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Shovel Knight: King of Cards gets a release window, new Shovel Knight game revealed

That's a lot of shovelling!

It was a busy morning for the folks over at Yacht Club Games. Not only did they announce a release window for the long-awaited King of Cards campaign, and reveal a new character for the previously announced Shovel knight Showdown, they also revealed a brand new game: Shovel Knight Dig. And that’s on top of a whole suite of new features coming to the Treasure Trove.

So let’s break it down.

Shovel Knight: King of Cards + amiibo

Finally, after years of waiting, the next and final expansion for Shovel Knight has a release window — it’s launching in December. That’s just a few months away!

Shovel Knight: King of Cards is the latest and greatest campaign in the Shovel Knight saga, reportedly featuring more levels, more mechanics, more secrets, and more content than any Shovel Knight game before it. It’ll be available as a free update for Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove on any platform on which that exists, or as a standalone purchase on the eShop on the Switch, 3DS, and Wii U.

But that’s not all! The previously announced Shovel Knight amiibo 3-pack — featuring Plague Knight, Specter Knight, and King Knight — will launch at the very same time. Each of these amiibo will unlock an absolutely fabulous outfit for the characters in their respective campaigns, as well as new platforming challenges in each game’s Challenge mode and a fairy friend. The outfits even carry over to Shovel Knight Showdown!

Speaking of…

Shovel Knight Showdown

Shovel Knight Showdown, the previously announced multiplayer battle mode, has grown a lot since we first saw it almost a year ago. It’s now a fully featured adventure, with single-player gameplay in addition to the wacky multiplayer fun.

Like King of Cards, Showdown will be launching in December, and it will also be available as a free update to Treasure Trove, or, again, available as a standalone purchase on Switch or Wii U. Sadly, the 3DS misses out on this one. Yacht Club also revealed a new character for the game, Mona, but we’re running out of space here so you can find out all about her by clicking here or watching the trailer below.

An all new game: Shovel Knight Dig

Perhaps the most exciting reveal of this morning’s presentation was an all new Shovel Knight game: Shovel Knight Dig. It’s a gorgeous new game with all new gameplay, a new presentation style (it’s 16-bit-ish now!) and a new co-developer: Nitrome, who released the wonderful Bomb Chicken for Switch last year.

The gameplay looks a lot like the Shovel Knight you know and love, with a very Dig Dug-like twist to it. All the levels are procedurally generated, meaning no two playthroughs will ever be the same, and there’s an all-new story, characters, and mechanics to explore.

There’s no release date for this yet, and technically no platforms listed, but given the game will be playable on Switch at PAX West this weekend, it’s safe to assume it’ll be hitting the eShop at some point in the future.

You can learn more about it by clicking here, or watch the fantastic trailer below.

New stuff coming to Treasure Trove

And finally, there’s a tonne of new stuff coming to Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove alongside the King of Cards update.

Shovel of Hope finally gets a third option for character pronouns (they/them), in addition to the existing body types and pronouns already present in the game.
You can earn Shovel of Hope Feats in co-op mode, with a few new challenges specifically for co-op play.
Plague of Shadows has an all-new Alchemy Quick Select option, letting you quickly swap between bombs and arcana with a new menu.
Specter of Torment’s getting 5 new intense platforming challenges, which are said to be “not meant for the faint of heart.”
All of the games, including King of Cards and Showdown, are getting three new language options: Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.
Accessibility options have been expanded across all games, offering options to adjust screen flash and screen shake independently, in addition to a colourblind mode for Joustus in the upcoming King of Cards.
And finally, there’s a bunch more cheats being added, some of which reportedly add whole new ways to play.

If you want to see all of these new features in action (or more accurately, in gif form), you can check out the official blog post.

And if you’re interested in watching the entire presentation from this morning, here’s the video in all its glory (it starts at about 14 minutes in).

Oliver Brandt

Deputy Editor, sometimes-reviewer, and Oxford comma advocate. If something's published on Vooks, there's a good chance I looked over it first. I spend way too much on games and use way too many em dashes.