YMMV / Shovel Knight

• Adorkable:
  • The eponymous Shovel Knight. Small, brightly-colored, incredibly dedicated to knightly speech and behavior, and loves him some bad puns.
  • Plague Knight's interactions with Mona once their feelings become more overt. If you try to dance in front of her after learning how to from the Troupple King, he does Shy Finger-Twiddling instead. After beating the second set of stages, Mona, looking for an excuse to get their hands together, tries to get Plague to help her with a "stuck" lever, and he's only capable of moving towards her a few steps at a time (punctuated by the two notes that play each time he moves).
  • Mona. During the end of Specter of Torment, he and Mona are seen tearing down their lab to set it up below town for Plague of Shadows. A chain they're both tugging on gets loose and pulls him up to her eye level, faces barely inches from one another, looking each other in the eyes. Both of their reactions are to immediately turn away from each other and shyly fidget. In Plague of Shadows, Plague Knight unexpectedly drops in on Mona after the first set of stages, and finds out that she likes to turn on some tunes and dance the day away when she's alone. In her flustered state after being found out, she admits that she does this all the time.
  • Surprisingly, Specter Knight has his moments too. Despite his edgy demeanor, he plays ball with the Memmec (along with petting it, but not before looking around to see if anyone is watching), attempts to look imposing with his "Cold Shoulder" stance, and, in King of Cards, says Joustus is a game for children... and follows that by saying he knows absolutely everything about it.
  • King Knight gets plenty of moments that makes it even harder to take him seriously. From sometimes face planting when entering a level and playing it off like he meant to do that, to pretending to pilot an inactive flying machine, to breaking into a graceful ice skate whenever he goes on ice. Even his fighting style is much goofier than the other knights, as he bounces into an elegant spin after shoulder bashing enemies.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Specter Knight is shown to get easily annoyed with King Knight, or even outright despises him, which could easily just be reaffirming that nobody in the Order really likes King Knight, but given Specter Knight heavily values loyalty to his friends and family, he could also hate King Knight for betraying his friends and mother at the end of King of Cards.
  • King Pridemoor makes King Knight scrub the floors of his castle after becoming king again, which is a surprisingly light punishment considering that King of Cards revealed that he not only personally betrayed him, but the entire kingdom. Is it poetic justice considering King Knight made him do the same in his ending in Specter of Torment, or could he still see some good in King Knight? Perhaps Pridemoor still harbors feelings for King Knight's mother, choosing to lighten her son's punishment for her peace of mind? Maybe even try to redeem him and take him on as a son if he proves himself?
  • King Knight himself, oh so very much. Did he actually consider saving his crew when they were hanging off the Tower of Fate only to betray them when King Pridemoor pushed his Berserk Button, or is he irredeemably selfish, just betraying them without a single thought? As well as this, did he actually come to regret his actions and is just trying to convince himself his dream's come true in the epilogue of his campaign or is he just pontificating about the luxuries of his reign and doesn't realize what he's lost?
• Awesome Ego: Some have said that they enjoy King Knight as a character because of this, due to being an arrogant but fancy, as well as hilarious asshole, who is among the more powerful knights in the land as of King Of Cards.
• Awesome Music: See here.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • King Knight. Either hilarious with a fun design or the most boring and underdeveloped of the Order, with some people wishing someone else got third place in the "Dig The Vote" Ballot.
  • The Guest Fighters, on multiple levels. Some find them to be great inclusions (especially for Rare fans who see the Battletoads' inclusion as a Pet the Dog moment from Microsoft). Nintendo fans are upset that not only are they devoid of such a privilege, but that a previously Nintendo-only game now has nothing that puts it above its competitors in terms of content, other than amiibo-related features (which all require additional expense, while the other platforms get their additional content for free) and the StreetPass Arena in the 3DS version (which doesn't really offer much besides gold). Sony fans feel that Kratos' inclusion is wildly out of place compared to the rest of the game (not to mention people tired of seeing Kratos' Wolverine Publicity), and the developers' original idea of using Sir Daniel Fortesque would've been much better suited.
  • Gall, some think he's charming due to his appearance, manner of speaking, and of course, the "Kiss of Death," while others hate him due to the Kiss of Death being all sorts of gross, and only serving the purpose of killing you.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The girl with the broccoli hair at the inn bar invites you to watch her dance. Completely pointless to the game, but well animated and amusing to watch nonetheless (and it's a fun Shout-Out to similar NPCs in the early Final Fantasy games).
  • The Troupple King's Dance is also pretty hilarious and thankfully optional after the first time he gives you an ichor.
  • If you wait long enough in Armor Outpost you'll find a NPC with the same armor of Shovel Knight walking around, except he has a fish head.
