This is a bummer review. I'm a huge fan of Yacht Club and Shovel Knight and my expectations were pretty high, but this doesn't meet those expectations - Lets talk about why!

UPDATE: A lot of the addressable issues mentioned here have since been fixed! There are real improvements here, and I'm going to make another pass at this and update this review. For now though, take complaints with a grain of salt because several have been fixed!

Compromises for Mobile

This game is also on phones. That's not really a problem and honestly, putting out quality stuff on phones that isn't just predatory gambling P2W trash ought to be celebrated, but it has created major problems for this title on other platforms.

First, The view port is too small. There are several enemies that can traverse a lot of vertical space in ways that feels unfair because of the restricted view port.

There are a lot of contextual actions in the game. You auto downspike against every diggable brick, and against every enemy. At worst, it means that you are 'forced' to dig through bricks you don't want to and even at it's best, it really cheapens the platforming experience.

Finally, the UI is too big. The nice UI from Shovel Knight is gone in favor of oversized information on top of the play space.

Design in Disagreement

There are several elements in this game that seem in contention with each other.

A lot of people rag on the insta-kill drill - I actually like this as a means to pressure the player to move - you have to really decide what you are going to spend your time on and it helps to keep a pace. What doesn't work here is when things that move up and down and block forward progress have painfully long cycles and you are forced to give up a ton of that time, or worse. When the player isn't setting the pace of decent, the flow of this game falls apart.

The platforming feels slow and clunky. The punch line here is that they are very close to the original Shovel Knight, but a combination of the vertical orientation and that scenarios are so much more dense makes for mechanics that don't feel like they are serving the scenarios well.

Not to belabor the whole 'also on phones' bit, but the platforming is just not that fun or expressive. It frequently feels tedious, and the view port can sometimes make it feel unfair, or like you are cheated.

In the game are these books you can step on that then snap shut. There is a tunnel you must descend by making them snap shut and then jumping into the space they create before it opens again. If you just walk off the edge, you still hit the book. Trying to thread that needle is miserable, and the first time I did it, I truly had no idea if you could even jump to it's side, or if there was some other solution maybe via contextual action that I missed. This was kind of the moment when I decided this game just isn't that great.

It's Not All Bad

The art is great, and the game has a lot of charm in it's animations and presentation - There is polish on display here. There are a ton of different scenarios in each level and they way they are stitched together generally makes it feel fresh every run. Most of the platforming challenges are pretty good (with some real stinkers here and there...).

Most of the bosses are generally fun and the idea of having multiple layouts per boss is pretty cool and makes the re-clears a lot more tolerable. The game clearly has some people who care behind it.

The Path to Salvation

Unfortunately, the game needs two distinct SKUs. That's really the long and short of it.

If I were to point to one thing that is just crushing this game right now, it's the view port. Closely behind it is the platforming mechanics which are just painfully slow and clunky. I understand why these decisions were made to make it manageable to release this both on Mobile and Everything Else, but it has come at too steep of a cost. It's enormously difficult (and expensive) to maintain two major versions of the same game, but I think that's what needs to happen here to really bring this to the heights of other Yacht Club entries.

There are a list of other strengths and problems to talk about, but I just don't think they are relevant until the very basics are fun. Moving and Digging and Whacking a dude with a Shovel needs to be so fun before we talk about power ups or meta progression, and we just aren't there yet.

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I wish the best for this game - I'll be eagerly awaiting updates, but I'm probably not coming back to it unless there are major changes to the PC/Console release.

I really loved the original Shovel Knight and was excited to jump back into this world once more. For the record, I'd say I'm only a slightly above average platform player but I was really shocked that I was able to beat the game in just 5 hours. Once I saw the credits I honestly didn't really feel the need to keep playing, which I guess should be fine for some. I think I was hoping for there to be more.

