Shovel Knight is the very definition of an indie darling. Bursting onto the scene in 2014, Yacht Club Games’ slick, throwback platformer caught the imagination of gamers both old and new. Its stunning aesthetic, tight controls, and humorous writing made it a must-play, while its ample secrets, tough but never punishing difficulty, and cheat codes added that crucial replayability factor. The game seemed to hit all the right notes. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. A treasure trove followed – and what a haul it was.
Three campaigns starring three distinct and equally charming characters from the core cast, as well as a wonderful and woefully overlooked platform fighter. And that’s not even mentioning the amiibo line! If you don’t include Smash Bros. Ultimate fighters, only a handful of other companies' characters have been granted the honour of amiibo representation (Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, and Diablo, if you're wondering), and none that carry the prestige of a gold version. Each character is a thing of beauty in miniature, plastic form. We would’ve bought the whole Order of No Quarter if we could.
Two run-based spinoffs followed – the superbly manic puzzle game Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon and addictive platformer Shovel Knight Dig. Top this all off with DLC for both spinoffs incoming, the recent announcement of Shovel Knight Shovel of Hope DX — billed as the definitive version of the original — plus finally confirmation of a direct sequel taking Shovel Knight into an “entirely new dimension”. No one can refute fans of shovelry have been well and truly spoiled.
So, with Shovel Knight’s 10th anniversary here and year of celebration ahead of us, we can’t help but ponder the question – has the Hedge Farmer entered the pantheon of retro icons from which he spawned?
Rewind!
Yacht Club Games made no secret of the kind of game it wanted to make when launching the Kickstarter in 2013:
“Our serious and solemn goal is to make really awesome original games that fuse modern and retro sensibilities […] we want to give everyone the same collective types of game experiences that have defined our generation.”
Lofty ambitions. And Shovel Knight certainly isn’t shy about the gaming experiences it pulls from. From the smack-in-your-face obvious examples, such as its Super Mario Bros. 3 style map with enemy encounters, to the subtler nods – his anchor item operating almost identically to Simon Belmont’s axe, for example.
Though it’s clear Yacht Club Games wanted to make a game in a retro 8-bit style – the wording they used is very specific and very clever. “Fuse modern and retro." The devs set the rules. They planned to take what works from a menagerie of iconic games and mash them together, while giving themselves enough wiggle room to break the rules when it suited them. Many of these deviations are well documented: parallax scrolling, greater colour palettes. But the result of these side-steps is a game more convenient and accessible than its forebears, capturing that elusive quality that games of this ilk strive for – a perfect mix of convenient, modern game design wrapped in nostalgia. Shovel Knight looks, sounds, and runs better than the games we remember - but crucially is reflective of how we remember them.
Alchemy at its finest. Plague Knight would be proud.
Sharpen Thy Shovel
By this point it should be clear that we love this collection of games. But we’re not here just to spout off about that. We have a question to answer. And to do that we need to be a little more scientific. What we need to discover, ultimately, is what makes a retro star ‘iconic’? Well, dear reader, we think we’ve devised one simple question to answer this. Are they TRIM?
No, we're not talking about their weight. Our favourite portly plumber can attest to that. TRIM is our handy little acronym and a metric by which to measure retro icon status. There are plenty of retro gaming stars, both alive and thriving or dusty and forgotten, but we believe only those that fill each of the following criteria can be considered a true video gaming icon.
Time
How long has the character been in the public consciousness, and do they (and their games) hold up?
A stern test right off the bat in our icon metric, and a twofer at that. If we’re comparing Shovel Knight to those that his games seek to emulate, he is a relative pup. Some of the icons he borrowed from (and those that he didn’t) have 20+ years on the kid. Mario, Pac-Man, Sonic, Mega Man. All timeless characters whose games still stand up to this day. Well, most of them. The originals, at least. We don’t talk about Sonic 2006.
It would be unfair to suggest Shovel Knight requires a 30-year career to fulfil this criteria. We would say that a decade is a fair old time, and his presence has been pretty enduring throughout – from his steady stream of games released in this period to his cavalcade of cameos (something we will touch on a little more later).
Before its confirmation, speculation about a mainline sequel would do the rounds every so often – and whenever it did, the hype it generated was palpable. The fact that sequel rumours persisted even while Yacht Club Games were beavering away on their second titular hero, Mina The Hollower, is an indicator of Shovel Knight’s enduring success and popularity.
And do we really need to ask if his debut stands up? It's not every game that could get away with a DX version a mere ten years after launch. Whether or not this release is justified is a different matter (we have mixed feelings about it - but that's another article), what we do know is that we are always happy to return to The Valley because playing through Shovel Knight always feels special. It's a game that can stand shoulder to shoulder with modern indie releases, and some triple-As for that matter, without feeling creaky or archaic. It's stood the test of time.
