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Shovel Knight is a new game coming out later this year for PC, Wii U, and 3DS. It's being headed up by Sean Velasco, who is responsible in part for Contra 4, the new A Boy and His Blob, and Double Dragon Neon. This guy knows retro games.

Shovel Knight looks like a perfect amalgam of Mega Man, Duck Tales, and Castlevania. It obeys the NES color pallet for that authentic 8-bit feel, but you can tell the NES may not have been able to push this.

Everything about this trailer screams awesomeness to me. The music is perfect, the graphics are gorgeous, and the gameplay looks incredibly fun, if tricky.

Sparklepop wrote on 03/25/2013 at 10:53pm

That actually looks pretty awesome. Love the "retro" feel to it!

Nick_Donahoo wrote on 03/25/2013 at 11:11pm

High hopes for this. Was a big fan of the old-school feel of Scott Pilgrim, and was utterly disappointed by Retro City Rampage. Hope this hits the nostalgia spots right.

Sparklepop wrote on 03/25/2013 at 11:45pm

I wanted the trailer again after showing it to a friend and just can't get over the fact that his weapon is a shovel. Did you happen to see anything on a release date?

Brandon_Waters wrote on 03/25/2013 at 11:45pm

I'm in if the price is right and the difficulty doesn't kill me. As I get older my tolerance for hard games is close to zero - that said I did awesome with Super Meat Boy. Off-topic: I am pleased to see your site on mobile is pleasant and useable!

Brandon_Waters wrote on 03/26/2013 at 12:56am

Watched the trailer again. I'm sold at $4.99!

Travis   Admin   Post Author wrote on 03/26/2013 at 12:58am

Brandon-- yeah mobile is a big deal, we (well, Jon) designed it so that mobile users didn't get shafted.

And I'm ok with really stupid-hard games as long as they're fair. I think Super Meat Boy is fair. It's one of the hardest games I've played, but you know it's your fault when you die in that game, and that you can work it out. And there's no better satisfaction than getting a level right after dying 50 times.

Brandon_Waters wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:02am

Exactly SMB taught me from my mistakes and it never cheesed me - when I died it was MY fault (mostly). SMB is the perfect example of how a game can be hard yet rewarding. It's actually an amazing example of how to slowly train players to be better at the game and learn it's mechanics (portal is another)

jdodson   Admin wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:36am

This game looks epic. I really like the Duck Tales feel of this one. No idea what the price point will settle at, but this looks to be a day one purchase for me.

@Brandon_Waters: Glad the site works well on your mobile device. Its been a design goal since day one and I am going to keep that going forward.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:38am

Also can't wait to dispense some justice in the form of a shovel. Such a strange and awesome concept.

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