  • King of Cards has the fairy garden Easter Egg. After being suplexed into a pit by a horse with a healing Troupple active, King Knight wakes up in a garden full of fairies tended to by Madame Meeber, who tells him to pick his favorite fairy from the ones in the garden, who consist of fairy versions of each major character and several others. When you do so, Meeber describes the selected fairy and crowns them as the "Fairy King" in a ceremony, all while King Knight complains that he wants to be the Fairy King. (He can't even get his own fairy crowned king — that's the only one Madame Meeber will reject, saying it "doesn't seem too kingly"!) As the ceremony goes on, the screen fades to white, and then King Knight wakes up in his bed at home, still complaining. All this sequence does is give all Propeller Rats fairy wings, and add a "Favorite Fairy" to the credits, showing whoever you selected as the Fairy King.
• Broken Base:
  • People are torn about the romantic bent of the main plot in the Plague of Shadows expansion. Some people find it very charming, and feel it does a lot to humanize the otherwise-rather stock characterization of Plague Knight, while others found it a cliche and anticlimactic way to take the story, especially since Plague Knight's "Dig The Vote" section mentioned that the player would learn about his past, which wasn't alluded to at all. Some just Take a Third Option and consider it an Excuse Plot, deciding to judge the game based on the new gameplay mechanics and not the story.
  • Another widely discussed addition from Plague of Shadows is the actual gameplay of Plague Knight himself. Some find his slow movement, complicated jumping mechanics and reliance on projectiles a pain, while others find his frantic yet fairly customizable skillset to be very entertaining to tinker with, adding more to the Shovel Knight formula.
• Breather Boss:
  • Mole Knight is an easier fight than the other Order members in the second level set. While Plague Knight and Treasure Knight are very reactive to Shovel Knight's movements and are hard to hit and avoid, Mole Knight is a pattern-based fight focusing on breakable blocks and digging gimmicks, and while he's less vulnerable to relics and being spam-attacked, he's much more predictable in movement than most of the game's bosses. He's a lot harder as Plague Knight, who can't attack or move as fast and has a tougher time hitting and dodging Mole Knight.
  • After how difficult his level can be, Tinker Knight is the easier Order member of the third set and one of the easiest overall. This isn't with regard to the first part which is a deliberate joke fight, but the second part with the Tinker Tank. It's easy to get onto the tank's lance and start attacking Tinker Knight repeatedly with Shovel Drops, only having to dodge an occasional missile. You can stay on top of the tank for the entire fight if you avoid getting hit or falling off during its charge attack, meaning its toughest attack (the bouncing bombs) will never be seen. Plague Knight can just boost himself onto the lance whenever he wants, and his default bombs, when thrown from the shoulder of the Tinker Tank, will almost always land right on Tinker Knight, turning the fight into a complete joke.
  • Because King Knight and Specter Knight don't gain any new moves during the Boss Rush (whereas the player has likely obtained every helpful item and upgrade by that point), they're relatively simple compared to the other members of the Order who were fought later on. Additionally, Propeller Knight lacks his Bottomless Pits, removing a lot of what made him threatening in his own stage.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Before the game had come out, many had already figured out that The Enchantress was a possessed Shield Knight, due to the placement of her beauty mark, and the two being the only major female characters in the game advertised at that point. Given the general design of the game, this might have been deliberate.
• Common Knowledge: Did you know the shovel jumping mechanic is based off of Scrooge's cane jumping from the DuckTales video game? Except it was actually based on the downward sword thrust from the second Zelda game. In fact, everyone involved with the game watched a playthrough of Zelda II to get a better idea for designing the game.
• Complete Monster: The Enchantress, in the Specter of Torment prequel DLC, blackmails Specter Knight into working for her; turns Reize Brainwashed and Crazy to replace an exposition mook; forces the Order of No Quarter to work for her under threat of death; later on transforms Reize into an Eldritch Abomination phantom form in which he is clearly in great pain; and actively kills civilians and innocent people to depopulate a village. All she wishes for is to Take Over the World, starting with the Valley and expanding her rule, using the Order and her minions as tools in a machine, and in the main game using Shield Knight as a vessel.
• Crazy Is Cool: Plague Knight. Hyper, erratic, and psychotic, this guy will make you feel like an all-powerful psycho while playing as him in Plague of Shadows.
• Creepy Cute: Plague Knight, in spite of being an explosive nutjob, is found by players to be oddly cute, due to being a short little plague doctor with a mask modified to be cuter as of Plague of Shadows, as well as adorable interactions with Mona helping this case.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Butt Mode replaces certain words (specifically Shovel, Knight, Health and Magic) with the word butt. While already funny on its own, this means characters like Black Knight will say things like:
  Black Butt: Steel thy butt!
