Shovel Knight: King of Cards

Yacht Club Games continues to dig up gold with Shovel Knight: King of Cards, despite a momentum slowing card game.

Shovel Knight: King of Cards repeats some elements from previous entries, but it ultimately delivers one of the largest and more refined expansions in the series yet.

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.

This is likely the last we’ll see of the ‘core’ Shovel Knight series for some time, and King of Cards acts as a worthy swansong for a now-legendary platformer. Bravo.

It's also a strong way to put the Shovel Knight saga to bed, essentially bringing everything full-circle in such a way that it encourages players to go right back to the original Shovel Knight story. King of Cards is aces, in ways I never expected it to be.

Shovel Knight: King of Cards continues the series' route in bringing more and more exquisite expansions to the original game. A crowning achievement of the Shovel Knight series, this expansion adds some very original new levels, a welcome new character with new mechanics and the series' trademark art style and sound environment. King of Cards is the expansion that Shovel Knight could want the most and it's recommended without any reservation to all Nintendo Switch owners.

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.

Other than my quibbles about the plot and Joustus, I have no huge complaints about King of Cards. The closest I can get is that some of the final stages were truly difficult and frustrating, most especially one that has you constantly warping back and forth. This is a very well made game, and had it not released after Specter of Torment, easily would have been my favorite Shovel Knight game. As it is, I got 5 and a half hours out of it for a mere $9.99, and only saw 34% of what the game had to offer. I skipped a whole 13 stages and probably some truly epic optional bosses. You won’t lack for replay value either, with many difficult achievements that are a hallmark of the series. As a fan, I did very much enjoy my time with King of Cards, even if the ending was a bit disheartening. I’m glad I got to play each part of the Shovel Knight saga, and cannot wait to see what surprises are in store for Yacht Club Games in the future.

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

"You just activated my trap card."