Recognisability
Is the character instantly recognisable?
A slightly harder one to quantify, this. Though he certainly isn’t Pokémon levels of pop-culture-integrated, he is certainly a character that gets around. So much so that Yacht Club Games has an official list of his appearances – some of which are bonkers. Though his guise can vary wildly, from his doughy Fall Guys getup to the menacing figure he cuts in Blade Strangers, whenever Shovel Knight does pop up, it is impossible to mistake him for anyone else.
This is truly a testament to his design. It’s predominantly one big, bold colour, has striking features (who could miss those horns and, you know, his shovel) but most importantly - it’s simple. He consists of big, chunky shapes that you recognise a mile off and he’s simple enough to draw, no matter what age or how skilled you are. We spent hours on end drawing Mario and Sonic during the '90s console wars – we don’t doubt that there are fridges all across the world adorned with Shovel Knight scribblings.
Impact
What kind of impact did the character and their game(s) have on the gaming space?
Shovel Knight’s a big deal. From his modest origins as a product of six former WayForward employees, his Kickstarter success and explosion onto the gaming scene proved that a new way of funding games was not only viable, but could produce stunning results.
It paved the way for other indies to follow. And although some of those that followed have fallen short (*shakes fist* Mighty No. 9!), it demonstrated that a talented team could produce a winner in the gaming space through crowdfunding. Shovel Knight did that.
The team at Yacht Club Games has more than tripled since its inception and the company shows no sign of slowing down. Though we still didn’t get a release date for Mina in the update last week (boooo), the positive reaction to both that game and the recent news of a direct Shovel Knight sequel, plus the continued keen interest in Yacht Club Games itself, demonstrates just what an impact the Blue Burrower has had over the past decade.
Mascot
Would the character be suitable as a mascot?
Maybe the broadest of the questions, this. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to argue that Samus isn’t necessarily a Nintendo ‘mascot’ in the truest sense of the word, but she is (arguably) a mascot for the entire Metroidvania genre - and is therefore iconic.
That’s academic, though, because Shovel Knight certainly is Yacht Club Games' mascot. And in the same sense as Samus, he stands for something greater than just his game or the company that birthed him: he is a symbol for the indie gaming scene as a whole. A mascot for collaborative work. A mascot for the power of striking out on your own. A mascot for more things than we can mas-tot up.
Oof. That’s as bad as one of Croaker’s jokes.
Justice in Spades
So, is Shovel Knight TRIM? We certainly think so. He is a timeless, recognisable, impactful mascot for Yacht Club Games, and a titan of the indie gaming space. Shovel Knight is still the gold standard for retro reimagining done right and has more than earned the right to stand shoulder to shoulder with the assemblage of gaming greats as a true, blue, retro icon.
But what do you think? Is Shovel Knight a retro icon or is there still work to do for him to obtain that honorific? Maybe King Knight deserves it more? Not a bad thought, that. We’ll work on an acronym for ‘DANDY’ and in the meantime cast your vote and sound off in the comments below!
Comments 85
Not to me, but I’m sure some may view him as a retro icon.
I would say yes. Him, and the overall game in general, has been a massive influence.
There’s a rule in journalism that all headlines posed as questions can be answered with a resound “No!” and that holds up here.
One of those if you have to even ask or argue then the answer is probably no.
It's an indie icon. It's not retro simply because it's games aren't actually old and the bit art style is just that, a style. In some years, it will become "retro".
I don’t want him to be “retro” yet because then I’ll feel old and I don’t want to feel old in my early 20s.
Are 10 year old games retro?
NES JP 1983, NA 1985, EU 1986
SNES JP 1990, NA 1991, EU 1992
N64 JP/NA 1996, EU 1997
Gamecube JP/NA 2001, EU 2002
Well, maybe (around) 10 years were enough to make the NES retro.
But in 2024 - I don't think so.
Shovel Knight is not retro, but neo retro.
And he was that already in 2014.
His first game was an homage to retro games. How can it ever be something else?
"This content was sponsored by Yacht Club Games" 😂
Would prefer it if you guys are bit more transparent on this though. (Even though I love Shovel Knight and Mina the Hollower!)
If I make a film today set in the 80s the main character doesn't become an 80s icon.
Like stranger things isn't an 80s classic it's 80s nostalgia.
Gaming icon? Absolutely yes.
Retro? Depends on your definition of "retro" as discussed in the first related article at the start of this month, for me it's a yes.