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The Green Propeller mooks (appropriately named Hover Meanies) introduced in Propeller Knight's stage. They LOVE to push you into Bottomless Pits every time they appear and these enemies are rather fast and difficult to deal with since you'll have to watch your footing while dealing with them. As if that's not enough, they might even push you back far enough that once you do kill them, you'll advance and find they've just respawned again. They will make you rage in the Tower of Fate.
  • While Goldarmors can be annoying to deal with due to having more health than most enemies, their many Palette Swaps descend into this territory very easily due to the various abilities they have. Of particular note are the green and silver Goldarmor variants, who can leap into the air and perform a downward thrust from above with little to no warning. Good luck getting past in New Game Plus mode.
  • Birders are this game's love letter to the all-too-common classic Ledge Bats, being fast, erratic-moving flying enemies which take multiple hits to kill and most often show up in parts of levels with extremely precise "hit this or you're dead" platforming, making them extremely stressful to fight unless you can quickly take care of them at range.
• Difficulty Spike: The game tells you the gloves are off on the second tier of bosses by ramping up the Bottomless Pits and instant death opportunities. The first stage of the Tower of Fate kicks the difficulty up even more by mixing all elements from previous stages in very cruel ways.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Among the bosses that didn't get campaigns, Treasure Knight is well-liked, due to his resemblance to the Big Daddies. Their Body Swap design is also the most popular of the various Swap designs, for how classy it is.
  • Reize, due to his Stupid Good tendencies and his role in Specter of Torment. Compared to his other roles, his presence in Shovel Knight is his most known.
  • Mr. Hat, due to his fun gimmick, personality, and boss fight.
  • When King Knight's mother was revealed leading up to the King of Cards release, people were attached to her adorable design and sweet personality.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • What would be dug into in the other Order Knights' campaigns?
  • The backstories of each knight tend to be ripe for Fanon interpretation.
  • Donovan and Luan's relationship prior to Specter of Torment has been a source of interest in the fandom.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Banana Knight" for Specter Knight before he was revealed.
  • "Big Daddy Knight" for Treasure Knight.
  • The speedrun community refers to the Propeller Meanies and Hover Meanies as Jawas.
• Faux Symbolism: King Knight can stun Shovel Knight with one of his attacks which will make him kneel, what he does next? Bash him with his scepter. He's "Knighting" him.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Due to its Kickstarter origins, it isn't uncommon to find Shovel Knight backers also backing other video game kickstarters, such as Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Mighty No. 9, Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. These are the five more successful ones, as the Blue Burrower also finds his way onto other projects in some way, such as being an NPC in Yooka-Laylee where he's embarked on an adventure so large, he ended up in the wrong game.
  • With Freedom Planet fans, as its 16 bit little sister. Both are indie-developed Retraux games funded on Kickstarter that came out within a month of each other, are throwbacks to the golden age of platformers, and have detailed pixel art and excellent gameplay.
• Game-Breaker: Has its own page.
• Genius Programming: The Plague of Shadows update brings about a significant amount of optimization on the 3DS version, enough to decrease the filesize significantly, according to Yacht Club Games.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • The Goldarmors. While not horribly difficult to handle under normal circumstances, they have more health than most enemies and are generally placed in segments that makes them either difficult to fight or avoid altogether without resorting to a relic. They descend into Demonic Spiders territory quite easily on New Game Plus.
  • Tadvolts. While easy to avoid if you encounter them sleeping, their erratic jump pattern makes them a pain to hit, and even if you're in perfect position to land a strike they might electrify themselves, which not only makes them almost invincible but damages you as well.
  • The Fairies are one of the most hated enemies in the game and for a good reason. They usually appear in areas where it's impossible to hit them until they're very close to you, at which point they will spam their biting attack to knock you into whatever pit you're near by or simply chew your life as you're frantically trying to land a hit on the ugly thing.
  • Ratsploders, which are definitely the most difficult rat-type enemy you'll encounter in the game. Not only they explode as their name imply, which in certain situations can be lethal if you're standing in a breakable platform or near a pit where the explosion can knock you into, but they also jump at you in the very last moment with a very thin margin of error to shove them away from you. Expect a lot of Rage Quit in The Explodatorium.
  • The Sine Daggers in Clockwork Tower. They constantly spawn and fly across three screens. Their damage is minimal, but they also knock you back in rooms where a small knock back can drop you onto spikes or into a pit. The ladder in the auto-scrolling screen is particularly annoying as you have no time to try again if one knocks you back and usually three Sine Daggers pass over it while you climb.
