Shovel Knight is a Cheerful Ghost fan favorite indie game that keeps getting better with each update. The final King of Cards update is coming and before that ... the Shovel Knight board game? Looks like Yacht Club is partnering with Panda Cult Games to release an all new Shovel Knight board game that is heavily inspired by the video game. There are two Kickstarter funding options at $40 for the game with cardboard stand-ups and the $70 version with the full 3D plastic figure prints. What's included in box is pretty impressive at both price points and there is a cool stretch goal at 80k to have the bosses be playable characters. The game is on the way to get funded and I like how simple the backing levels and stretch goals are.

If you want more Shovel Knight and want the most analog way available to play, this is it.

"It is time to sharpen thy shovel once again! Shovel Knight makes his auspicious return to Kickstarter in Shovel Knight: Dungeon Duels! Based on the hugely successful crowdfunded video game and made in close cooperation with Yacht Club Games, Shovel Knight: Dungeon Duels is a competitive side-scrolling dungeon crawler for 1-4 players. Players compete as different colored Shovel Knights to shovel out justice in spades against the evil Order of No Quarter all while trying to grab the most treasure to prove that they are the one true Shovel Knight!"

LGR is one of the many YouTubers I subscribe to that makes a fun mix of old hardware review videos and video game reviews. It's become one of the coolest channels I watch and I don't share a lot of it because it's not all video game related. That said, I think i'm going to start sharing more of them as Cheerful Ghost is a pretty retro friendly community and I think we all love looking back on crazy old hardware like Zip-drives and Tandy computers.

In one of LGR's more recent reviews he takes a peek back at Empire Earth, a classic RTS game that feels at home with Age of Empires and Rise of Nations.

"Review and retrospective on the RTS game Empire Earth from 2001! Half a million years of human history (and possible future) is covered in this PC gaming classic from Rick Goodman, designer of Age of Empires."

A few days ago I wrote about iD Software releasing the original Doom, Doom 2 and Doom 3 on mobile, Switch, XBox 360 and Playstation 4 during this years Quakecon. Some of the games launched with a few issues that Bethesda has fixed(like requiring you to create a Bethesda.net account) but how do these ports run on modern systems and stack up to the originals? Digital Foundry are some of the best reviewers around and run all the new ports through the paces in this video that's a must watch if you are considering playing these classic games again.

Nintendo is adding two new classic NES titles to it's Nintendo Online service this month called Kung-Fu Heroes & Vice: Project Doom. These are really unique games to add to the service as they are not top tier NES games but help fill in the Nintendo Online collection to be more than just a library of greatest hits. I'm excited to get these added to the service because as someone that hasn't played either, this seems like a great way to jump in.

Greetings, Adventurers and thank you for reading the inaugural edition of The State of the Wyvern. The State of the Wyvern is a periodical that will drop every few weeks that snapshots the state of Tale of the White Wyvern, highlight certain games and player rankings as well as talk about recent changes to the games and our plans. We're also open to hearing what you think about the game as it moves through time so feel free to chip in your thoughts.

Current Player Leaderboards

Tale of the White Wyvern has a few in-game places where you can see how players are currently ranked. The first is the current player rankings you can view by (L)ist Players -> (S)ee all adventurers in this realm. This leaderboard lists all the players and ranks them by experience and level. The current top five players at the time I write this are Tiberius, Maverick, Bina Marie, Rather Dashing and Golok. The second in-game leaderboard I want to highlight is the Player VS Player leaderboards you can find at (S)lay other players -> (P)layer VS Player Leaderboards. The top five PvP players at the time of writing this are Tiberius with 18 kills, Rather Dashing, Friday and Caz tied for 10 and Maverick with 9!

PvP Leaderboard screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/9iEJ8Mt.png

Currently Tiberius seems to lead the pack, will this change between now and the next State of the Wyvern? Only Tarbreth knows for sure.

Thoughts on Wyvern Launch

First thanks for checking out the game at launch, it's fun to have a party people show up for and enjoy! Secondly we found a few bugs at launch so thanks for reporting those. If you see anything that seems out of place or something you think might be a bug, feel free to reach out. You can private message me or Travis on Cheerful Ghost or any other platform that makes sense for you. I recommend privately messaging us because some bugs could potentially enable others to gain an advantage we didn't intend so consider what kind of issue you found and how to best report it to us (publicly in a comment vs privately).

