Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon (Nintendo Switch)
I absolutely loved the original retro influenced 2D platform game shovel knight. I think I own it on four different consoles at this point, I have all the Amiibo figures, so I was always going to be all in on any new game in the franchise.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is spin off from the original in a completely different genre, a rogue lite puzzle game.
You play on a tile based grid with persistently falling blocks and enemies. Each time you move or attack, this pushes time forward continually filling the play area. You can attack the enemies to remove them but each time you attack an enemy they will also deal damage in return. Run out of health or fill the board and its game over!
Luckily there are plenty of HP potions to replenish your health and attacking a chain of connected enemies allows you to dispatch of hordes of monster only taking damage from the one adjacent to you.
It’s actually a lot harder to try and explain the rules of the game than it is to figure it out for yourself. I had absolutely no idea what this game was about on my first play but after a few somewhat confused runs, the mechanics started to click and it became intuitive in no time.
The main mode of the game is the adventure mode where you must conquer 10 levels of increasing difficulty to complete the game. Being a rogue-lite, when you die, you die. It’s back to the beginning, but some perks are permanently unlocked along the way.
On your journey you will encounter familiar boss battles. Defeating each boss will unlock them as a playable character, each having their own unique skill set, similar to the DLC on the original games allowed you to play as different bosses, and similarly each bosses skill set puts a new spin on how you will need to play to complete the game.
After each failed run you have the option to return to the over world, a fun area to take a breather, spend some of your hard earned in-game cash on unlockables and explore to find secret mini games and beloved character cameos.
In addition to the adventure mode there is competitive 2 player versus mode, and a daily challenge mode where you can register one run per day to the online leaderboard. There is also a regular leaderboard where you can check how your skills compare against friends and the rest of the world!
As you’d expect from an entry to the shovel knight series, the pixel art graphics look beautiful and chip tune themed soundtrack is amazing features remixes of many of the original games classics.
If you enjoy the world of Shovel Knight, this is absolutely worth checking out regardless of your interest in puzzle games, and similarly if you enjoy puzzle games but are a newcomer to the Shovel Knight universe, this is still a must have.
After around 10 hours of game play I have still only discovered 50% of the adventure mode unlockables, and even when I have fully completed it, there is the endless challenge of the other modes similar to the timeless puzzle classics like Tetris, so I think this is going to be one of those games that stays on the main menu of Switch home screen for some time to come!