• Good Bad Bugs: One of the cheat codes, "IM&SGC14", was used to hold a challenge at SGC 2014, where you begin at the first checkpoint of the Lost City as Shovel Knight. Selecting King Knight as your character and entering this code makes you start at the first checkpoint of Specter Knight's version of the Lost City as the gilded goon (equipped with the Vestments of Vigor and the Wealth Whirl, while carrying all 10 Heirlooms), bypassing the game's disallowing of playing levels from one character's campaign as a different character. Behavior in this level is odd, such as regular Lanterns not making you spin when bashed while Goo Lanterns do, and Red Skulls giving you money but counting towards your Merit Medal count. Beating it takes you to King Knight's world map with only the very first level unlocked, but entering it crashes the game.
• Growing the Beard: A self-contained example, as each new DLC campaign has tried to improve upon the last.
  • Story-wise, Shovel of Hope was a simple but effective tale of good vs evil with a lot of classical "knights and wizards" themes. Plague of Shadows later went to great lengths to humanize one of its minor villains while adding in a romance subplot. Specter of Torment then played out like a Shakespearean Tragedy, taking itself much more seriously while still retaining a sense of humor. Despite its Denser and Wackier looks, King of Cards takes it even further with a story who becomes darker as the game progresses and a particularly tragic ending who gives a new perspective on the franchise's most goofy character.
  • Gameplay-wise, while Plague of Shadows was seen as something of a Contested Sequel (see Broken Base above), Specter of Torment went to great lengths to redesign every stage of the game to suit its new movement mechanics (which themselves were better received), as opposed to simply tweaking the levels and calling it a day. King of Cards changes the Megaman-like formula and uses the map in a Super Mario Bros. style (a lot of shorter levels and boss stages). It also incorporates Joustus, a card game within the game that requires an adaptive strategy. By this point, the main character has mechanics that work very well with the level design. The fairly useful collectible items may never see much use due to how solid the base control scheme is.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Plague Knight's comment about "might makes right" being the Order of No Quarter's motto became this once Specter of Torment was unveiled. The only reason the Order exists at all is because Specter Knight strong-armed the knights (save himself and King Knight) into joining it.
  • At the end of the Boss Rush in the original campaign Specter Knight tells Shovel Knight he has no chance of defeating the Enchantress. Before Specter of Torment this sounded a lot like him simply being confident in his master but afterwards his dismissively brooding remark is much sadder; Specter Knight already tried to defeat the Enchantress himself...and he failed.
  • King Knight is unanimously hated among the populace, and even the Order can't seem to stand him. King of Cards would show that he betrayed all of the friends he made over the course of the story because the Enchantress offered to make him a king when the land needed her to be stopped, making it abundantly clear why everyone hates him.
  • Remember that funny scene at the end of Plague of Shadows where Specter Knight gets mad when he finds his locket stolen by Plague Knight? It was the locket he used to resurrect Reize at the cost of his own life, Luan's gift to him before his demise, and the reason he's stuck as the Enchantress's eternal slave.
  • Baz's only appearance in Specter of Torment is to break into the Tower of Fate out of nowhere to join the Order only to be kicked out by Specter Knight. Given that Phantom Striker rejects his "offer" and Specter Knight is trapped serving the Enchantress as her eighth knight by the end of the story, it may have been better for him if he just said yes.
  • In Shovel of Hope, you spend a fee to get into the Hall of Champions, and after clearing it of ghosts, the snobbish ticketer gives back 50 gold after you spent 5000 to get in, saying that Shovel Knight probably should have learned what he was paying for before going in, with the word "paying" in green, a fairly funny nod to the Kickstarter origins of the game. In light of other Kickstarter projects, several of them games, ending up criticized due to factors such as poor budget management, the project being cancelled with no compensation to the backers, or the project outright being meant to con people out of their money, the joke loses a lot of its humor.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Depending on the version you have, Shovel Knight can fight either one of two console-exclusive Guest Fighter OptionalBosses: Kratos or the Battletoads. A year later, Shovel Knight becomes exactly that by being an amiibo-exclusive boss in the sequel to Azure Striker Gunvolt.
  • Shovel Knight encounters Kratos in the PS4 version traveling somewhere on a quest and wishes him well on his endeavor. Given that Shovel of Hope came out in the period of time between the release of God of War III and God of War (PS4), perhaps Kratos was fleeing a destroyed Olympus and on his way to Midgard!
• Ho Yay:
  • Gall seems a bit too eager to practice his "Kiss of Death" on Specter Knight.
  • In the ending of Specter of Torment, the way Luan talks to Donovan about how he would want him to be part of his family combined with the fact that he says this after giving him the locket can be read like he's proposing to him.
