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Today should be a good day for you nostalgia lovers, because Shovel Knight has been released for Linux! Shovel Knight is a charming NES-Inspired platformer that was funded on Kickstarter and release for Windows back in June. The game has received a lot of critical praise; being described as a love letter to old school platformers. To celebrate I've bought a humble key (Includes DRM-Free and Steam key) to give one of our readers. If you want a shot read the instructions at the bottom of the article.

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The plot is a retro tale of rescuing a damsel, beating the bad guy (or girl in this case), and becoming a hero. And like a lot of love-letter games, expect to see a lot of enemies, weapons, and mechanics that seem familiar. At first glance the game takes a lot of inspiration from games such as Super Mario 3, Castlevania, and the Mega Man series. A lot of the graphical fidelity, effects, and level of detail looks more toward the SNES spectrum of visuals than NES, but I think it was a good decision since it's more pleasant to look at. However, the color pallet and design stay pretty true to the concept; lots of great contrasting colors and hidden secrets. The boss fights especially reminded me of the hours I put into the boss fights in the Megaman games. Speaking of which, this is also supposedly either very challenging or a bit too easy; there doesn't appear to be a consensus. Still, even if you blaze through the game, there appears to be a lot of upcoming free content updates including a challenge mode, new playable knights, gender swap, and a battle mode

If you're looking for an unbiased view, I'm probably not the person you want a review from. Everything about Shovel Knight fits to my taste: Beautiful pixel art, chiptune soundtrack, tight platforming, and charming characters. I've been beyond excited for the last 3 months, and I doubt that's going to ease up over the next day or so. However, while I'm as sold as possible, you can generally find praise of Shovel Knight on pretty much every big gaming news outlet, so as far as I'm concerned it's a pretty safe purchase. But you're probably more interested in that free key, right? We're almost there.

About (via Steam)

Shovel Knight is a sweeping classic action adventure game with awesome gameplay, memorable characters, and an 8-bit retro aesthetic. It's a hot mashup of new and old! You play as the eponymous Shovel Knight, a small knight with a huge quest. Shovel Knight has come to this land with two goals: to defeat the evil Enchantress and quest for his lost beloved. He wields a Shovel Blade: a multipurpose weapon whose techniques have now been lost to the ages. Always honest and helpful, Shovel Knight is a shining example of the code of Shovelry: Slash Mercilessly and Dig Tirelessly!

But, between Shovel Knight and his beloved stands a cadre of villainous knights. These terrible foes, known as The Order of No Quarter, have been dispatched to prevent Shovel Knight from reaching the Enchantress, and will pursue their mission at any cost. If you love games with perfect platforming, beautiful art, infectious music, crazy bosses, humor and levity, and real heart… Shovel Knight is for you!



You can pick up Shovel Knight on both Steam and Humble (DRM-Free build available!) Edit: Also, you can pick up the soundtrack at Bandcamp (Thanks, McCoy!)

Now about that free key! In the comments, I want to know why you think the developer and funders thought this era of gaming was worth revisiting. I want you to give one unique quality of NES/SNES games that made them so special, along with a game that you feel exemplifies it. I'll pick my favorite by tomorrow and send the winner a Shovel Knight Humble/Steam key.

Update: It's over! We got a lot of interesting answers, but I've gotta give it to Dibz; thanks to everyone for participating!


Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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19 comments

JIghtuse Oct 9, 2014
Still not available for Linux on Humble Bundle.
BTRE Oct 9, 2014
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  • Contributing Editor
Oh, I had been thinking of picking this up. Might wait until it's on sale because recent and upcoming releases have been tough on my wallet (the free key would be a nice solution :P).

What makes the NES era and games like Megaman (which Shovel Knight was clearly inspired by) special to me is the fact that devs had a lot less power and tools to work with and so had to find creative solutions to make their games stand out. It meant tight controls, creative sprites and, most importantly, beautiful music that still stands the test of time. Just look at all the remixes of NES music still being made to this day. The Castlevania games did a great job too but I have to state that Mega Man 2 just is timeless, musically. Nearly every video game fan I know can hum at least one of the songs - Wood Man, Metal Man, Crash Man, and especially Dr. Wily's 1st stage. To me, the fact that they managed to make such great music while working within a lot of hardware restrictions is simply mindblowing.
micmon Oct 9, 2014
Nice, they managed to finally release this during a time where I really can't care about any more new games anymore :(
Alzarath Oct 9, 2014
Shovel Knight looks great. I'd love to show support by purchasing it, but sadly I can't, so I'll resort to trying to win it here! Either way, hope whoever wins enjoys it.

That era of gaming seemed to thrive on clarity. The graphics were usually simple, but there was never a point I asked "Where am I?" or "Where do I go?". The controls were generally obvious, and the movement was responsive, often lacking weight and giving it that 'arcade' feeling. Because of that, you'd usually be able to tell whether you could make a jump or not.
Kallestofeles Oct 9, 2014
A unique quality that defined NES games for me... hmm. The simple graphics and difficulty.
Most of the games were so hard to beat that the act of actually beating a game was far more rewarding than beating most of the games nowadays. Yeah, I'm looking at you "Battletoads" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". :D

The simple graphics part that made them special was, as I see it, mostly due to platform limitations. Developers really had to think how to represent the objects they want with optimal gameplay integration... but we all know how that ended up most of the times.
lucifertdark Oct 9, 2014
Why did they choose that era? simple gameplay, back then the games had to be playable, fun, exciting, frustrating & rewarding without the flashy graphics we have now, as has been shown time & time again flashy graphics on their own do not a good game make.
DrMcCoy Oct 9, 2014
The great soundtrack is also available on Bandcamp: https://virt.bandcamp.com/album/shovel-knight-original-soundtrack

The best thing is that there's even a link to the NSF file, so the soundtrack could be played on an actual NES. Or an emulating player like Nosefart.
Hendrin Oct 9, 2014
Think they chose that era, simply because when you actually finished one of the games you felt a sense of accomplishment. These days, alot of the games are pretty simple to get through and there isn't a whole lot of difficulty to be had.
Osirez Oct 9, 2014
There's a certain amount of fun to be said for simplicity. The NES era defines that in my opinion.
tuxisagamer Oct 9, 2014
The NES represents a time when the emphasis was on the gameplay, fun, and story not graphics.

