I have had the recent joy of experiencing Shovel Knight for the first time. Unlike everyone else who played the game already, I didn’t have to wait years between new content. I got it all in one shot. Knowing how good it is, waiting must have been brutal! Well here I am now catching up on 2015’s stellar original platformer from Yacht Club Games with not only the original game but all of the additional content they’ve been adding over the years to the “Treasure Trove” edition. The latest of these editions is King of Cards starring King Knight and Showdown which is a fighting party game similar to Super Smash Bros that I reviewed separately.
This time around King of Cards puts us in control of the ever-confident King Knight who’s looking to seize a new opportunity to become a king. A new card game called Joustus has swept through the kingdom and everyone is playing. Rumor is that anyone who can defeat the three Joustus Judges will be crowned the King of Cards. King Knight embarks on this new quest with an infectious, optimistic fervor. This energy must be contagious because throughout the adventure King Knight manages to recruit quite the entourage to join him on his flying ship.
King of Cards is separated into two major play types, platforming levels where the goal is to collect treasure and make it to the end of the level and an actual card game that involves laying cards that push other cards around the board.
The spin jump after the shoulder bash feels as familiar as Shovel Knights jump while holding down.
King Knight’s major ability is a shoulder bash that dashes him forward into an attack. If the attack lands or hits a wall (depending on the surface) he will leap up into a spinning jump that acts similarly to Shovel Knight when he points his shovel down. This small change is different in execution but feels familiar. King Knight also collects his own unique set of tools to use to clear his path through the land. The level layout is phenomenal, often forcing me to rethink how to use King Knight’s moves. It is immensely satisfying to discover and pull off the right combo to move past a screen. Secrets are hidden everywhere too and they’re fun to discover.
The Joustus card game is a major addition to the Shovel Knight universe. The game involves laying down cards with arrows on them indicating which direction they can push other cards on the board. The goal is to have a card you laid to be on more gems than your opponent when the game comes to an end. Unable to lay a card directly onto a gem, the game is 100% about pushing cards around the board. You can push both your and your opponent’s cards. Different cards have different directions they can push and many cards allow you to choose from multiple directions. You can’t push against an arrow pointing against you already, and you can’t push cards in a row that is full. It’s a fun and challenging strategy game but like many strategy games facing the computer, it can be frustrating due to the seemingly all-knowing nature of the opponent.
Yacht Club Games maintain their reputation visually with stellar sprites and even better level design. Screens feel like a combination of dexterity challenge and solving the puzzle of how to use King Knight’s abilities to get through it. There are also fun tool challenge levels that you have to try to clear without the use of the shoulder bash and only using that new tool. The clues to defeat everything is within the level design itself and relies on your ability to observe what is happening around you. For example, sometimes you’ll notice after defeating an enemy that you needed them to reach a secret area. It’s a testament to the good visual design that nothing is hidden but you have to put the pieces given to you together.
It is no surprise that the sound effects of King of Cards add a lot of satisfaction to basically every action. This is true of the entire Treasure Trove collection. Whether it is making a selection in a menu or using an attack or jumping, there is a sound associated with it that helps sell the action. What is really impressive is the audio mixing with the also fantastic soundtrack; these action sounds don’t get lost among each other. Sound design feels deliberate in King of Cards.
Yacht Club proves yet again with King of Cards that they are masters of their craft, lovingly creating games that boldly mix genres and head in directions you’d never guess a traditional platformer would go. The card game mixes things up nicely, creating breaks of challenging card-based strategy in between action platforming. Giving players control of another character from the Shovel Knight cast is fun. Giving that character unique tools and move sets, while also keeping things familiar, is a tough balancing act to pull off and King of Cards does that in spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds. So so so many diamonds. . .
More information about Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove can be found on the official website. A digital Steam copy of the game was provided for the purpose of review.
For a look at a couple of games that also excel in what they do check out my review of Disco Elysium which just won awards for Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, Best Narrative, and Best RPG at The Game Awards or my review of Untitled Goose Game which won me over with its charming visuals and slapstick inspired gameplay!
