Shovel Knight – Flying Machine
Shovel Knight’s stunning pixel art, rocking chiptune score, and cast of whimsical knights make it a perfect tribute to our favorite Nintendo games of yesteryear. Of course, no game from that era would be complete without a suitably punishing difficulty level, and the game doesn’t fail to mimic its lineage in this department either.
There are a few Shovel Knight levels that will have you resisting the urge to throw your controller in the air and attempting to realign your chi, but Flying Machine is definitely the most infuriating. It has players traverse against the push and pull of wind generating machines, which is made deadly by almost ever-present spiked walls and bottomless pits. Just as you think you’ve got to grips with timing your jumps, a new section throws you off balance by changing the wind direction, throwing in pesky flying enemies to deal with, or ramping up the challenge with tough platforming sequences, such as bouncing between cannonballs, and there are certain parts of the level in which you’ll have to deal with all of these elements at the same time.
To make things even worse, when you finally come to the end of Flying Machine and begin to celebrate your achievement, along comes Propeller Knight — one of the hardest boss fights in the entire game.
