A (Pocket) Dungeon-crawler for the ages! (Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon in brief review)

     Hey friends! I wish I could say that I'm writing about Lego Star Wars the Skywalker Saga today, but I'm out of town and I can't play it until I get back. I've heard from some friends that it's really good, and I'm certainly looking forward to playing it for myself, but for now, I'm just trying to kill the time by coming up with different things to do while I'm here. Fortunately I did bring my Switch and that allows me to kill some time with interesting games, some of which don't take very long at all to get into and just play a quick game or two. A game that immediately comes to mind fitting into that category is Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon. Anyone that knows me knows that I love Shovel Knight, it is most definitely my favorite indie game out there, and all of the different additions to the game through the free DLC added three more games onto what was already a very complete and fun package! Pocket Dungeon is an interesting spinoff of the little Kickstarter that could, adding characters from the world of Shovel Knight into a fun puzzle game that has a lot of fun replay value when you play as different characters. This will probably be a shorter post because this game itself is not incredibly long, especially once you get all of the upgrades from Chester, that certainly doesn't mean that there's not a lot to talk about though. Get your thinking caps on, because it's time for a puzzling spin-off to a beloved 2D platformer!

A rogue-like unlike any other!

    The subgenre of "rogue-like dungeon crawler" has been done to death in the last few years of indie games. Between the likes of Enter the Gungeon and Binding of Isaac to newer games like Hades, there's no sign of the craze slowing down anytime soon. That doesn't mean that there isn't room for new ideas, however. Pocket Dungeon has a wide variety of different characters as well as different items for each character that will power them up in some way. Some items are only able to be used for a short time, such as the spear that will attack two squares to your side instead of just the one, or the horn, which you can blow by pressing the A button to make some space for yourself and damage all of the enemies around you. Other items can be bought from Chester's shop on different floors and will give you certain perks on a more permanent basis until your run ends. Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself here, let me go back to the basics. If you've never played Pocket Dungeon, you control your character with the D-Pad and you attack enemies by tapping whichever direction the enemy is facing. All of the enemies, chests, and obstacles fall down from the top and it's your job to clear the screen enough to keep it going until the door appears at the end and allows you to leave that particular area. The difficulty comes in learning how all of the different characters work, as well as getting enough gems to get the upgrades which will allow you to get through the different stages much more easily. All of the characters have different quirks, advantages, and disadvantages. Shovel Knight himself is the most basic character to play, he does one damage to enemies, he has 5 health, and he collects potions to gain health. All of the other playable characters that you unlock later on are similar, though sometimes with different mechanics to them. Specter Knight, for example, plays just like Shovel Knight, except potions hurt him and he heals by killing enemies. Shield Knight gets one less health point, but when she gets a big chain, she can take an extra hit without taking damage. It's a cool system, and one that makes things worth playing through the game with all of the different characters, especially since runs can last only a few minutes if you don't get very far.

    The different power ups and upgrades can make or break your entire run, sometimes giving you more health, sometimes giving you an upgraded move, but my favorite combination to get would have to be the bonus damage on the First, Third, and Fifth hits. There's just a lot of potential for all of the different combinations of artifacts, and it's just fun to experiment and see what combinations work with what characters, especially when you find a really powerful build that lets you overcome what was previously a daunting challenge with ease. If you've played the original Shovel Knight, you're probably familiar with most of the playable characters in here, as well as side characters like Chester, but there are a few more characters here such as Puzzle Knight, Scrap Knight, and Prism Knight, who bring some interesting twists to the story, as well as the gameplay. You can't play as Puzzle Knight (I don't think, I haven't completed the full game with everyone or anything like that), but those other characters are all playable, and they're pretty interesting! Prism Knight is able to teleport, but with the more powers or gimmicks a character has, the more weaknesses there are. Teleportation is a cool perk when you're traversing a board, but it can be really complicated when the whole board is full with enemies and crystals already. I've only ever been able to beat the game with Shovel Knight, and a lot of the other characters still confuse me a lot if I'm perfectly honest.

    Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is a simply fantastic puzzle game, and one of my favorites that I've played in a long time. It's extremely addictive and with enough of the charm and humor of the original game that should please fans of the series as a whole. With this being Yacht Club's first spin off of the original game that they're known for, I can say with a lot of confidence that the Azure Knight still has a lot to show! I would be completely remiss to not mention Vine, who were the main developers of this game, but Yacht Club worked with them to make the game what it ended up being, which is, in my opinion, pretty great. I can't wait until Nitrome teams up with Yacht Club later this year to give us Shovel Knight Dig, another spin off, as well as Yacht Club's second major game due to come out next year, Mina the Hollower. Pocket Dungeon is a great buy, and especially considering the full price is $20 on the Nintendo Eshop, and it goes on sale sometimes, I would say it's worth a try for sure.

    Thanks so much for reading this shortened review, friends! I've been at the beach this week and while I've been here, I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this game that I've had basically since it came out. I don't really consider myself a huge fan of puzzle games like this, but this game is a lot of fun in spite of that. I hope you're all having a good week, and while I can't play Lego Star Wars yet because I'm still out of town, I hope you're all able to enjoy it! I can't wait. With that in mind friends, I'm Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed Pocket Dungeoneer, and I'll talk to you all again soon!