How many games released today will still be enjoyable 30 years later? People will still be playing NES games 30 years from now when they are 60 years old.

Nothing says fun like Crystalis. I have beat that game more times than I can count. At least 20 maybe 50 times. In fact it made me fall in love with Action RPG games.
Nasra Oct 9, 2014
8 bits and 16 bits era are graphicly a sort of esthetism nowadays. Hardware limitations for one era became sort of 80's style. I think Kung's Fury ( https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kungfury/kung-fury ) is expecting the same goal as long as low-fi was an artistic movement.

But we have also some nostalgia too of this era. The same games (like mario kart on snes) cannot compete with their successors (mario kart 64 or on gamecube).
Nasra Oct 9, 2014
But, almost, some gameplay ideas are always as good as they are in theses times. Games like zelda or castlevania still have great gameplays ideas and many of them are from these 80-90's era.
jun4rui Oct 9, 2014
我是一个中国人,所以英文不好,我来说一下:我觉得这个游戏能让你有回到old school的感觉,这种独特的味道已经很久不曾体会到了,而且它是一款非常优秀的游戏,感谢它。

I am a Chinese person, so English is not good, look at me: I think this game lets you have returned to old school feel, this unique flavor has been a long time did not come to understand, and it is a very good game, thanks to it.

By Google translate, Thanks!
dibz Oct 9, 2014
Why is the era worth revisiting?

Because many gamers from that era are at a point in their life where they are starting to have more free time to get back into gaming, and are finding that their preferences and wants just aren't the target audience any more for big game publishers. As a result of this Indie devs (and a handful of bigger publishers) are filling the void, making the games this resurging generation wants -- pick up and play games with generally simple mechanics, a decent challenge, but not necessarily casual.

I have an entire wall filled with new and old games, most of the new ones I've never even opened, and many of the big-name titles in my steam library remain unplayed. However, Duck Tales Remastered, VVVVVV, Megaman 9/10, Castle of Illusion w/ Mickey Mouse, smaller titles like Costume Quest, they tend to get a lot of play time and actually beaten. It's not that I don't like the new games, I just find myself not often in the mood for them at the end of the day when I'm tired and want to relax and unwind by myself for a bit.
kuwanger Oct 9, 2014
I think the one quality that NES era games especially had were they were just complex enough to provide an expansive world for one's imagination to settle in but limited enough in their ability to represent things that cartoonish and outlandish interpretations for the fun factor could be accepted by players without there being a dissonance on expectations. Basically, if the uncanny valley is a real thing that turns off players, I think NES era style games are the canny hill where one imagines more of whats out there in the sky than what one can ever hope to really see and be sure of.

And as an example, well, there's too many to really begin to name as great examples, but a good example of just how far-off the source material a game can be and still be fun and there not be a dissonance is Goonies 2.
WineBuG Oct 9, 2014
For me this era of gaming was all about huge CRT TVs in our living rooms. 8-bit and 16-bit games look so much better (worse?) on old-school screens with all their display limitations. And is there anything better than playing Super Mario Bros. on such a TV?

![](http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/3299199706158898007/05975C5F6C7006C8750F68C83C45A3066F8DA449/)
Guest Oct 9, 2014
I think NES-era games were deceptively simple. They worked within sometimes rigid constraints, but were able to keep pushing the envelope with software and hardware, noticeably so. It's interesting to see something like Super Mario Bros. next to a game like Super C, same console, but so different. (Sorry, I know that's 2 games, but it was for comparison's sake.)

The NES era is the first time leaps and bounds in creativity and engineering became noticeable to me in console games. It just kept getting better and better from there. Wanting to revisit that time definitely is worthwhile, to bring back those feelings of wonder. (If I'm picked, please make it DRM-free.)
Lachesis Oct 9, 2014
*old hipster voice*
Back then, developers couldn't rely on realism as much as they're doing now. And limitations bring creativity, you have to surpass them thanks to the universe you're creating, thanks to the gameplay you're offering. And all those games show us that 8 or 16 bits are enough to impress, share and create; there is something beautiful about minimalism.
That's why we've seen so many brilliant games, games that create a whole world from scratch (goold old rpgs : 7th saga, ffvi), games which design amaze you (Gradius III, the boss rush was astonishing, and when the music channges and you're a tiny spaceship against this big gracious spacesquid (how did they even think of that?), you felt like in another world), games with incredible mechanics (Actraiser), games with cool concept (E.V.O.)... In less than 2 MB.
And yes, those games were hard. Too hard sometimes (still need to finish R-Type), but nothing compares to a victory over a game that beat you hundred times.
And yet, after so many years, we still got something to learn from this era. For example, as a huge roguelike/roguelites fan, I just discovered Fushigi no Dungeon - Fuurai no Shiren. This game is incredible and I had never heard of it before.
What was really incredible back then was the ingenuity developers had. And there will always be a lesson to learn from this era.
beefsack Oct 10, 2014
Absolutely brilliant game, I'm having a blast playing it!
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