Shovel Knight took the gaming community by storm, influencing a new wave of indie game developers with its charming style and satisfying gameplay experience. After four years of development, Yatch Club Games is back with their first collaboration with Nitrome, revealing a whole new adventure for the titular Shovel Knight. Fans now have the chance to dive back into the game’s famed procedurally generated world in Shovel Knight Dig.
Shovel Knight Dig seems to stay true to what made Shovel Knight so special with a whole new story. When Drill Knight and his dastardly digging crew blast apart Shovel Knight’s peaceful campsite and steal his loot, he grabs his trusty Shovel Blade and starts tunneling after them! Shovel Knight Dig focuses on shoveling down with the game-play mechanic Shovel Drop. Players will descend into the earth with “all-new Speed Shovel mechanics”, growing in power, wealth and unlocking new permanent items and upgrades to Shovel Knight’s equipment.
The few glimpses of game-play we see in the reveal trailer shows a wide range of colorful enemies, weapons, and pixel-perfect jumps that call back to the original game. While the initial footage was quite short, it seems that the developers put their all into making this new adventure filled with their signature fun. In a blog post alongside the game’s announcement, Yacht Club Games shared more details about its upcoming game as well as two returning characters that are likely to have some significance in this sequel.
Not much is known about how Tinker Knight and Mole Knight will operate gameplay-wise if they even are playable. Tinker Knight seems less like a playable character and more of an NPC to go to for upgrades. Mole Knight on the other hand, with their reputation as a “burrowing specialist”, seems to be hinted at having some sort of combat role. Their appearance is quite different from their boss’s design in the first game, swapping out their fiery red armor with a cool blue hue, similar to Shovel Knight.
While its release date is drawing closer, fans will have the chance to get hands-on experience with its upcoming demo at Pax West 2022. Shovel Knight Dig’s demo will be at Seattle Oregon’s PAX West from September 2nd to September 5th alongside demos for Mina the Hollower and Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon. Pax West is right around the corner, so its safe to say that more information about the game will be revealed before its release.
Shovel Knight Dig releases on Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Apple Arcade on September 25, 2022.