, it’s a must play for fans of 2D platformers and sets a very high bar for what a “modern retro” game should be.