@MH4 Best of luck to you. I’m at the age where my original retro favorites influenced more of my retro favorites.
Its a 10 year old game... that alone makes this a clear cut case - shovel knight isn't retro
Indie games icon? Yes. Retro games icon? Well... Retro is something old, so... No, I guess...
Someday I will finish King of Cards... Sigh
@Matl I mean, that all depends on what gaming generation you’re talking about because NES games were less than 10 years old by the time the PlayStation one and Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn came out, but they were very much retro.
It’s too bad the Internet has decided that the word retro nowadays means “it’s old to me” instead of it’s formal definition of reflecting a former or older style, because then Shovel Knight would be considered THE retro gaming icon without equal.
But that’s okay, we can continue to call the NES ‘retro’ while the NES Classic Edition is redundantly ‘retro-style’ or worse, ‘neo-retro’. Why not ruin an extremely useful word at the beginning of a new century..
quickly searching the term something becomes "retro" after roughly 15-20 years, if these are legitimate sources
but its interesting to think about, a lot of us think back to 80/90s era for whats retro. soon in 2 years the 3ds can arguably be called retro
Shovel Knight is an icon, but not a retro one.
SK's first game is only a decade old, and was released on multiple platforms, many of which are still currently supported.
Iconic, yes.
Retro, no.
Whatever he is, he is definitely an indie icon.
I always thought it would be cool if they pulled a "Metroid" and had Shovel Knight take off the helmet at the end of one game to reveal it's a woman.
It's hard for me to think of the GameCube as "retro", but it's more fitting than a ten year old indie game.
Obviously, Shovel Knight is iconic. That's not the same thing.
@Kraven I absolutely adore it. I’d count him up there with some of the other gaming greats.
@Overzeal headline: Does 2+2=4? The answer may surprise you…
It’s a fair point - but surely that would be the case with any option piece, no? What counts him out for you?
@roy130390 ah but how many years? The game did come out on now obsolete hardware.
@MH4 😂 with til you’re nearly 40 mate - everything I like is retro
@Lofoten the leaps in gaming are less nowadays, but I’d say things have moved on since its release?
I guess the question is - is neo-retro now retro in the same way post modern is retro when compared to post post modern.
@Banks
It assumes that the headline isn’t a math problem.
The game is an homage to actual “retro” games, so IMO paying respects by modernizing something retro isn’t retro.
Look at a 10 year old child and tell me they are old enough to be considered retro.
@NielsNL not so my friend! I pitched it because I love my man shovel knight and wanted to write something with the anniversary coming up.
@Roibeard64 true - but ten years after the show wraps would it be a retro show?
@JohnnyMind me too! We often seem to agree Johnny 😅
@AdolBannings-Laylee oh man. This cut me deep.
@Matl what’s the period of time that qualifies it as such for you? Not sniping - genuinely curious.
Is Shovel Knight an icon? Probably, just because they've marketed the game to oblivion. Dozens of appearances in other games, merchandise out the wazoo, there was a period where you couldn't get away from this guy if you were into indie games. It's all the more remarkable because if you remove the shovel, it's just a completely generic medieval character with a slightly unusual color.
There's the old phrase "familiarity breeds contempt". I acknowledge that Shovel Knight remains a fantastic game, one that I enjoyed immensely at the time, but I have had enough.
@Vyacheslav333 you don’t think it’s a retro game at this point? I think if someone who was into games said to me now that they were getting in to shovel knight I’d think - that’s a blast from the past.
King of cards is ace. Drew up plans to make a working deck but tragically never followed through!
@AdolBannings-Laylee this. Leaps in gaming are smaller these days but there have been leaps - and the game originated on an obsolete console.
@NinChocolate oh I like this - but many since have emulated shovel knight - and if they’re emulating him and he’s ten years old, then surely that makes him retro as they’re copying an older fashion. Even if he’s copying an older fashion.
I think that makes sense.
@boxyguy that’s true. it’s unsupported now - so probably could fall into that bracket. And shovel knight launched on the 3ds, so if anything that lends more to the argument!
@LadyCharlie ah - but his launch platform isn’t supported! You can get nes games on your switch but they originate on a retro console. I’m curious - at what point do you think he’d cross the threshold? Maybe if his new game has a new art style? Or is 3D?
@HammerGalladeBro 💯
No. Shovel knight isn’t old enough yet. I would say once the character is 15 years old though that would be retro.
@Rainbowfire excellent.
Also you’ve provided an opportunity to post ‘Y can’t Metroid crawl’, for which I’m always thankful.
@HexagonSun I think that’s because the leaps aren’t the same as snes to GameCube, for example. The same console generation gap as wii to switch. The changes aren’t quite so drastic, so I think we clock the passage of time a little differently.
