So you're a little dude with a shovel and some fancy blue armor. Still, 'Shovel Knight' takes those influences and manages to become its own beast, not just a clean amalgamation of better games. It's essentially a time paradox to compare in a vacuum one game influenced by another. 'Shovel Knight' couldn't have existed without them, much like the rest of the gaming world. Okay, maybe that's a little unfair to Mario and Mega Man.

Where the majority of other games fail, 'Shovel Knight' succeeds completely at bringing you back, not by shouting out to Mario or Mega Man, but by directly competing with the greats of that day. Yacht Club Games, instead of tepidly fingering around in the 8-bit era for cute ideas and one-note twists on the modern day, completely and utterly submerges itself into the era with 'Shovel Knight.' It is, excepting its release platforms, a NES game, and a very, very good one at that. But most of those games don't make the full effort, don't fill in the details, and as a result might look or sound the part, but never feel the part. A lot of games do, especially in this period when nostalgia for the NES and its games has hit a high note. 'Shovel Knight' and developer Yacht Club Games came headfirst into this problem in their attempt to recreate the 8-bit era in today's gaming world. It's tough to go back to a feeling by going back to a place, but not impossible. The people are older, the locations a little bit rustier, the feeling in that previous moment only an echo in today's replication.

The details are out of place or completely missing. When we try to recreate the past, the same fundamental flaw always seems to crop up.

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