This garden-tool wielding hero is an unusual amiibo in more than a few ways. The titular character of Yacht Club Games’ debut release, Shovel Knight, he is on a quest to rescue the love of his life, Shield Knight, from the dreaded Tower of Fate and the evil Enchantress that has enslaved the land.
As for the game itself, it’s a retro-inspired release that takes cues from several classic NES games, including Duck Tales, Mega Man, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and Castlevania. While the game wears these inspirations on its sleeve, Shovel Knight is more than a ripoff, as players instantly grow to love this highly playable action platformer. Of course, the 8-bit visuals and audio only help to bring this game to life.
Yacht Club Games are one few developers to have licensed the amiibo technology from Nintendo themselves. Infact, they dealt with the entire design and production process for this figure, with some help from Nintendo in terms of ensuring that the finished product is of their high standards. As such, this is an amiibo that sets itself apart from others, even down to the types of bonuses you can get from scanning this figure.
The amiibo itself is certainly different in terms of looks. It’s purple base is striking, and with his mighty shovel at the ready, this Knight looks very awesome indeed. While you can tell that this wasn’t designed by Nintendo, this is still a great-looking amiibo.
While Shovel Knight currently only works with his own game, what can be unlocked goes far and beyond most of the amiibo range, with some brand new and exclusive modes unlockable using the master of Shovelry.
First up, is a brand new cooperative mode for the Wii U version, that allows two players to take on every level of the main game locally with a friend. While the difficulty is slightly adjusted to compensate for the increased number of players, it’s still the same excellent game as before, only even more enjoyable. You can jump on each others heads to reach high up ladders and platforms that can normally only be reached by jumping on particularl enemies, usually at the right time. Not only do you share a screen, but you also share gold – So don’t worry about spreading the wealth evenly, although you are ranked at the end of every level for the gold you collect, the times you are killed and the number of the enemies you defeat. However, this is just for fun..
Another unique amiibo feature is the Custom Knight mode, available on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Here, you can customise the appearance and abilities of your character, as you unlock and assign various relics, abilities, costumes and other practical and aesthetic customisation options. Earn more gold, and your Custom Knight will level up, unlocking one of these upgrades at random, up to a level cap of 50.
But what if you’ve already finished the main game? Well, using this amiibo will unlock some Challenge levels on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions, that’ll put your shovelry to the test, and allow you to master the relics and abilities you’ll earn from the Custom Knight mode. The Wii U version will even add some special co-op challenges that you can tackle with a friend.
These new modes make this amiibo a must have for fans of Shovel Knight, genuinely adding some great modes to an already awesome game, making this an essential amiibo to obtain – If you can.
That’s it for this very first amiibo showcase. I’d like to do more of these, especially as I have quite a few amiibo in my collection, so why not tell me what amiibo you’d like me to give the Showcase treatment to next?
If you liked this video, why not subscribe and take a look at all of my other videos. You can follow me on Twitter, Google +, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram, all under the username, PugHoofGaming.
Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to keep gaming positive.