  • In Body Swap mode, dialogue is largely untouched save for several gender-related words. This means that several female NPCs will still comment on how attractive the likes of female Shovel Knight and female Propeller Knight are, while the latter will still be fawned over by multiple women (plus one man) in her ending.
• I Knew It!:
  • Due to their similar outfits, quite a few fans predicted that Reize was Luan's son as soon as the trailer for Specter of Torment hit.
  • Due to one of the silhouettes not matching up with the Phantom Striker in the Yacht Club Presents in September 2019, and indications of a cape and energy blade, fans had guessed that Dark Reize was going to be a playable character in Shovel Knight Showdown. Dark Reize was confirmed on December 5th, 2019.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: One of the few complaints leveled at the game at launch was its relatively short run time, only about 3-4 hours. This lessened as additional campaigns were added (albeit they were eventually treated as separate games, and priced accordingly).
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Specter Knight, as shown in Specter of Torment. He's a greedy, obsessive thief who is partially responsible for freeing the Enchantress to possess Shield Knight, but he genuinely didn't know the amulet was cursed and he ends up being yanked around by the very demon he accidentally freed for the entire campaign.
  • Black Knight in general. Sure, he's a major dick to both Shovel Knight and Plague Knight, but it's only because he's afraid that they'll kill Shield Knight if they fight the Enchantress. Not to mention that he admits to lacking the courage to fight The Enchantress himself out of the fear of her magic.
• Magnificent Bastard: Propeller Knight is an affable and performative knight of the Order of No Quarter with a fondness for witty banter. The head of a technological marvel known as the Flying Machine, an airship populated by countless security measures, traps, and minions, Propeller Knight is willing to duel any foe with creative tactics such as destroying their arena with his airship's cannons or blowing holes through it, even going so far as to use his propeller against his opponents. When defeated, Propeller Knight always takes it with complete dignity, between offering to adventure with his adversaries, paying them promised treasure, playing friendly card games with them, or even serving as their waiter.
• Mainstream Obscurity: The series is an icon of indie gaming, being one of the most acclaimed retro-games out there, and yet a lot of its characters, mechanics and levels are really only discussed in the fandom itself. Shovel Knight himself, his pogo jump, the Plains of Passage theme and maybe the protagonists of the other campaigns if you're feeling generous are really only the well-known aspects of the series; good luck finding non-fans discussing the campaigns that aren't Shovel of Hope.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Due to the final campaign being called King of Cards, and features a card-based minigame, jokes about Yu-Gi-Oh! are relatively common.
  • SKATE OR DIE^Explanation  The undead Specter Knight, whenever he encounters a rail or while wearing the Rail Mail, grinds on his scythe like a skateboard, bringing this meme to the fandom's mind.
  • Shovel Knight's habit of making cameo appearances in a large number of other indie titles has become one in itself. To the point where fans will immediately predict him appearing in any indie title that gets announced or funded regardless of how fitting or appropriate it may be.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • In Specter of Torment, The Enchantress manipulates Specter Knight into joining the Order by threatening to turn Reize, who she'd already brainwashed, into her eighth Knight, unless Specter Knight gives up and joins her. It's clear she didn't even need Specter Knight anymore at that point; she just wanted to take everything away from him.
  • King Knight's fall into the Enchantress' grasp falls here. After defeating the Grand Triumvirate and freeing the Three Kings, they (among others on the Glidewing) are left hanging in a similar fashion to how the Order (including King Knight) hang on after their defeat. The Enchantress butters him up with her words, promising him a throne and the title of King of Pridemoor. King Knight takes the opportunity by joining the Enchantress willingly, and sends his friends falling down. He has gotten everything he wanted, but at the cost of not only the respect and friendship of everyone close to him (including his own mother), but also the freedom of the Valley and its denizens.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The little jingle that plays whenever Shovel Knight scrapes a chest empty or find a music sheet.
  • The *shing* sound made by Shield Knight when she's offering her help to attack The Enchantress or to protect you from her all-screen attack.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • A rather minor gripe all things considered, but on the console ports of the Plague of Shadows expansion, players need to stop gameplay to open the item menu every single time they wish to change their bombs or abilities, which can grow extremely tiresome after awhile. Yacht Club seems to have become aware of this, with one of the quality-of-life features of the King of Cards expansion adding two quick select menus, one for Arcana and one for Bomb components and Tonics, removing the need to use the main item menu.
  • In the New Game Plus of Specter of Torment, Darkness and Will are fused into one bar, but it naturally drains down, and using Curios still drains it. Combine that with less checkpoints and the Will Skull being outright deactivated, and life just got a whole lot harder.
