7. Shovel Knight (2014)

Let's Get Shoveling

I’ve never tried bouncing on a shovel but this game makes me want to give it a go. Shovel Knight is a 2D side-scrolling platformer in the Metroidvania genre with 8-bit graphics (which is a pretty nice change from just flat out pixel graphics). That shovel isn’t just good for bouncing on top of your enemies’ heads either, oh no; there’s plenty of treasure for you to dig up as well, and secret areas in each level to find with a handy salesman to buy secondary items from. Unusual for games of this nature, Shovel Knight also has a NG+ mode with higher difficulty and a limited number of checkpoints (although you keep any upgrades you earned the first time around). There’s also a nice old-school code/password system to unlock various cheats.

Old-school 8 bit graphics.

Is that Mr. Krabs?