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.
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.
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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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).
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!
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.
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.
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.)
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.