Shovel Knight: King of Cards Reviews

King of Cards is another excellent addition to the Shovel Knight saga - an exciting and grand finale for the series.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch code provided by the publisher. Shovel Knight: King of Cards is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS. It is free for anyone who owns the core Shovel Knight game on any of those platforms, but it is also available as part of Shovel Knigh: Treasure Trove, available for $39.99. The game is rated E.

King of Cards has reinforced that age-old saying of not judging a shiny knight by his armor, even a Joustus Judge. Years of development, five total games, and countless hours of work shine through every pixel. Yacht Club Games has taken what could have been a palette swap far beyond what anyone imagined. King of Cards may be a narrative prequel to Shovel Knight, but it is truly a sequel in every way. Yacht Club Games has raised the bar for what Kickstarter stretch goals mean to their communities and the video game industry at large. King of Cards is the crowning achievement in the long and rich history of Shovel Knight. The decadent dandy proves to have more beneath that gold exterior than I ever thought could be possible. I haven’t been this happy to be proven wrong in a long time.

Back in 2014, a team of plucky video-game enthusiasts banded together to pitch Shovel Knight to Kickstarter. Little did Yacht Club know at the time of the meteoric rise to fame that they would soon be swept up in. What started as a retro-inspired homage soon grew into a treasure trove of content that continued to impress, with its latest campaign, King of Cards proving to be the biggest one yet. King of Cards casts you as the eponymous King Knight who sets out on his journey to create his own kingdom, and play a few rounds of Joustus in the process. Shovel Knight: King of Cards is a fitting send-off for Shovel Knight, serving up a conclusion fit for a king, or even a knight that is just pretending to be one.

This is a historic moment for Shovel Knight: half a decade later, I can recommend picking up anything and everything Shovel Knight related, which is easy to do with the Treasure Trove compilation. Yacht Club Games has a lot to be proud of and has accomplished a lot in their short run, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Okay, it’s final thoughts time. King of Cards was seemingly stuck in development hell for a while. The delays kept piling up, and this again resulted in a situation where some players might have their expectations for a free expansion to a now five-year old game so high that that no developer would be able to fulfill them. Despite the eternally long wait, Yacht Club Games has brought us an expansion that took an already classic game I’ve played the crap out of and cranked it up yet anothe...

It’s my least favourite of the Shovel Knight entries, but with the bar raised so high, that doesn’t mean that King of Cards isn’t worth your time. Plus, if you already own Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove you get it included in that for free anyway, so you may as well give it a go. I feel like Shovel Knight: King of Cards is going to be like Marmite: some will love it and others will hate it. Though “hate” might be too strong a word. Rather they just won’t be as enamoured with it as other Shovel Knight releases.

This final expansion title for Shovel Knight features new levels, music, and so much more that it feels like a full game. Better yet, this title exhibits the same excellent platforming and tight gameplay that you would expect from a Yacht Club Games title. King of Cards is no doubt one of the best platformers to release this year.

Shovel Knight is a brand that has taken the world by storm since its successful Kickstarter and several released spin-offs that make up the eventual Treasure Tr

Shovel Knight: King of Cards, like previous entries in the Shovel Knight series, is a blast. This is hands down the most ambitious and largest Shovel Knight game yet, with more levels, more dialogue, branching paths, and a completely new and cleverly used style of play centered around King Knight’s unique abilities. Not all of that ambition pays off, especially when it comes to its intrusive Joustus card game, which slows down the momentum of the game – and while it’s not mandatory, it felt like I would be missing out on a huge chunk of content by not participating in it. Nonetheless, King of Cards still wraps up this first era of Shovel Knight with style and flair befitting of a king (knight).

It’s been more than five years since Shovel Knight first premiered on Steam, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS. Over the course of this entire generation, Yacht Club Games has gone above and beyond in fulfilling its Kickstarter goals, creating a series of inventive platformers that will almost assuredly stand the test of time. What were once mere bonus campaigns with alternate playable characters have turned into full-blown adventures that expand the game’s world in surprising ways. This week marks the release of this journey’s last chapter, SHOVEL KNIGHT: KING OF CARDS. While star King Knight is mostly a comedic character, the developers have meticulously crafted another excellent exploit for the “crown jewel” of the Order of No Quarter.

Yacht Club Games has delivered once again in the latest expansion for Shovel Knight thanks to exciting gameplay and level design that proves Shovel Knight: King of Cards was well worth the wait.

King of Cards is the most ambitious Shovel Knight game to date, but it's not quite the best.