Welcome to seven nights of Shovel Knight! Even Worse Streams is going to be playing through the entirety of Shovel Knight Treasure Trove over the next few weeks, and you are encouraged to play along at home. But what system/version should you choose for Shovel Knight? Let’s spend this article answering that question.
Steam
Shovel Knight on Steam has “feats” that sync to your achievements, Steam trading card support, and… Arby’s Cheats? Apparently, those were codes distributed with themed Arby’s meals, and they only work on the Steam and Nintendo versions. Huh.
Xbox One, Xbox X|S
Once again, the Xbox has achievements that boost your gamer score (or whatever those points are that make teenagers happy. Vbucks?). There is also the entire Battletoads cameo sequence, which essentially includes the first three levels of Battletoads. There is beat ‘em up style fighting! The Wookie Hole (you know, level 2 with the cord)! And a Turbo Tunnel challenge that is slightly more fair than its original incarnation. They even got the pause music right! Look, this is closest anyone has come to making a real Battletoads 2 in the last few decades (and, yes, I am including the modern version in that statement), and you really need to give this one a shot if you ever enjoyed battlin’ some toads.
Oh, and Shovel Knight gets some froggish armor that grants him rough approximations of Battletoad abilities. Given his game is so perfectly calibrated to his baseline abilities, adding these toad skills is janky, and will likely just get this green knight killed. But, hey, it is always fun to give a big boot to a dumb rat.
Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, PS Vita
We’ve got trophies, and, instead of Battletoads, the Sony family gets Kratos. This is unfortunately quantifiably worse than the Battletoads cameo, as Kratos only gets a multi-stage boss fight to shine, and no attendant level. Come on, Yacht Club, we could have had Shovely bounce through Ancient Greece for no reason! Regardless, after Kratos’s quick cameo, you are granted Shovel Knight Chaos Armor, which is essentially regular gameplay with longer range and extra orbs. Hooray?
Oh, and the Vita version does not support Shovel Knight Showdown, but does include “backtouch”. Does anyone remember enough about the Vita to say if that is useful?
We are not even going to acknowledge “controller light changes color” as a feature on the later Sony consoles. That’s just mood lighting.
Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo systems do not get any cameos or global account-based achievements. However, they do get all the good stuff. The 3DS made use of the StreetPass feature, and allowed you to battle ghost data of other players. Of course, StreetPass is dead and buried now… But what a glorious time to fight some random dude on the subway! Similar to the Vita, the 3DS did not allow for co-op or Shovel Knight Showdown, but it did have that titular 3-D. Oh! And it had the other stuff from other Nintendo Systems…
Nintendo WiiU
The WiiU had the Miiverse-based Digger’s Diary, which further strengthened the bond between Dark Souls and Shovel Knight by allowing the player to pass messages to others venturing forward on the same quest. This was essential! And it went down with the Miiverse! Boo!
The WiiU and the 3DS both have gamepad/touchscreen support, which means you can switch items on the fly without having to open a pause menu. This enhances gameplay dramatically, and is indisputably the best option for playing as Plague Knight. That dude needs to be able to switch weapons every two seconds.
And, with our final system, we get to the standard Nintendo line of options…
Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
.. Your friend, the Amiibo. All three Nintendo systems support the Shovel Knight line of Amiibos. In all campaigns, the Amiibos unlock fairy companions that… do absolutely nothing. They’re cosmetic! But they’re cute! Who could say no to such a creature? The Amiibos also unlock extra challenges on every campaign, and (still just cosmetic) costumes. And in Shovel Knight’s campaign, you can use Custom Knight, which utilizes the Amiibo’s memory to create your own “custom” Shovel Knight. And he gets a cool costume, too! Neat!
And Nintendo Switch also got Specter Knight’s campaign and Body Swap Mode a month earlier than all other systems. That… doesn’t matter much now. But it happened!
So which system is best for Shovel Knight Treasure Trove?
Nintendo WiiU in 2015. If 2015 is no longer available, just go ahead and freestyle it.
Let’s Play Shovel Knight Treasure Trove
Night 1
January 6, 2026
Random Notes:
- It is time for weeks of Shovelry! Dig into it with our cast of knights like BEAT, Ample Vigour, Chromes, Caithness, and Morning Song.
- We are distinctly starting with the game that started it all, Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope. Also: British accents.
- Larry Hama is mentioned. Have I ever posted this picture of him at our local mall?
There we go.
- “Nobody’s high at Wal Mart!”
- BEAT alludes to us hanging out “earlier this year”. This is literally the first stream of the year.
- “I fucking hate PreCure.” “What? Why!?”
- Megs is in the chat, and she claims this game sucks, and we should play more Rudolph. Megs is wrong.
- Let’s discuss eggs! And egg allergies! And egg mouth feel!
- Chromes is our studio audience.
- Caliscrub joins while Boog and Megs choose to stay in the chat. Everyone has their respective comfort zone.
- Everyone once again agrees that my sonicsona is Goggles the Jerboa.
- Caliscrub reveals the origins of his name! Wow! Lore!
- 2016 was the golden age of skeleton porn.
Cornflaking.- “Sometimes you look in the mirror and say, ‘Yeah, that’s pretty good.’”
- Which horrible creature should we torture more, Furby or Labubu?
- We examine zombification speedrun strats for Minecraft. No further questions.
- “Isabelle having a butt is Archduke Franz Ferdinand.”
- And, with Tinker Knight defeated, we wrap for the evening. We will complete this campaign next week on a totally different system.
Next trowel on Shovel Knight: Breaking the curse and casting a whole new one.