All Articles: Shovel Knight

Just like The Legend of Zelda‘s Second Quest, Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight includes a series of secret codes that activate special conditions when they’re entered as your name at the New Game screen. So far, the developers have revealed four official codes, including perhaps the greatest code to ever grace any game ever: Butt Mode.

If you use “X&BUTT” as your name, several common words in the dialogue (Shovel, Knight, Health, Magic, and others) will be replaced by the word “butt.” So, for example, Shovel Knight becomes “Butt Butt.” Well played, Yacht Club. Other officially released codes include “J&2JMP!” (Super Jump), “J&!JSMP” (Moon Jump), and “IM&SGC14” (Iron Man of Gaming Mode, a timed version of Mole Knight’s stage created for the Iron Man of Gaming event).

But the developers also created the “Gimme the Dirt” tier for their Kickstarter campaign, so there are a lot more cheat codes out there. More than 300 backers pledged enough to receive an “exclusive” code and the Internet, naturally, is trying to brute force their way into figuring out what all of them do. A Google Doc has been created to compile every working code and a few of my favorites include:

• “ENTSSYSQ” – New Game+
• “QMPGLCRA” – Enemies Are 8 Times Stronger
• “KYRNMAPC” – Sudden Death Boss Battles
• “FCCKJOIQ” – Pogo Bounce (AKA DuckTales Mode)

Go on, try a few out yourself. With hundreds of combinations, Shovel Knight will have enough staying power to last you all Summer.

Shovel Knight will be released for the 3DS, PC, and Wii U on June 26. Hey… that’s this Thursday!

In honor of this momentous occasion, Yacht Club Games has released a brand spanking new launch trailer for the game. The trailer gives us a good look at the game’s NES-style platforming action as well as a pretty great background track.

Once again, Shovel Knight will be available on June 26. My digging implement is ready.

There’s no joy in Shovelville, for Yacht Club Games has delayed Shovel Knight. Originally scheduled to be released on March 31, the developer has confirmed (via Kickstarter) that a slight delay has befallen the game. Don’t worry, it’s just a few weeks:

So, we hemmed and hawed, and made a Super Important Executive Decision. This update is to let everyone know that Shovel Knight will be missing March 31 by a few weeks to make sure it’s a world class experience, and can release on all platforms simultaneously. This isn’t a major delay, or a long one; it’s simply a stretch of time to get everything polished and aligned. While major development is quickly drawing to a close, there are still some external factors, like submission preparation, which need a little bit more breathing room before the game goes live.

In order to ensure a simultaneous release on the 3DS, Wii U, and PC, Yacht Club has decided to hold off on a new release date announcement until once they get a certification go-ahead from both Nintendo and Valve.

The time has finally come! Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight will be released for the PC, Wii U, and 3DS on March 31.

The retro-styled game was a huge hit at last year’s PAX East show and wears its inspiration, including the side-scrolling challenge of the Mega Man series and the pogo stick mechanic found in DuckTales, on its armor-clad sleeve. The developers at Yacht Club, who broke away from WayForward several years ago, funded Shovel Knight through a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that ultimately netted more than three times its $75,000 target. The game is now in a fully playable state within the walls of Yacht Club and should be ready for release after a round of playtesting, polish, and bug fixing.

You can see just how far they’ve come by viewing the brand new gameplay trailer, which has been embedded above.