Review: Shovel Knight

Originally published on Pixelitis.net on June 26, 2014.

Playing Shovel Knight will result in you knowing more puns about digging than you’d ever wager.

Seriously, indie developer Yacht Club Games even has a town NPC dedicated to making as many puns about the titular game hero’s weapon of choice as possible. And yes, I chortled at almost every single one.

It’s been more than a year since that fateful reveal of the retro-styled action platformer on the eve of PAX East 2013. With Ex-Wayforward folks and composer Jake “virt” Kaufman working on it, it’s easy to understand the hype.

But like with every crowdfunded project, there ultimately comes the time when an indie developer has to start putting its money where its mouth is.

So dig deeper to find out if Shovel Knight really is the retro bombshell that everyone was hyping it up to be. Or is the game too grounded in the 8-bit days of yore?

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Review: Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures

Originally published on Pixelitis.net on Oct. 7, 2013.

News of a videogame adaptation of the Angry Video Game Nerd seemingly came out of nowhere back in April, but given the Nerd’s extensive repertoire and a feature film that’s currently in post-production, its recent release seems as ripe a time as any.

Developed by FreakZone Games and published by the folks at Screwattack, the game not only serves as an ode to classic 8 and 16-bit titles of yore, but works to remind fans both old and new of what “Nintendo hard” difficulty is like.

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