Player VS Player Clarification & Changes

One thing that surprised me at launch was how much people embraced PvP at launch. For me, it wasn't something I thought would be as popular but from your actions at launch, the first couple days were a murder festival. I love that's how the game started for people and as the game has progressed it seems to have evened out a bit but still remains a huge focus for many of you. That said, I want to clarify how these mechanics work and talk about some changes we've made to make the game be fair to everyone.

If there is any part of the game that isn't immediately obvious to everyone how it works we will clarify it in the in-game instructions. You can find the Instructions in each Tale of the White Wyvern game menu. We recently update the Instructions to clarify how PvP works but i'll put it here too for easy reference.

How PvP Works

Each day you get a certain amount of Player VS Player fights, and you can choose to fight others in the Fields or Inn. The rules for PvP are as follows:

* You can only attack players your level or higher.
* You can only attack players that are not currently playing the game.

If you leave the game, people can find you and attack you in the Fields. If you want some basic protection, rent a room at the Inn. Renting a room at the Inn room provides you with the following protections:

* Players have to pay to call you out in the Inn. This currently costs LEVEL * 1,600 Gold.
* Players staying in the Inn are granted first strike in the fight.

PvP Changes Since Launch

The old rules allowed a player to attack someone one level below them or higher. This meant that a level 5 could attack a level 4 player. We are changing this because with stat boosts at higher levels there are few cases where a lower level player could win. Players can now only attack players at their current level or higher.

Wyvern Changelog

Moving forward any in-game changes will be wrapped up in the State of the Wyvern posts and added to our running in-game changelog. A changelog is a list of updates to a game that make it easy for you to understand what has happened since game launch and you can find it here on the site through the game menu though (W)yvern Credits & Changelog -> (V)iew development changelog. Again, we will update this changelog alongside our in-game changes and will message these out during the State of the Wyvern updates.

https://thewhitewyvern.com/game/1/changelog

The Future of Tale of the White Wyvern

It seems we've built a game that the Cheerful Ghost community enjoys and we plan on supporting it for quite some time. Our immediate plans are to fix up a few in-game systems and build a longer term roadmap where we add awesome new stuff to the game. Once this is more formalized we'll let you know what we're thinking and for the time being we're really interested in hearing from you. What did you think of the launch and the current state of the game and is there anything you'd love to see added?

As always thanks for reading this and i'll see you all in-game!

Also, make sure that the Original Hype Campaign is still in effect and you can partake in it to earn some awesome in-game rewards for free! The Original Hype Campaign ends in October so act now!

https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/4166/the-original-hype-launch-campaign-get-your-free-wyvern-dlc

I know this is already "aged news" but Quakecon is something fun I watch every year and wanted to share this news drop with y'all.

Apologies, I've been busy with the Tale of the White Wyvern and haven't had a whole lot of extra time to write as much as I'd like.

That all said, if you are a first person shooter fan or just a fan of iD Software and Bethesda you need to clickity clack that play button and let the entirely of the Quakecon keynote envelop your eye holes.

Noteworthy Things

* The Rage 2 free update train is still rolling and out now. If you thought Rage 2 was easy apparently they added a new mode that should make you cry tears of pain.
* Doom, Doom 2 and Doom 3 launched on iOS, Android and Switch! Apparently they required you to be online but because of a fan outcry this is going to change if it hasn't already.
* Doom Eternal is still coming and looks like more of the same Doom 2016 you love with more crazy run and jump mechanics that makes me thing they are leaning into it being a kind-of jump platformer. It also features a cool multiplayer mode where you can play as the Doom Slayer or Demons that looks much more strategic than I thought it would be.

Anything stand out to your that I missed? You interested in playing anything coming out? I really want to play Wolfenstein Youngblood but I'm pretty singly focused on Tale of the White Wyvern at the moment.

The Outer Worlds is the upcoming Fallout-like RPG by Obsidian Entertainment and was recently announced as coming to the Switch! This is great news if you want to play The Outer Worlds on the go but Obsidian hasn't said when the game is launching on the Switch only that it would come after the initial launch.

Are you planning on picking up The Outer Worlds and if so does the Switch port change how you might play it?

"Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the furthest edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later than you expected only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the Halcyon colony.

As you explore the furthest reaches of space and encounter a host of factions all vying for power, who you decide to become will determine the fate of everyone in Halcyon. In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable."

Right now until August 2nd you can get Moonlighter and This War of Mine free on Epic Games Store on PC. Both games have reviewed very well on Steam and are well worth picking up for the incredible price of free.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/collection/free-game-collection

Moonlighter:

"During an archeological excavation – a set of Gates were discovered. People quickly realized that these ancient passages lead to different realms and dimensions. Rynoka, a small commercial village, was found near the excavation site – providing brave and reckless adventurers with treasures beyond measure.