@Overzeal that fair. Hypothetical for you - if the upcoming game happens to be 3D or a drastically different art style - would that change things?
@GarlicGuzzler in the context of them being ‘babies’ - yes.
@Zebetite wow - that’s interesting! I certainly get that, I’ve hit the wall with Pokémon a few times over the years. Do you think you’ll come back for the sequel? Or Mina the hollower?
@Ryu_Niiyama interesting take this - by the same token though, would you have considered Mario 3 not to have been retro by the time mario sunshine came around? That’s an even smaller gap.!
@Banks
If still say no, not because I’m a hater or anything. Shovel Knight was and still is a leader in the indie revolution. A movement focused on doing things that are “new”
I think so. Definitely an iconic character spanning multiple titles. I think anything originally released on X360, Wii U, PS3, or 3DS is considered retro at this point. And if not a retro icon now, he will be soon. The first game is a 10/10 for me. Great characters, visuals, music, and gameplay. Always reminded me of a modern Mega Man, but a little more forgiving and joyous.
I enjoyed playing Shovel Knight but the more interesting question would be "is Shovel Knight a sell-out at this point?"
Goodness no just because they have been beating it to death for a decade over what is one game , let there be a dynasty of games and another decade or so and maybe the we can talk
@Overzeal you mean new by giving us metroidvanias and zelda likes until we drown in them?
@Banks Well, not really. I even cannot call Nintendo 3DS/2DS as a "retro console".
Yeah. I would like to collect all cards, but... I don't like grind.
He's only an icon because they have taken basically every promo that's come their way lol.
No.
But Shovel Knight is still amazing.
@ParadoxFawkes
Exactly. Though SK is one of the few good ones. Most games “inspired” by shovel knight are ugly as sin and worse than actual retro games.
He's definitely an indie icon, but no, not a retro one. The length of time people have been making pixel art games just because they want to is getting closer to the length of time they did it that way because there was no other option. I think it might end up that using a pixel art style rather than a drawn or 3D rendered one is seen as no more retro than making a piece of art with paint rather than a drawing tablet.
@Banks In that case, I apologize for making the suggestion! Shovel Knight definitely deserves the spotlight this month.
@Banks the Mario franchise was started in 1983 (I will separate him from Jumpman) so by 2002 yes the character/franchise of mario would have certainly been retro. Mario 3 came out in 88 so a 14 year gap (to sunshine in 2002) is close enough as well.
Also console gens overlapped much more in the past as the tech improved so quickly and was able to keep a somewhat baseline cost (the mainstream systems tried to be in the 200 or less range. So not including NeoGeo or the jaguar). Before I became a university student at 17, I lived through the NES,SNES,N64and gamecube. Compare the next 17 years and it was only Wii, WiiU and switch. (Not including other consoles for simplicity) So I could see how the sense of retro is different. (To clarify I still consider 15 to be the optimal age but it’s easier to reflect anecdotally if i use personal milestones. Hence 17 years).
But a character/franchise imo should be about 15 years old to give it time to overlap several generations, especially if some of that overlap are formative years. Which is why my mom in her 70’s can talk to me in my 30’s about mario and I can talk to users here who are younger than me about mario.
You keep using this word. I don't think you know what it means.
Considering the age range of those who would scribble Mario and Sonic compared to shovel knight, I doubt there are stray 30-50 year olds passionate enough about Shovel Knight around, unless you made it your job or massive hobby to draw in general.
I had the game on PS3 and I don't know, I just didn't see quite why it had such an impact... I thought it was OK, but just didn't hold my interest even as someone who grew up with video games from the Atari 2600 onwards.
nah.... boring collage type character.
More like Shovel Hype.
@Banks Generally, 15 to 20 years. In my mind "retro" typically means something that was made with different design sensibilities and a substantially large gap in technical development - so consoles and games dating around the wii, xbox 360 and ps3 era are almost unanimously "retro". Whilst systems such as the 3ds and wii u are obsolete, I would not consider anything released around that time as "retro" because they still feel like modern systems and games. I don't think anyone in their right mind would call mario kart 8 or smash wii u retro, you know?
@AdolBannings-Laylee That's true; at the time it would be a clear cut decision to describe NES games as retro because of the vast amount of change between then and the early 3D games that were current at this time. It mostly depends on the factors outside of a pure "is it X years old" when it comes to describing "retro", because the jump from NES to PS1 compared to, say, Wii U to today is literally on opposite ends of the spectrum - the jump varies so drastically despite being of around the same span of time, as has always been the case with technology as a whole - its diminishing returns, it is already reaching a point where new games are indistinguishable to the naked eye from games of the last generation of consoles.
