Shovel Knight may have released long after the Nintendo 64, but a creative fan has come up with a mockup of what the game may have looked like if it had launched on the platform. Yacht Club Games launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013 and delivered Shovel Knight in 2014. The game was met with critical acclaim, initially landing on Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, as well as Windows. It went on to receive a slew of DLC which featured additional playable characters and multiplayer Shovel Knight is one of the greatest success stories in all of indie gaming, right up there with other hits like Celeste and Stardew Valley.
Shovel Knight was eventually ported to just about every platform imaginable, and earned the title of Best Independent Game at The Game Awards in 2014 along with several other accolades from various sources. Despite its age, Shovel Knight is still considered one of the best indie games available on Nintendo Switch. The game drew inspiration from several games such as Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link, Super Mario Bros. 3, and even Dark Souls.
Pixel artist Sam the Salmon put together an impressive mockup of what Shovel Knight may have looked like as an N64 game, replete with box art and a couple of images that showcase what the world and characters may have looked like back in the day when low-poly 3D graphics were the bleeding edge of what was graphically possible in video games. The images invoke hit titles from the era such as Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Sam the Salmon's artwork certainly makes a convincing case that it may indeed have been among the N64 greats. Games from the N64 era like Goldeneye 007, which was recently re-released on modern platforms, are still held in high regard. The N64 was handily beat by the original Sony PlayStation in terms of sales, but still did well enough to keep Nintendo in the console market, unlike the ill-fated Sega Saturn. One can only wonder if Shovel Knight would have found success as a 3D game.
The Shovel Knight series did spawn another game, but it didn't quite live up to the standard set by the original. Yacht Club Games has had another game in the works called Mina the Hollower that has a similar 8-bit aesthetic to Shovel Knight, so fans of the game should certainly keep an eye out for that one.
Shovel Knight is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.