The odd thing about the game is that it starts off really difficult but once you have seen enough variations and figure out which of the handful of buffs that are the best for survivability then you will breeze through the game. I spent the first three hours just trying to beat the first boss but then once I got it, I literally was able to beat the whole game on the next run without ever seeing the areas or bosses before. I know there are still some things to collect or unlock but I definitely didn't feel like there was anything of significance left to see or experience. I guess it just feels very underwhelming having spent a lot of time with Rogue Legacy 2 which took me a solid 25 hours to beat. Still, the pixel art is great, so is the music but that's kind of it.

I love Shovel Knight, but I just can't recommend Shovel Knight Dig.

For a roguelite, none of the relics and boosts you find along the way seem all that impactful to the run, and the grind to unlock equally unuseful unlocks/relics etc just isn't fun. The difficulty varies wildly between stages and bosses, and runs are either super hard or super easy, seemingly up to RNG. Whether you got areas with lots of gems, whether the level came out in a way where you could get all the gears to get the bonus at the end of each stage, and if you had enough money to buy items found in secret rooms with vendors. Some of which you can find early in a run and not be able to afford anything.

The game feels rather amateur and short for the asking price. I finished the game and got the credits, but don't feel any drive to continue playing to try to get the secret ending, which feels a bit too luck based as well. I just watched them on YouTube and can tell you I do not feel like I'm missing out.

As far as roguelites go, this one not only never makes you feel rewarded, but never makes you feel like you're more powerful or making progress in any meaningful way other than how far you make it on a run. I honestly don't think I'd recommend this game at over $5, and it doesn't feel great to feel that way.

Is the game bad? No, not exactly. The issue is that it plays too linearly to be a replay-able roguelike and therefore is far too short. Achievements only really artificially inflate the playtime. I feel if this game wasn't a roguelike it would have been a better experience. The main issue with the game being so short, only taking me 3 hours to win a run, is that it costs as much as the original collection of 4 full sized campaigns. There's just nowhere near enough here to justify the price tag. If it was something like $10 dollars I'd say sure, pick it up, but for the current price, it's just not worth it.

Just beat the game for the first time. my experience has been mostly negative in ways that updates to this game will not be able to fix.

My issues with the game aren't about softlocks or glitches, though the game had plenty of those at launch, lemmie tell ya.

Nah, my issue with this game is that it's really, really boring. the game feels like going from level chunk to level chunk and once you learn the optimal path for each one you just repeat the same path as you encounter them. not really that engaging or choicemaking, nor does the game feel particularly random at all due to that.

the metaprogression generally shoves JUNK items into your item pool, and my file that beat the game has few unlocked (the Horn smatters bosses so i always wanted it). the boss battles aren't too bad but they aren't Yacht Club's best, either. just perfectly fine i guess.

interesting chain reactions/situations are a roguelike staple. for instance:
issac's upgrade combinations creating insane attacks.
noita's amazing alchemical disasters you get each run.
spelunky's twisting caves with rube goldberg moments

this game has basically none of those. there are a few but you generally avoid trying to make them activate as all of them hurt you or destroy items.

speaking of items the key./egg systems are annoying and luckbased and the relic system often leaves you accidentally picking up and dropping the same item multiple times by accident.

can't believe this game took so long to make and costs this much. i'm not a Dollar Per Hour guy at all. I prefer to let price indicate quality in construction generally. but also this game, whilst mostly just being annoying, doesn't take long to break open and beat. so it doesn't even manage to entertain in a I Wanna Be The Guy way, sadly.

if you want the pros of the game here they are:
good graphics
good music
good controls
a bit fun on occasion

game's a 3/10

Great visuals and sound. Good accessibility options. A lot of work clearly went into this game.

Little replay value. Most items are temporary and not very useful, and the few permanent upgrades it has are just armor and the ability to access more temporary and mostly undesirable upgrades. I feel no incentive to play again after beating it in a few short hours. This is after playing Rogue Legacy 2 for almost 200 hours.