@Samalik I agree with your point when I was in grade school in then90s we all used to draw sonic and Mario levels in our notebooks, I wonder how many current grade school students are planing out their own fan shovel knight levels in there notebooks.
@Banks Personally I comsider something retro after 20 years, which is enough for a baby to turn into an adult. Otherwise it just doesn't feel old enough to be considered that. That's just my perception though.
Shovel Knight is an interesting case. I feel like it was novel at the time, but has since lost some of its luster. Ironically it feels more dated than some of the games it pays homage to by being a throwback that is itself lost in the time from which it originated!
Solid 7/10 but not as interesting as indie games that came after. It’s certainly no Cave Story
Not a retro icon, but a MODERN retro icon for sure.
It's like calling 'Fortnite' retro.
The word 'Retro' has lost all meaning in the gaming culture.
It was originally meant for something nostalgic that came out 20 or 30 years ago.
The Gamecube fits this title, but Shovel Knight does not.
In another 10 years he will finally earn that title.
Shovel Knight is an icon, and for me one of my favorite new characters in the last 25 years. His games, as well as all of his cameos have cemented his place in history.
I think I would call him a neo-retro icon.
Shovel Knight came out in 2014, that's not retro....
I think that 'retro' can be interpreted a lot of different ways. I think that once a lot of people have nostalgia for a game, it's close to, if not already, worthy of being called 'retro'. There's definitely a lot of nostalgia for Shovel Knight out there.
Shovel Knight uses a lot of elements from retro games, and it has the 8-Bit art style. The game may be a reletively young, but I think that these things definitely make a difference.
Overall, between the way the game plays, looks, and the nostalgia people hold for it, Shovel Knight can rightfully considered 'retro'.
@Banks Shovel Knight is absolutely a retro creation and has been since it’s conception. But because the origins and original meaning of the word ‘retro’ have been lost in internet discourse, there’s no longer any accuracy. Retro is now synonymous with nostalgia. The nuance is dead
One the one hand you can argue that Shovel Knight isn't retro, because it isn't that old.
On the other, you could argue that it always was. Even on the day it launched, it was evoking the style of an earlier period.
The word gets used both ways, so it's probably best to deal with that rather than attempt to gatekeep one way or the other.
Shovel Knight is more of a “Retro-Rebirth” icon. He wasn’t around during the 8-bit era, but did help usher in its renaissance.
@Matt_Barber whats funny is that all the gatekeeping here has revolved around it’s single usage of meaning ‘old enough’. Because it’s improperly used there’s an inherent inaccuracy to it that causes different feelings. ‘Shovel knight isn’t retro because he isn’t distant enough’. ‘Shovel Knight is retro because it’s hit a decade’. So much for using it both ways because it can’t even be understood in its evolved popular definition. But this is the internet and the more disagreement we can add to any word, the better and freer the internet feels, I guess
I am a retro icon
Gaming icon,yes, RETRO gaming icon, no.
He's like a psuedo retro icon much like his games are psuedo retro. He will always be overshadowed by the real retro icons the games have been inspired by.
But, life is far too short to think about stuff like this lol. Which I guess means he's not iconic. If he was, we wouldn't have to discuss it.
I'll apply my rule that it needs to be at least 2 console generations ago for me personally to consider something in gaming retro. Being that SK debuted during the Wii U/3DS era, he does not qualify. But he's getting close!!
Retro is subjective. Very subjective. I feel like when something has reached an eon in gaming, like 20 years, then we're really talking longevity. To me SK hasn't done nearly enough, but in another 10 years I could see myself changing my tune.
I agree with the article one hundred percent about the TRIM thing. But I say no not old enough yet. Put it to you simply. Are the original platforms he’s come out on retro? Some are dead like the vita yes but no one is calling the ps4 retro are they? Give it 10 years and yeah he’s a retro icon. For now he’s a gaming icon.
He's an icon, no doubt. Not retro yet tho. Another 5 or 10 years, I don't know which, will have to see how I feel at the time. Safe to say, retro = subjective.
I had a lot of fun with this game, then stopped most of the way through, then came back to it later, had more fun, but couldn't get past the boss rush. Was frustrating to get stuck so near the end. May have to give it another go one day.
TBH, I feels he is a bit forced upon us.... did play the game a bit, but didn't feel that special... and then the releventless commercialization like they are nintendo... a bit of a fake i con
Obviously not. He is certainly recognisable, but has fallen fairly flat in recent years. None of his games outside of the main series have been that popular. Plus, he's modern indie, not classic retro. A great game, a great character, but not a retro icon.
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