It’s rare that I actually see a game through to the end, so me beating it is an endorsement in itself. I bought Shovel Knight years ago but it didn’t grab me the way this game did.

I’m surprised nobody is comparing (or contrasting) this game to Tunic. Both are drinking from the same very specific well (Zelda plus Dark Souls), both have soundtracks I’ll happily listen to on their own. Yet they’re very different feeling games.

I ended up really appreciating the Game Boy Color aesthetic. Big chonky sprites are easy on my eyes. If you’ve played Link’s Awakening or the Oracle games, you’ll notice you rarely go straight from one end of the screen to the other. There’s always a winding path that you have to traverse. This was to be as efficient as possible with the GB’s limited resources, and, if I’m being cynical, to pad the runtime. But this compact dense world design pairs with the Dark Souls style of unlocking shortcuts very, very well.

Last, a top-down platformer isn’t a combo I thought I’d enjoy, but they made it work.