Shovel Knight Dig Is an Odd Halfway Point Between Roguelikes & Platformers

I'm on an indie kick right now before Donkey Kong Bananza arrives, which has seen me take on the utterly foolish task of re-exploring my Steam backlog. It's enough of an excuse to finally play Shovel Knight Dig, a roguelike platforming prequel to the original game, but I'm finding it rather disappointing.

I'm someone who's been following Shovel Knight ever since the Wii U days, and I keep coming back over the years. The Treasure Trove collection remains an essential pick for platforming fans with its additional campaigns, while Pocket Dungeon is an enjoyable spin-off as far as falling block puzzlers go, even if it's a little lacking in variety.

Though Shovel Knight Dig originally released in 2022, it ended up on the back burner for various reasons that eventually turned into waiting for the Wicked Wishes DLC. Dig wasn't exactly incomplete before, not really, though it seemed sensible to wait for the “full” thing before jumping in. I figured it's good prep before Mina the Hollower arrives, if nothing else. Now that I've played it, I'm not sold on this genre mix.

Following series tradition with its very literal character naming, Shovel Knight Dig sees us going after a thief known as Drill Knight, who's stolen our titular hero's treasure bag. Having assembled a team of 'Hexcavators' to stop us, who make for some great boss fights, our goal is to get that bag by continually vertically digging down, facing foes along the way while some optional rooms provide entertaining challenges.

Dig's sense of urgency adds a welcome challenge since you can't stay in one area too long. Hanging around causes an undefeatable buzz saw to start heading your way, and each level being procedurally generated means you can't rely on knowledge of prior playthroughs. Any upgrades found during your run, like items or accessories, are lost if you die, though you'll take some gems back to the surface. This can feel brutal despite rarely being unfair, which isn't helped by Dig being stingy with healing items, though the optional accessibility settings do help.

As someone who both loves platformers and exploring Treasure Trove's different campaigns, my wider concern is how these genres don't particularly mesh as well as I'd hope, and the roguelike mechanics feel more like an obstacle to something more. Using the dig mechanic to cross gaps is an inventive twist, but randomizing each level means you don't get that same meticulously crafted platforming that the older game thrive on. There isn't enough of a difference on each run, so it slowly begins feeling repetitive.

Now, I'm not opposed to using procedural generation for level design. When done well, this can effectively keep you guessing on what's coming and hold your attention. Games like Hades kept me invested with story events, which Dig does have to some extent, and this delivers some decent worldbuilding. Yet this quirky cast of new mostly characters isn't enough on its own, especially when there's so much competition elsewhere.

Shovel Knight Dig looks pretty in action, the soundtrack remains praiseworthy, there's some great boss fights and I like the new approach with vertical digging. I just don't believe this plays well to the strengths of either genre. There's a good adventure here but if I had to recommend you a game, I'd be hard pressed to choose Dig if you aren't already a Shovel Knight fan. For now, I'm sticking with it mainly to see how this story continues to unfold.

Shovel Knight Dig is available now on Steam, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series, and iOS.