  • A few reviews have faulted the card-based strategy game Joustus in the King of Cards expansion, which can feel luck-based, and represents a sudden Genre Shift in a game otherwise defined by Platform Game mechanics. While the card games are optional unless you're going for 100% Completion, a fair amount of the King of Cards expansion's lore and ancillary material requires playing it.
  • While partially circumvented by many of the cards being common (generally due to many of them being random enemies), most of the unique cards in King of Cards have to be bought through Chester's shop, which can be rather annoying due to the cards bought being randomized, which means the player can get duplicates of cards they already own, and leaves it very likely the player will waste a bunch of gold trying to complete their collection.
  • The New Game Plus for King of Cards fixes your health at 4 hearts and has your Heirlooms cost treasure to use, regardless of upgrades. Not only that, but taking damage causes treasure to fly out of you a la Sonic the Hedgehog, bouncing around the area. Even with a saving grace that enemies drop health hearts more often, and those hearts even automatically heal you without touching them, this mode proves to be just as difficult as the previous New Game+ modes, if not harder.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • Propeller/Specter Knight has a minor following despite only two real conversations shown between them.
  • Generally, any No Quarter ship applies to this due to knowing little to no details about their dynamic with one another.
  • Propeller Knight/Phantom Striker has no canonical backing or evidence whatsoever, but it's gaining a growing fandom.
• Sophomore Slump: Plague of Shadows, while very far from being low-quality, is typically seen as weaker than Shovel of Hope due to Plague Knight's gameplay being less tight and most of its content being recycled from the base game. Specter of Torment got more time in development (roughly two years instead of Plague of Shadows' one year) to fine-tune Specter Knight's gameplay and create stages and bosses built around it, and it's considered to be on par with or even better than Shovel of Hope. King of Cards has an entirely new structure, with more stages than any previous campaign but those stages being much shorter overall, with at most two checkpoints per level and some stages even having secret exits, as well as an exclusive card game minigame called Joustus.
• Squick: The Tower of Joustus in King of Cards shows how Joustus cards are manufactured. The player can see the cards being printed, cut, and stored, which all seems normal at first glance. However, sharp eye reveals just what they're being printed on—turns out the reason the cards are red is because they're made of crushed and flattened red skulls taken from Red's collection.
• Spiritual Adaptation: King of Cards may be the greatest puzzle-platformer adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces that exists. King Knight shares a lot of DNA with Ignatius Reilly, both of them being Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists mooching off their doting mothers' goodwill and antagonizing everyone they come across but still managing to find success before becoming a Hated by All Karma Houdini at the end of their stories (though in King Knight's case, it comes with a warranty in the form of Shovel Knight).
• That One Achievement:
  • Perfect Platformer and Impossible. The first requires you not fall even once in a Bottomless Pit, the later not to die once. Thankfully the game doesn't record your deaths if you simply leave the stage to the world map.
  • Hurry Up! which requires the player to finish the game within 1h 30m. Screw up a few times and you might as well restart the entire game again. Even returning to the map can become problematic since every time you do so the game will add few seconds to the total time which will accumulate if you restart one too many times. Some of the stress can be reduced with liberal abuse of the save game copy tool.
  • Dirt Poor. It requires you to get absolutely no gold during a run through a member of the Order of No Quarter level, which is harder than it sounds. You may inadvertently pick anything worth a single gold after breaking blocks of dirt or killing an enemy and there are several stages where getting this feat is impossible as there are gold and gems right in places where you must pass.
  • True Shovelry. To earn it you must beat all levels not getting any relic at all, which means absolutely no recovery other than food, no cheesing out victories with the Phase Locket and no sequence breaking with the Propeller Dagger.
  • Penny Pincher is even worse. It requires you to spend no money at all. This means, in addition to the hardships from True Shovelry, you can't buy armor or shovel upgrades, and you can never have more than seven hearts of health. Luckily in New Game Plus, if you bought virtually everything in the original file, you can complete it again without these issues present.
• That One Boss:
  • Specter Knight is one of the harder bosses in the game due to his fast movement, hard to avoid attacks and Interface Screw. Good luck on New Game Plus. The second fight with him in King of Cards also falls into this; since he takes a cue from the Shovel Knight fight in Plague of Shadows (see below) and not only uses the curios from Specter of Torment but also adapts and fights like a player would... then he restores his health and fights as in Shovel of Hope, only the Interface Screw is much worse because of the background.
  • Plague Knight can easily become this on New Game Plus. Since you take double damage and he just doesn't stop throwing bombs it's quite likely that you'll either need full health or some Ichor of Renewal to beat him if you didn't learn his attack pattern or don't have reflexes to dodge his bombs. Specter of Torment amps up the difficulty with potion clones, and King of Cards pits you against Percy beforehand with no opportunity to recover.
