Shovel Knight has my number. It’s laser-focused on children of the 8-bit era, blending elements of multiple games from Capcom’s halcyon days on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The most prominent influences are the Mega Man series and DuckTales, some of the best action platformers the NES had to offer. Like its forebears, Shovel Knight offers a demanding challenge with exact controls, presented with meticulous, evocative pixel art. In short, as an NES kid, I’m powerless to resist it.

Thankfully, the involving, split-second play that made those platforming staples so good still manages to excite, with or without the rose-tinted specs of nostalgia. Meanwhile, developer Yacht Club Games has thrown in a few modern touches that cater to today’s audiences, and it has managed to do so without sacrificing the (mostly) nail-biting difficulty that my fellow 8-bit curmudgeons expect.

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