Yacht Club Games hosted a livestream in which they provided information on their upcoming Shovel Knight projects, including a new game.
Sean Velasco, director of Shovel Knight, opened the stream with a trailer on the upcoming Shovel Knight: King of Cards. Starring King Knight, players go on an epic journey to dethrone the kings of the land (and maybe play a few card games on the way). This game is the biggest project Yacht Club has ever worked on, and is complete! It’ll be a free update to those who own Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, and as a standalone game on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC/Mac/Linux when it launches in December 2019.
Next, Velasco showed off a new amiibo 3-pack containing Plague Knight, Specter Knight, and King Knight. Every game in the Shovel Knight saga, from the original Shovel of Hope to Shovel Knight Showdown, will feature amiibo support. Scanning an amiibo will unlock a new costume for its corresponding character. The three new amiibos will also unlock special challenges in their respective knight’s game. Finally, each amiibo can unlock a fairy companion to follow you in your journeys. More amiibo surprises were teased for the future.
After that, the competitive platform fighting game Shovel Knight Showdown took center stage. An enormous variety of features, characters, stages, and even minigames were shown off. By the looks of things, they really went all-out! The game will feature local-only multiplayer on all consoles and PC (as a Treasure Trove update or a standalone game), though it will not be available on 3DS and Vita. Mona the alchemist was also announced as a playable character. Over the coming months, Yacht Club will be revealing more characters, stages, and modes for the game leading up to its December release.
Upon Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove’s completion in December, the game will be returning to retail stores with new box art for its PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch skews.
Treasure Trove itself will also be getting some new features. Among the various additions are the option to use gender-neutral pronouns in Shovel of Hope, earning Shovel of Hope feats while playing co-op, Alchemy Quick Select in Plague of Shadows, five new challenges to test your mettle in Specter of Torment, three new language options (Korean, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese), accessibility options that have been expanded across all games, even more cheats, and, finally, once you have completed all the feats in a particular game, you will be awarded a corresponding medal on the title screen.
After all that news for the main game(s), there was still more to show. Shovel Knight: Dungeon Duels is a new board game set in the Shovel Knight universe, and is currently on Kickstarter. The title is a collaboration between Panda Cult and Yacht Club Games, and will feature a board game approximation of sidescrolling levels. You progress through a randomly generated level as you move forward, supports up to four players, and even comes with item cards. The game has been funded, but there are still lots of stretch goals to reach with only nine days left, so check it out if you’re interested.
Finally, the news came down that Yacht Club Games has partnered with Nitrome to reveal Shovel Knight Dig, a new game in the Shovel Knight universe. This time, you really put that shovel to good use as you dig deep into the earth. The game has been in-development for over a year so far, and it’s still got a ways to go, but the new art style already looks fantastic.
Shovel Knight Dig, King of Cards, Showdown, the Yacht Club-published Cyber Shadow will all have demos at PAX West this weekend. Dungeon Duels, the amiibo 3-pack, and the latest merchandise will also be in attendance.
That’s a whole lot of Shovel Knight, and somehow, there’s still more to come. Expect to see some news and impressions coming out of PAX West in the coming week, and more news on King of Cards and Showdown as their December release date approaches. Raise your shovels high, and prepare for another new adventure – or four!