  • Not only is Polar Knight able to block your bouncing move, move around quickly for a big dude, and is hard to hit, but he is one of 3 bosses who can insta-kill you (in his case, spikes). This makes him especially aggravating since he's one of the bosses who wasn't toned down to compensate in the Boss Rush. He is, however, easier to fight if you're playing as Plague Knight, since he can't trap you with the spikes (you can blast-jump AND use a rechargeable Smoke Bomb, which is basically a Phase Locket) and doesn't block your bombs. His incarnation in Specter of Torment is also rather hard to fight, due to the fact that one of Specter Knight's greatest advantages (his great air mobility) is negated due to how Polar Knight is largely unchanged (staying almost always planted on the ground), except for even more attacks that add spikes to the larger arena.
  • Regardless of who you play as, Propeller Knight can be a pain. Similar to Polar Knight, his (normal) boss battle has Instant Kill traps (in this case: Bottomless Pits). Even worse, he blows you around, and can even instant kill you by pushing you off the arena, since there's a 1-block gap between the edges of the screen and the edges of each edge of the arena. Oh, and also like Polar Knight, he can counter your pogo bounce, moves extremely fast, and stays high up most of the time so you need the Anchors to hit him. If you're playing as Plague Knight, hitting Propeller Knight at all is difficult due to having to deal with many bomb casings being worthless if he's flying. It's especially frustrating on a Minimalist Run necessary for an achievement, since you're stuck with the basic casing.
  • Treasure Knight isn't that bad normally. In Challenge Mode, however, he becomes one of the harder bosses due to the time limit imposed on most bosses, especially as Shovel Knight himself. You only have 35 seconds to defeat him, no Relics, and three health points, which means you'll only be able to take six hits maximum - and Treasure Knight has attacks that can hit you for a full health point, so that's being generous. Furthermore, due to his erratic movement and tendency to move away from you, he can be hard to even hit in the first place, and if he gets to use his whirlpool chest, then you'll lose precious time because you have to spend your time running away from the chest. And if you get sucked in? You might as well just reset right there because of how much time it takes up. This boss fight has very little margin for error, as you can't play carelessly due to your lack of health yet have to play at least decently aggressively due to the short time limit and Treasure Knight's movements.
  • Shovel Knight in Plague of Shadows. He can deflect your bombs, adapts to your strategy so you can't spam the same attacks, and technically has one and a half times as much health as the rest of the bosses. He's even worse in the Boss Rush where he's always the last boss. If you die to him there, you have to do the entire boss rush all over again!
  • Shield Knight in Specter of Torment. This boss will absolutely murder players that think they can throw attacks mindlessly to win and requires some patience and calm to hit the boss when they lower their guard.
  • Surprisingly, Tinker Knight in Specter of Torment and King of Cards. He's packing the mobile gear this time around, giving him greatly increased mobility and more attacks. He still calls in the Tinker Tank when you beat him, only this time the arena constantly scrolls to the right, and he now fights independently of it by using the mobile gear to fly around out of striking range. The Tinker Tank moves erratically, frequently sending you to the ground where there is no way to hit Tinker Knight, and you must navigate around bottomless pits while he and his tank bombard you with attacks.
  • The final Joustus Judge from King of Cards, King Birder. Besides having the movement patterns of the mook Birders - already Goddamned Bats - he also fires reflecting lasers, creates platforms to squash you (and any health hearts) against the walls of the arena, shoots water bombs that create a column of pain that can severely hamper how much room you have to work with, and teleports occasionally. Periodically throughout the fight, he'll cause the walls to close in, shrinking the arena and making it more difficult to avoid his attacks. And when he does this, he HEALS. It gets especially aggravating when he heals just as you're one hit away from defeating him.
  • As for Joustus itself, Mona can be fairly difficult at any point due to her ability, Transmute. She can turn any card, even a card in your hand, into a red version of any other card in play, making her a threat no matter what kind of deck you have.
  • The Xbox One and PC exclusive fight against the Battletoads. Specifically the portion where you fight Pimple as you must simultaneously fight him and survive a trip through the infamous Turbo Tunnel. Sure, its a much simpler version of the tunnel, but it still managed to retain some of the Nintendo Hard elements. All while you're trying to avoid both the instant death traps and Pimple's attacks as well.
• That One Level:
  • The Explodatorium, Plague Knight's stage, mostly in New Game+ mode. So many enemies in this stage can heavily damage Shovel Knight if unprepared, and the stage also contains one the most difficult knight variants - the green ones. Expect to heavily abuse the Phase Locket, and if you are trying for the no relic achievement, then good luck. In Plague of Shadows on New Game+, the first checkpoint isn't until after the miniboss halfway though the level, making a normally challenging level seem brutal.
