Shovel Knight knighted by Nintendo as first Indie game with its own Amiibo

By Kris Wouk August 28, 2015

Shovel Knight Amiibo

Shovel Knight is the rare type of game that immediately reveals its influences but manages to feel fresh and original at the same type. Gamers noticed, and the game sold well as a result, but now the game is the recipient of an honore no other game has received to date.

Nintendo announced today that the titular main character of Shovel Knight will soon be available as an Amiibo. This makes Shovel Knight the first ever indie game to receive its own Amiibo, showing just how good a job developer Yacht Club Games has done at creating a successor to the retro games that inspired it.

Related Videos

“It’s been a great honor to work directly with Nintendo, creating a Shovel Knight amiibo that sits beside their most beloved characters,” Yacht Club Games said in a statement. “We are elated to expand the world of Shovel Knight, and to keep developing unique game-play experiences on Nintendo’s platforms.”

For Wii U owners, the Amiibo will offer something not yet seen in Shovel Knight: cooperative play. Both the 3DS and Wii U versions of the game can use the Amiibo to level up Shovel Knight with new visual enhancements and in-game abilities, then use the powered-up character in Amiibo-exclusive challenge levels.

While the retail release of Shovel Knight and upcoming free Plague of Shadows expansion are obviously keeping Yacht Club Games busy, Nintendo hints that a sequel may be on the way as well. “Creating an Amiibo that’s compatible with all current and future Shovel Knight games shows that our strong relationship with independent developers is constantly evolving,” Nintendo of America’s Damon Baker said.

This new Amiibo shows that Nintendo is doing its best to keep Shovel Knight closely associated with the company’s name, despite it being available on other platforms. The Plague of Shadows expansion will launch first on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, with other platforms getting it at a later date.

There is no word on when the Amiibo will be release, but it’s expected that it will be somewhat close to Shovel Knight’s retail release on October 13.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Gaming

Here’s what E3 2023 could look like without Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft

Playstation character wall at E3 2018

Let's start with the good news: E3 2023 will be held in its in-person format once again after three long years of digital events necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this time with ReedPop at the helm. The bad news is that Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo -- gaming's "Big 3" -- may not show up at the industry’s biggest convention this summer.

This is according to a report from IGN citing multiple sources, who claimd the companies won’t be a part of the show or make appearances on the floor at the Los Angeles Convention Center in any way. Their absence from this year’s E3, especially Nintendo’s, may come as a shock to the gaming community, but it's not such a surprise when looking at the past few iterations of E3. Even before the pandemic locked everyone down in 2020, Sony and Xbox had been hosting their own E3-style livestreams, so it was more likely they would do it again this year anyway. Nintendo, on the other hand, managed to show off its upcoming games via Nintendo Direct streams and at its booth, console kiosks and all.

Gaming

The best RPGs for the Nintendo Switch

Marth glowing blue.

The Nintendo Switch is a smash hit with a wide library of titles across all genres, so it should come as no surprise that it has amassed a wealth of great role-playing games. Many of them are ports of titles previously released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but others are exclusive to Nintendo's hybrid system -- such as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Whether you're looking for a turn-based classic or something new with a massive open world, the portable console has it all. Here are the best role-playing games on Nintendo Switch.

Gaming

This console generation isn’t about games or hardware. It’s about services

A character stands below a ship in Starfield.

It’s been over two years since the start of the current console generation, which launched with a rocky start at the end of 2020. You'd think it's been more than long enough to understand what it's all about, but for many, there's still confusion. That might be changing this year. As Tomas Franzese wrote earlier this month, 2023 could be the year where we finally see what games define this generation’s consoles, at least in terms of exclusives. He also noted that games could stop being cross-platform, launching on just current-gen consoles instead of simultaneously on last-gen ones.

While that'll finally give us some memorable games, it doesn't bring us closer to defining the hardware itself. Besides a few extra teraflops and new ultra-fast SSDs, there isn’t much that helps the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S stand out from their predecessors. Sure, the PS5 looks like a giant spaceship, and the Xbox Series X is built like a fridge, but we didn’t know what these devices could offer that the PS4 and Xbox One couldn’t besides some pretty lighting effects and virtually non-existent loading times.