Shovel Knight's Jolly Good Soundtrack

Kickstarter is responsible for incredible things that sadly would never get any help with public backing and I am overly happy that this game made it and became the large success that it is today. Shovel Knight is available on almost any system current and last generation and was released at inter voles throughout 2014 and 2015 across the different systems.  It released to wide acclaim from multiple reviews and became an indie sensation. 

Shovel Knight was by the developers Yacht Club Games. Shovel Knight takes inspiration from the 8-bit era of video games in its gameplay, look and music. You play as a brave knight who uses the honorable weapon of a shovel to defeat the forces of evil and save your friend Shield Knight. You fight through other themed knights who rule different lands to get to the evil doer The Enchantress. The game is styled like an action and platformer and I love it to bits. 

The man behind the beautiful the soundtrack is  Jake Kaufman. Kaufman has worked on previous games like Red Faction: Guerilla, Contra 4, and DuckTales: Remastered. Kaufman currently works as an independent composer with his own studio. His first independent game was Shovel Knight and that has set a beautiful precedent. I will be talking about two songs from the game.

 One of my favorite songs from the game is "Starlit Wilds". This song plays at the scenes where Shovel Knight is sitting at a bonfire. Shovel Knight has these scenes after you defeat a boss and then he dreams of saving Shield Knight. This song is dream like and floatt which perfectly fits the scene because moments in Shovel Knight will fall asleep. You can listen in the background of the music you can hear what sounds like crickets which is an amazing touch to make it really sound like a night time setting. 

The other song that I want to talk about it is "The Vital Vitriol" and that song is the song of my favorite boss in the game, Plague Knight. Plague Knight is a enemy boss that throws different potions in the fight that have different effects. The songs for the bosses have a very similar beats to them but are arranged differently to make each boss music feel unique and make the song fit the environment. The song uses high pitch notes to add a creepy almost mysterious science lab sound that fits the potion mixing and mad scientist vibe that the boss fight provides.

This game has fantastic moments that a very reminiscence of the SNES era of games and just makes me personally smile. You can purchase the album on Kaufman's BandCamp or listen to it on YouTube. Thanks for reading and see you next time.