Shovel Knight Triple Feature

I haven’t made much of a habit of posting about Shovel Knight here, because for all the elements it draws from Mega Man, it also draws many from other games as well, leaving me to wonder if it altogether is enough to qualify as “Mega Man-esque.” But between the amount of crossover the Ace of Spades has had with various other Mega Man-esque franchises and the generally good reception it seems to have around here, I figure now is as good a time as any to give it a go — particularly as three items have all dropped into my lap at about the same time!

First up is the trailer from Nintendo for Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment:

Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is available as free downloadable content to those who own the game, for $9.99 to those who are only interested in that particular content, or for $24.99 as part of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, which will feature all four Shovel Knight campaigns when it (and Specter of Torment itself) are released on March 3rd for Nintendo Switch.

For all other platforms, the new content will arrive in April. In the meantime, if you want to get in while the getting is good, the original Shovel Knight is on sale until March 2nd for 33 percent off on Nintendo 3DS (US, EU) , Wii U (US, EU), PlayStation 4 (US), PlayStation 3 (US), PlayStation Vita (US), and for PC/Mac/Linux through ShovelKnight.com, Steam, GOG.com, and Humble Store. Be advised that the entries for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita are not marked on sale, but the PlayStation 4 version is, and it supports Cross-Buy. Loophole!

Next up, Yacht Club Games has taken to using Polygon as their forum to talk about a feature long-promised from the days when Shovel Knight was but a Kickstarter campaign — Gender Swap Mode! Or, as it’s now known, Body Swap Mode!

Yacht Club Games has gone to impressive lengths with this mode, not only redesigning all the main characters to have variant forms, but even allowing you to toggle each character design and even their pronouns from a menu, so you can have just the experience you crave!

To see the rest of the new designs and see how they went about approaching this task, check out the piece they wrote for Polygon here.

Finally, Shovel Knight’s signature move is a jump in which he stabs downward with his Shovel Blade to damage foes and bounce off of them, not unlike Link in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Cranky Kong in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze… or a certain wealthy citizen of Duckburg who helped make the move an iconic one over the years.

With shared techniques and fabulous wealth between these two adventurers, perhaps it was only a matter of time before ScrewAttack decided to see who would win in a Death Battle.

Mind, I’ve not seen the following video yet, but I’m willing to bet that it’s Not Safe For Work:

And if you’re not interested in the fight itself, but would still like to partake of their Shovel Knight primer, then this video will probably be more your speed:

And that’s pretty much everything I’ve got that’s fresh at the moment. If you’re interested in more Shovel Knight, however, then check out the Yacht Club Games official site, where you’ll find plenty more, including neat stuff like an old school-styled instruction manual for Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, it’s not like I haven’t talked about Shovel Knight here before — just usually more in relation to Mega Man. Here are some highlights:

• Original Mega Man Composer Joins Production of Shovel Knight
• Gunvolt Strikes the Earth in Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 – Using the Shovel Knight amiibo figure, you can unlock a special boss fight between Gunvolt and Shovel Knight in the Nintendo 3DS game.
• Awesome Games Done Quick Does Mega Man – Mostly Mega Man and previously-acknowledged Mega Man-esque stuff, of course, but I threw in Shovel Knight, too.

LBD "Nytetrayn"

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.