Hot off its win of Best Indie of the Year at The Game Awards last night, Yacht Club Games has announced today at the Playstation Experience that Shovel Knight will be coming to the Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and PS Vita in 2015.
Shovel Knight is a classically styled action-adventure game with a retro 8-bit look, that was originally funded on Kickstarter and has been a huge success since release. Your character, the eponymous Shovel Knight has two quests - to defeat the evil Enchantress and to save his lost beloved. Wielding the Shovel Blade, he works to master the art of the multipurpose weapon that has been lost, battling his way through numerous foes.
The Order of No Quarter seeks to stop the Shovel Knight from reaching the evil Enchantress and know no limit to what they will do. These villainous knights have no respect for honor or kindness and will pursue their mission no matter what unless the Shovel Knight is able to defeat them. Jumping from platform to platforming, slicing and shoveling hit opponents up, Shovel Knight is a game that seeks to emulate older ones in style and art but to match it with the best of more modern sensibilities.
As when most games get a port, Shovel Knight is going to have some additions for these new platforms. Particularly Yacht Club Games seems to be aiming to make sure they take advantage of each device's inbuilt specific content. They are putting in cross-saving for the consoles and the Vita for those who have it on both devices. Twitch TV Integration will make streaming it on the PS4 easy and will probably increase the amount of Shovel Knight streams you'll see once it comes out once again. Back Touch implementation will help the Vita version operate better then it would otherwise. There is likely to be more in platform specific things as they seek to bring and highlight each platforms strengths.
There is one other big announcement they ad - and that is that in conjunction with Sony Santa Monica Kratos from God of War will be coming to Shovel Knight soon. He has an attack combo as one would expect, but what exactly he is doing here is still to be found out.
You can see a trailer from the Playstation Experience with Kratos' debut here below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll5grB6C9Bw
What do you think of Shovel Knight? Do you think that it is as good as many claim it is? Will it help usher in an era of more acceptance for retro styled graphics without people dismissing them?
