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It takes all the best bits from the NES era of platformers and brings them into the modern age. It has the tight controls of the early Mega Man games but without the punishing difficulty level. Also, the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. The game arrived before the indie/Kickstarter boom happened and as such it thankfully got a lot of recognition. I'm not so sure it would have got as much praise and attention if it was released today. This isn't anything to do with its quality but more to do with the fact that the market is stupidly flooded now. If you grew up during the NES era you owe it to yourself to play this game.

Admitedly, the original Shovel Knight released 5 years ago when we hadn't been flooded with a million Indie platformers, but regardless it basically mixes the best aspects of Mega Man, Castlevania, Duck Tales, Zelda II and Mario 3 into one hugely polished game with top notch action gameplay, amazing audio, and lovely visuals. It's a retro throwback that ditches all the bad stuff from 80s/90s gaming and keeps the best bits. Here's a great video from the brilliant Mark Brown about what makes it so special: Also bear in mind if you buy Treasure Trove you get 4 games in 1.

  It's funny when you think how negative a lot of people were about it at first, speaking like it would never get going.  Personally, I genuinely loved it from the moment I turned it on, from the 3D thrills of Pilotwings to the luxury of an OOT remake.  Fire Emblem: Awakening and Animal Crossing: New Leaf were truly excellent, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was the perfect 2D platformer and Etrian Odyssey IV, V and Nexus have kept me occupied for hours and hours.  The 3DS accompanied me everywhere I went throughout much of the 2010s, and in my opinion, there's never been a better handheld.

Yup. I spent a good part of last weekend jumping between Luigi's Mansion, WarioWare Gold and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. 3 games, all offering something fun and unique. The handheld has a great amount of variety on it and I can see me sticking with the platform for a long while yet.  I love that it can also play DS games as well. It means I can jump back into that back catalogue of games quite easily if I  have a hankering to play something from that generation. Much like I done last year when I played through Chrono Trigger. At this point the Switch has pretty much been out for 2 years now and I can honestly say that in that time I have spent more time on my 3DS than I have my Switch.

Hey guys, would someone mind telling me what's so great about this game? I haven played it yet, and I'm always looking for good games. People seem to love this, but from what I've seen of it (which admittedly is not much) it doesn't seem all that special amongst the vast modern sea of Indie platformers. Would love to be told I'm wrong though.