Moonlighter is an Action RPG with rogue-lite elements that demonstrates two sides of the coin – revealing everyday routines of Will, an adventurous shopkeeper that secretly dreams of becoming a hero."

http://moonlighterthegame.com

This War of Mine:

"In This War Of Mine you do not play as an elite soldier, rather a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city; struggling with lack of food, medicine and constant danger from snipers and hostile scavengers. The game provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle."

http://www.thiswarofmine.com/

Anodyne is a 2D Zelda-like that released back in 2013 right at the top of the Indie game craze. After launch it became a Cheerful Ghost favorite and I don't think any game has come out since that has taken a run at the Zelda-like in quite the same way. After Even the Ocean the developers decided to head back to create Anodyne 2: Return to Dust which merges the Playstation & Nintendo 64 era 3D with the original 2D graphics of the original Anodyne. It looks to be the perfect follow up and now will be launching August of 2019 on Mac and PC on Steam.

"Nano Dust infects the islanders of New Theland, distorting their emotions and desires. You play as Nova, a Nano Cleaner who must explore the island, seeking out the sick and shrinking inside their bodies to suction up the Dust.

Anodyne 2: Return to Dust combines the thrilling scale and cinematic storytelling of 3D games with the tight design and easy-to-pick-up satisfaction of 2D Zelda-like adventures. With art that re-imagines the PS1 and N64 era, explore 3D cities, valleys, and wastelands then shrink into the varied 2D mindscapes of characters, from snowy, aurora-lit valleys to perilous volcanic construction sites!"

https://store.steampowered.com/app/877810/Anodyne_2_Return_to_Dust/

Summer Games Done Quick 2019 was a great event this year and I'm sticking to my tradition of keeping a list of my favorite speedruns and sharing them with you all. I'll just be posting one more after this so stay tuned.

Super Mario Bros. 2 by coolkid in 23:21 Coolkid had two awesome runs this year and this one was a highlight. I'll share his Mega Man 2 run later as it's one of the first GDQ runs that doesn't feature any zips. That said, this Super Mario 2 run is quite incredible at 23 minutes and Coolkid makes it look effortless.

Half-Minute Hero by dowolf in 23:32 I watched the Half-Minute Hero run the first morning of SGDQ with my family for breakfast. My wife said that the game was so fast you have to have ADD to make sense of it. By it's nature Half-Minute Hero is a game played in thirty second loops and is also made faster by dowolf's expertise. It's a fun run and considering it's played on a PlaystationTV quite novel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC5R61Avbrc

The Legend of Zelda Randomizer by JamEvil and fcoughlin in 53:26 I love randomizer races and this was the first time I've seen one for the original Legend of Zelda. It's a great race by JamEvil and fcoughlin and one of my most anticipated and I wasn't let down. It's quite the nail biter all the way to the end and both player came very close to each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgtaVj7Icj0

Super Mario World Blind Relay Race by One Tile Men and Lunar Magicians in 54:00 A new Kaizo Mario game was made specifically for SGDQ and run blind by two teams One Tile Men and Lunar Magicians. Both teams are flush with the most talented Mario players such as Barbarian, LaserBelch, PangaeaPanga, Dode, grandpoobear, juzcook, GlitchCat7 and NobleTOFU and watching them in action was one of the coolest Speedrun things I've ever seen. A total must watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yARetgEZnEM

Gauntlet by digshake and Eunos in 16:12 I really enjoy arcade Gauntlet and have played the NES version a handful of times. The NES version isn't easy but I didn't think too much about it as a kid. Speedrunners digshake and Eunos make quick work of it but even say that you shouldn't play it casually as it's fairly impossible to do so. According to them the most fun to be had on Gauntlet is to learn the speedrunning strats and play it that way and if the run is an indicator, it looks like that's true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOkzKt3ak5E

Castlevania (DOS) by LoZCardsfan23 in 15:59 Castlevania is one of the most classic games on the NES and one that is run at darn near each GDQ. This year they ran Castlevania DOS, a version I didn't know existed for one of the most unique runs of the summer. A few things to keep in mind, Castlevania DOS only runs at 6 FPS and if there are too many things on the screen gets quite buggy. That said LoZCardsfan23 does a good job running it and has an interesting couch to back him up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYmofDD5G5U