Shovel Knight has become something of an indie icon. This shovel wielding hero has appeared in countless other indie titles, won heaps of awards, and even gotten its own line of amiibo. Not to mention just being stellar games. Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon takes the blue armoured hero into a whole new genre whilst still retaining the charm and polished gameplay it's known for and does a spectacular job in the process.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is a unique take on the puzzle genre, mixing elements of roguelite, adventure, falling block puzzles, and dungeon crawlers. Joined by your guide puzzle knight, players will battle their way through 10 unique levels to escape from the Pocket Dungeon, a mysterious device that's trapped Shovel Knight along with his friend and foes.
Players take control of Shovel Knight or one of an additional 12 characters you can unlock, and move around an 8x8 grid. As enemies fall down the screen like in Tetris or Puyo Puyo you'll be bumping and bashing into new and familiar enemies to deal damage and clear the level, whilst making sure not to take too much damage yourself.
In addition, you collect gems you use to purchase relics, Pocket Dungeon power-ups, and increase your score. All this in a game with bright and colourful characters and environments throughout that are incredibly detailed and charming.
Pocket Dungeon shines in the amount of variety and intricacies of its gameplay. The real challenge and strategy come from chaining together enemies. When enemies are adjacent to each other, players can damage the whole chain whilst only attacking one enemy, letting you clear huge groups of enemies in a few hits. It also increases your gem metre, which nets you bigger rewards for quicker gameplay at the risk of being too aggressive and making mistakes.
Each of the characters completely changes how you approach the game, as they all have their own unique abilities. When playing Shield Knight, chaining enemies gives you a shield, letting you take more hits before losing health, or Specter Knight, who only recovers health from defeating enemies, making their playstyle more aggressive. It makes the game feel different in almost every aspect, and all the characters feel fun to play.
The same can be said for the items, which can range from simple increases in damage and health to more wild abilities like shooting a laser across the level or freezing enemies. Relics provide both permanent and temporary upgrades you unlock with your gems that feel balanced, providing noticeable effects and helpful abilities without being a copout, and still encourage you to learn, improve, and keep trying, which is quite easy given how fun the game is.
Plus, there are accessibility settings that let you adjust health, fall speed, damage and other settings that make the game much more accessible to any kind of player. Add to that great boss battles, enemy variety, secrets, and an awesome soundtrack, it all comes together into a stellar package with tons of replayability. If you fancy challenging your friend to some block-matching puzzle goodness, there is even a local VS mode that will get online support and rankings in a future update.
My main complaints with Pocket Dungeon are relatively small but still worth noting. For one, the game can be VERY short, taking around 30-60 minutes to complete, though that does depend a bit on luck and skill. Yes, it is a roguelike and has a lot of replay value, but it would have been nice to see a little bit more variety.
The same can be said for the Relics, as after only 20-30 minutes I had unlocked all the permanent options from the store, which meant nearly all my newly acquired gems were spent on colour palettes for my characters and not much else. I'm sure DLC will add more to the mix, but currently, it's a bit of a downer to have so many gems that feel a bit pointless and have no real use outside of each run.
Overall, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is another great showing for the shovel wielding hero, with challenging yet fun gameplay, plenty of variety, tonnes of replayability, and heaps of charm that all make for a stellar game. With three DLC packs planned to release in the future that will bring new content like characters, enemies, and items, it is only going to get better from here. If you are looking for a new take on falling block puzzle games, love Shovel Knight, or both, this is a game worth your time.
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