I want to recommend this game, because I can feel all the love and effort that went into it. But at it's current price it's hard for me to recommend a 3 hour experience for 25 dollars, and with no post-game run modifiers there's no replay value outside of achievement hunting which just isn't my bag.

If you are a Yacht Club Games super fan and are looking for a very short, very linear, action platformer rogue-lite in the style of Shovel Knight then this is the game for you. If you're looking for something to sink your teeth into, this isn't going to be it.

The Good:
-Nice artwork
-Good music
-Responsive controls

The Bad:
-Not nearly enough content to justify the price tag
-A screen optimized for mobile devices makes this game feel too zoomed in, enemies will hit you from off-screen with little chance to react and the tiny viewing area limits level complexity
-Bosses are mostly a joke once you've fought them a couple times
-Unlockables felt uninspired and limited in scope and effect

Verdict:
Not worth it at full price, lacks content and complexity. This game rides hard on the artwork and soundtrack but what good are those with 10 hours max content in a roguelike.

Would not recommend at full price.

I got this one as a gift from a dear friend. I love the original Shovel Knight game quite a bit and the far more detailed sprites in this one really do bring something to the table in that regard. The idea isn't too bad either, a rogue-like dig down game with intense boss battles and a lot of exploration. The music has many classic tunes to boot, so I should be loving this, right?

Unfortunately there's issues with this game that just suck the fun out of the gameplay loop. Chief among these is the wonkiness of the hitboxes. You can still get hit by the spikes, the grinder machine, enemies, bosses and so on even when you're visibly clear of them. Bosses can also cheese you like MM1's Yellow Devil select spam+elec beam combo since their attacks will often ignore the invincibility frames.

The roguelike aspects of low health and challenge rooms also exacerbate the hitbox issues since even the red armor and 4 health upgrades melt like wet snow in the summer sun on Mercury. The things you encounter each run are pretty randomised and tend to end up in unfair combinations. Little fly monsters and shrink-mushrooms can be handled, but not if you get an unavoidable shroom after which the fly hits like a truck. 1hko all too often and that's just the first of the levels. Like spikes? Like burning ground? Love lava and trout? The bouncing shrooms can still do you in if you have to drop down between two mirrorred stacks (shrink, it helps a little) and they keep bouncing you even when you're clear of both until the grinder comes along.

Once you find the smith, you can unlock more armor variants, but finding the blueprints is a bother due to the RNG. Same goes for Horseman's relic keys and things as even a between sublevels gate showing a horseshoe does not guarantee a gate for his keys.

Since you can't permanently unlock health/mana upgrades and most armors are useless you'll waste so much time and effort just getting back to where you were and still fail.

Shovel Knight Dig does have fun banter between the hero and the myriad characters. That is one of the best parts. Though I do wish they'd have more than 2 dialogues for bosses. There's a ton of references to other games as well, as one boss starts off with a Super Mario Land style mini plane and another references Zoidberg's crest. Unfortunately the hitbox issues really bring down what would otherwise be fun battles.

Since this game's been out for almost 3 years now, I reckon the issues won't be fixed, which is a shame. Hence, I cannot recommend it.

Ultimately, as much as I love the art style, the music, and the story telling style of the Shovel Knight games, this one ultimately wasn't for me. While I do like rogue-lites, a lot of this one felt like starting from square 0 with little permanent "progression." Any upgrades to health, for example, are temporary to the run.

Alongside that, there were what felt like quite a few "gotchya" style moments. Example, I snagged a glass egg from a reward, and went into a side room. Proceed to talk to the NPC... who turns into a slime and damages me before I can react, breaking the glass egg. While that's obviously learned information for the next time encountering that room/NPC, it feels like a cheap shot, and not a good one in a "haha that's funny," kinda way. There were several other instances I encountered while playing the game and streaming for friends, which resulted in a couple instances of *them* saying "Wow, that was kinda BS," without any input from my end.

While I do hope this game, and Yachtclub in general, succeeds, I think it may have a narrower audience than the original Shovel Knight was able to reach.