Shovel Knight: King of Cards is part platformer with neat jumping techniques and part Triple Triad-inspired puzzle game, making for a delightful IGP First Look.
King Knight is looking to make his fortune with cards, not realizing just how expensive it is to make a competitive deck in any card-based game. Still, it’s a fun journey to help them, as the game makes use of some sharp, complex platforming. King Knight can do a dash move that causes him to bounce off foes and do an adorable, fashionable pirouette. This move gives him some extra air, and should you land that pirouette on an enemy or breakable object, you’re able to do another dash in mid-air. If this dash hits, you pirouette again and the whole things loops as long as you’re landing on stuff.
This makes for some clever platforming situations, as the dash/pirouette chain requires a fair bit of thought and use of the environment. Bouncing off of objects, enemies, and breakable items is your main source of height and movement, with the results being a chain of complex moves that force you to really examine the space around you to figure out how to get through.
On top of this, there’s a card game where you need to place your cards on top of gems on top of a grid. You can’t just idly place them on the gem, though, but must use the arrows on your cards to bounce your card onto that space in the grid (and bounce foes out of it). It gets quite deep in a hurry despite the seeming simplicity of the rules, adding a compelling diversion that got its hooks in me quick. So basically, Shovel Knight: King of Cards is two solid games in one.
Shovel Knight: King of Cards is available now on the Nintendo Switch and Steam.