Skip to main content

Legendary ‘Mega Man’ composer heads West to join the retro game ‘Shovel Knights’

Shovel Knight
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The members of Yacht Club Games have always traded in a particular brand of old school game design. The five primary developers that collectively form Yacht Club Games established themselves in the video game industry at WayForward, where they worked on 2D games like Contra 4, A Boy and His Blob, and Double Dragon Neon; all thoroughly modern takes on classic games that still bore many of the hallmarks of 1990s game design. Now that Yacht Club is currently raising money for its first game, an NES-era style adventure game called Shovel Knight, the team has added one of that era’s most genius creators to the team: Manami Matsumae, composer of the original Mega Man.

“This is the first time I’m working on Western game!” said Matsumae in an update on the Shovel Knight Kickstarter, “Shovel Knight and I are a good fit. So… let’s get shovelin’?”

Recommended Videos

Matsumae will contribute two songs to the soundtrack. Her most recent work was on 2010’s Mega Man 10, but her career with Capcom stretches back a quarter of a century. She not only composed the music in Mega Man, but also created the iconic sound effects from the series. Other games featuring her music include Magic Sword, which was recently re-released on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, as well as the classic shooter U.N. Squadron.

With more than a week to go in its Kickstarter campaign, Yacht Club has raised more than $106,000, crushing its initial fundraising goal of $75,000. What started as a PC game was quickly upgraded to a Nintendo 3DS and Wii U release based on player feedback. As of now, the group is still around $25,000 shy of making the game a Linux and Mac game as well.

Described as a cross between Mega Man, Dark Souls, and Castlevania, Shovel Knight caters to a very specific subset of the gaming audience, but it’s still a risk for the newly formed studio. Its talent and creativity is unimpeachable based on its track record with WayForward, but all of its previous work has been based on established properties. Even its solid (if unspectacular) Nintendo DS game Thor: The God of Thunder had the movie license to carry it. Here’s hoping that Shovel Knight finds an audience beyond its backers to give Yacht Club more opportunities in the future.

Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
Still shopping? Amazon Prime Day deals going strong into day 4
We're bringing you the best Prime Day deals throughout the sales period
Best Prime Day Gift Card Deals

It’s the fourth and final day of the longest ever Amazon Prime Day event, and if you thought the best deals were behind us, think again. Amazon’s stretching this year’s event across four full days (July 8 -11 ) which means price drops are still rolling in hot, with fresh discounts landing on everything from big-name tech to everyday essentials.

There have been stellar savings so far, with the AirPods Pro 2 heading down to $149 as the best saving we've seen.

Read more
Is NBA 2K26 cross-platform?
A basketball character with a sweatband.

Football fans have the Madden games, baseball fans have MLB The Show, and basketball fans wait every year for the new NBA 2K entry. This year, we have NBA 2K26 with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Angel Reese, and Carmelo Anthony each appearing as the cover athlete on the various editions of the game. All the classic modes are back, including MyCAREER, MyTeam, MyNBA, The W, and more, but the big question is if you can play online with friends on other platforms like you can with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, or is it limited like Madden NFL 26? Before you rush the hoop and grab NBA 2K26, I'm calling a timeout to fill you in on all the cross-platform details.

Is NBA 2K26 cross-platform?

Read more
3 PlayStation Plus games to play this weekend (July 11-13)
V rides a motorcycle while shooting at a mech in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.

After last week hit us with an amazing lineup of PlayStation Plus Essential games, we have a small but agonizing wait to see what the next batch of Extra and Premium games will be for July. However, I know you haven't played every game in the catalogue yet, and I was able to hand-pick three games that seem like surefire hits for this weekend. One is an easy, major release that was just added this week as a surprise bonus game, but the other two are hidden gems that you might be craving right about now. Let's dive into the games so you have a good excuse to stay inside this weekend.

A Hat in Time

Read more