Shovel Knight Showdown

Shovel Knight Showdown is a 2019 fighting video game made by Yacht Club Games. It is an add-on to the platform game Shovel Knight. Players battle using one of twenty fighters. Each fighter has its own moves and fighting styles. The game features several modes. One mode is "Treasure Clash", where players battle each other to collect the most gems, to a free for all battle to the death. In the story mode, a single player battles against AI-controlled opponents in several stages before facing a boss. When the player completes this mode with each fighter, the player can unlock new stages and fighters.

Yacht Club Games imagined Showdown as a small minigame, similar to minigames in Mega Man 7 (1995) and Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988). The developers eventually built a more complicated title which they compared to a party game. Showdown was released for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Wii U on December 10, 2019. It was launched along with the Shovel Knight add-on campaign King of Cards. The game received average reviews on release. Players liked the characters and multiplayer gameplay, but people didn't like the single-player mode because of its difficulty balancing.

Gameplay

Each fighter in Showdown has a basic attack, a special attack, a movement skill, and the ability to parry. Some playable characters are Shovel Knight, who attacks with a shovel or magic wand, Specter Knight, a fast character who can wall jump, and Plague Knight, who throws explosive bombs.