Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

[Sarge]

Yep, Shovel Knight is legit amazing.

I think the difference between it and a lot of other retro-style games is that there was a lot of thought and care put into it. It was very deliberate, and they even (mostly) stuck to the NES color palette. They intentionally cut frames of animation if they looked too "advanced" for the hardware. They didn't go so far as to include the sprite flicker or slowdown, but other than that, it shows a deft hand with art design while working within the chosen limitations.

And really, that's what it comes down to. Pixel art can be "easier", but differentiating from the pack is going to come down to how strong your artistic design skills are. You can mask a lack of skill, but only to a degree.

I mean, we throw around "retro", but of course this encompassed many games of varying quality back in the day. Many NES games looked absolutely awful. And it wasn't because of the pixels, it was because the art just wasn't very good, or cohesive, or any other metric you can think of that encapsulates "bad" art.

[ElkinFencer10]

Pixel art can be "easier", but differentiating from the pack is going to come down to how strong your artistic design skills are. You can mask a lack of skill, but only to a degree.

I think that's part of my problem with the style. So few games really make "work" that it ends up feeling like it's less an intentional artistic choice and more just taking the easy/cheap way out with development.

[Exhuminator]

Yep, Shovel Knight is legit amazing.

I hope so, because I'm starting it up tonight.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Yep, Shovel Knight is legit amazing.

I hope so, because I'm starting it up tonight.

I don't know if it's "amazing," but I had a lot of fun with it. It is certainly charming and well-designed, however.

[Sarge]

Well, just keep in mind I love my top-shelf NES platformers, so I'm going to likely grade it very highly. It compares very well to the best of the NES in my mind.

[ElkinFencer10]

Shovel Knight is great, but I will say that it doesn't live up to the Internet's hype. It's one of those games where it's been SO overhyped that nothing could possibly live up to that.

[Sarge]

I guess it depends on who you ask, but I find almost nothing lives up to Internet hype. Even my beloved Chrono Trigger. I already have a sort of internal calibration that fits a game on its proper place in the scale, so I'm mostly immune to getting "hyped", as it were.

But Shovel Knight definitely blew my personal expectations out of the water. I was expecting passable-to-good, not top-tier NES-level stuff.

[Exhuminator]

Is Plague Knight's campaign as good as Shovel Knight's?

[Gunstar Green]

Is Plague Knight's campaign as good as Shovel Knight's?

It's unique. It's the same levels but playing the character is so radically different. It's definitely worth trying and it's free so why not? It's worlds better than most games' paid DLC.

[noiseredux]

Is Plague Knight's campaign as good as Shovel Knight's?

It's unique. It's the same levels but playing the character is so radically different. It's definitely worth trying and it's free so why not?

I loved Shovel Knight, but didn't care for the way Plague Knight played.