  • Clockwork Tower, Tinker Knight's stage. The final segment of the stage will auto scroll upwards meaning it will constantly create Bottomless Pits, one mishap with the jump and it's back to the last checkpoint with a hit in your wallet.
  • Flying Machine, Propeller Knight's stage. Chock full of Bottomless Pits, has Demonic Spiders in several parts of the stage and wind physics that screw with your jumps in others. The level is much harder in Plague of Shadows due to Plague Knight's lower jumps and difficulty dealing with a majority of enemies in the stage.
  • Tower of Fate: Entrance has many spots with difficult jumps, is filled with Demonic Spiders and ends in a very difficult boss. This stage is regarded as one of the most difficult by players for a reason. Trying to finish it without relics is almost self flagellation.
  • Tower of Fate: Ascent. It has a segment where you must push a statue to create bridges all over a huge Bottomless Pit. The catch? Enemies positioned specifically to throw you off said statue and two green mooks from Propeller Knight's stage to downright blow you into the Bottomless Pit. It also has an auto scrolling section like Tinker Knight's stage, now with blocks moving around to crush you as well. It gets worse in New Game+, as the ONLY checkpoint in the level is the one right before the Boss Rush. Said boss rush is now even more difficult, as you take double damage and full health turkeys come only after every OTHER fight. Though it so happens that the aforementioned statue section can actually be skipped entirely by getting the statue above the obstacles and just jumping above them (requires usage of the Propeller Dagger to clear some of the jumps, though).
  • For obvious reasons, Mysterious Area in the Xbox One and PC version. It has you in modified versions of Wookie Hole and Turbo Tunnel, fighting Zitz and Pimple in those areas respectively, and then fighting the whole Battletoads Team in a boss fight. The Wookie Hole is especially nasty as you undergo Checkpoint Starvation for the whole thing. Definitely hits the Nintendo Hard fans of Battletoads have been looking for.
  • For Plague of Shadows, The Iron Whale on New Game+. The first checkpoint isn't until after the angler fish miniboss, so you'll end up playing through a number of tricky platforming sections that will punish you if you abuse your charge jump too much. Combine that with the narrow platforms and relentlessly spawning mooks, and you're likely to just make it to the fight before being knocked off a platform into a bottomless pit. Getting past that wall leaves the rest of the level relatively easier, as long as you continue retrying.
  • Specter of Torment is already more difficult than the previous two campaigns, but Tower of Fate: Entrance takes it up to eleven, with numerous bottomless pits, crushers, and sections that require mastery of the Dash Slash. And then there's the rematch with the Black Knight. God help you if you're playing on New Game Plus.
  • The Break the Targets stage in Showdown has frustrated a lot of people, since the game doesn't explain its mechanics very well. It often feels like a Luck-Based Mission whether you can earn enough points or not. What's worse is that, unlike the minigames in Super Smash Bros. that inspired it, clearing this minigame is required to advance in the story - if you fail you lose a continue and have to try the stage again.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: One cannot help but feel at least a little miffed once they consider that each of the members of No Quarter might have Hidden Depths that could have been dug into in their proposed campaign. Polar Knight applies to this the most due to his implied relationship to Black Knight, and possibly Shield and Shovel Knight as well.
• Underused Game Mechanic: It's commonly lamented that the Body Swap function is only usable in Shovel of Hope, with none of the other campaigns having this functionality despite largely using the same assets for the characters, and that the only character who can switch to said design in Showdown is Shovel Knight.
• Unexpected Character:
  • The guest characters in general, due to Kratos being from a much darker game series, and the Battletoads having become relatively niche. The reaction to the latter increased when it turned out they were announced to be coming to all PC versions in October 2017 after having been exclusive to the Xbox One version for two years.
  • Shovel Knight Showdown features, among the expected cast of playable characters, a Goldarmor, but even more surprising was Mona, who hadn't shown any sort of combat ability in the main game or Plague of Shadows proper.
  • Madame Meeber, the character who gives fairies to the player upon scanning an amiibo on Nintendo consoles, shows up in King of Cards through an Easter Egg regardless of what version of you're playing, albeit without the amiibo-colored wings and "a" on her chest.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Gall's "Kiss of Death", along with his design being rather androgynous, left people thinking he was female until Word of God clarified Gall was male.
• Woolseyism: In the Japanese release, the Alchemy Coin was changed from a golden coin with Japanese text on it to a form of Japanese coin (one with a hole in the middle).