Shovel Knight Comes to the Switch, Gets A Price Increase

I can only speak for myself when I say I'm kind of getting sick of Yacht Club Game's debut title, Shovel Knight. Yes, I understand it's a good game, a modern classic that's both reverent to the games that inspire it without being tied down to them.  But the game is old, and not in the retro sense anymore, and the fact that it can still make headlines kind of annoys me, says the guy who still periodically checks the latest Undertale fanart.

Oh well. It is what it is, and besides: it ties in nicely with recent revelations around Nintendo. See, we're due to get a much-needed update on Nintendo's new console later today, which is all well and good, but hardware is only as good as the software you can play on it, and Shovel Knight recently announced that it's going to join those lofty heights and become a Switch game. Specifically, the game will be getting an upgrade, called Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, which will be released on all current systems and will be ported to the Switch.

Now, if you happen to own Shovel Knight right now, you'll get upgraded to Treasure Trove for free, which means getting all the DLC that's since come out for the game. That's a pretty sweet deal. But here's the catch: if you don't own Shovel Knight, you'll have to buy Treasure Trove at an INCREASED price, or you'll have to buy all the DLC separately. So that Switch port of the game is going to be a pretty penny pricier than the PC version you bought two years ago.

There's a Q&A you can consult for more info, but it still omits some fairly important information, like how much the Treasure Trove version will cost, what the DLC will cost, and when, exactly, this upgrade is happening. It's worth noting that another free chunk of DLC, Body Swap Mode, which adds 2-player co-op for all non-mobile ports, will be released with Treasure Trove as well, for free.

Now, it'd be easy to condemn Yacht Club for suddenly selling their free DLC, but then, they were offering it, for free, for three years: that's still way more generous with DLC than a game has any right to be, especially one this old. So for however sketch this may be, at the very least, it's understandable and forgivable.

Besides, local co-op is a dying breed. That deserves praise if nothing else.