Shovel Knight: King of Cards (2019)

After playing through Shovel of Hope, the original campaign in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (review pending), I've decided to go the chronological way of storytelling and go for King of Cards first. The King Knight's move set makes for an interesting change of approach through the levels, as much as it gets with every other playable characters.

The Justus card game was also quite a substantial addition to the SK gameplay, which appeals for those who enjoy the more strategic aspects of gameplay. I didn't feel hot for it myself but I finished the tournaments anyway.

The ending turned out as I expected, though it lacked satisfaction after dragging myself through the campaign levels. The characters were varied and had their own charms, so there was still an enjoyable factor along the journey and exploration, true to the Shovel Knight's neat standards. Next up: Specter of Torment!

I honestly didn't care for Shovel Knight's campaign that much, or Plague Knight's of what I played, so I wasn't expecting much for King of Cards. ... I especially wasn't expecting to really like it, lol. Nuanced movement mechanics plus a strategy card game? Heck yeah this game was great. ... I should probably play Specter of Torment.

I'll probably write out my more in-depth thoughts of this game soon.

Played a little more than an hour today. Four levels and the second boss. That's about as long as I can go in one sitting with most platformers.

I'm still liking the smaller levels. The designs are still nice and tight, though maybe they don't develop their ideas quite as thoroughly in a challenging late section since they're not very long. At least, not yet.

I liked some of the level design ideas introduced today, such as the long dragon-ish fellas that you bash to make them move into different positions. It's an interesting idea of getting to somewhat control the layout of the room with your main move. Encourages spatial awareness. It also supports the idea that King Knight will do anything and hurt anyone to get what he wants, including ramming repeatedly into innocent creatures.

Speaking of spatial awareness, I also really liked the Troupple King boss. Usually the Shovel Knight bosses can be beaten by just relentlessly attacking until they die. You don't even have to learn their patterns sometimes. But this one makes you be aware of your surroundings and take things a tad slower to survive. Or at least, I had to.

On the not-so-positive side, I'm just not sure how I feel about King Knight's movement and basic attack compared to the other playable characters. If I want to jump on an enemy, I want to just jump on him, not have to go smack my head against a wall first.

What makes King Knight able to kill things while he's spinning but not when he's just jumping? Why can't he spin whenever he wants? The other three characters' mechanics made sense with their MO and just physically made sense. King Knight... spins because he's trying to be fancy? Maybe thematically it sorta fits but it also just kinda seems like Yacht Club ran out of ideas.

That's probably not fair. Combo bouncing on enemies is still quite fun. It just hasn't been as instantly intuitive as Shovel and Specter Knight were.

More play and thoughts to come. Transistor is next on my backlog but I've decided not to boot up anything else until I finish this.