Game Play Review - Shovel Knight Dungeon Duels The Board Game

Shovel Knight Dungeon Duels The Board Game, published by Panda Cult Games, is a board game implementation of the side-scrolling video game published by Yacht Club Games. Like the video game, players take on the role of a shovel knight who is on a quest for justice against the evil Order of No Quarter. The game end is triggered when the enemy boss is killed, or after three rounds in the boss room tile even if the enemy boss remains. The shovel knight who has collected the most coins along the way is declared the winner.

This post is broken into the following 3 sections, feel free to jump directly to one:

1. General summary - consisting of information about overall enjoyment, theme, replayability, and upgrades
2. Complexity - consisting of information about the rulebook, setup, player turns, and overall learning curve
3. Player turns - consisting of game type, game flow, rule you are likely to miss, and favorite aspect

Number of players we had: 3
Our play time (not including setup): 1 hour 15 minutes

Overall enjoyment

Overall our group really enjoyed playing this game our second time. On our first play we misunderstood some of the rules and ended up with some really weird consequences. Once we cleared up where we went astray, the game made much more sense and we had a great time.

Shovel Knight Dungeon Duels is a great homage to early video games. It is fun, has lots of unique elements and though it is competitive, there is a cooperative aspect to it. Any enemies left behind can come after the shovel knights during their turn so you must plan your movements strategically if you want to stay on the board. However, even if a shovel knight is defeated, you are able to respawn on your next turn and grab a loot card along the way.

We really like the side-scrolling element of the game. Players are limited to seeing only the next tile that will slide into the play area so there is always an element of surprise. Even though you may plan ahead, once the enemies take their turn at the end of each round, it is possible for a shovel knight to get knocked back and/or be unexpectedly defeated if you were then caught on a tile that rotated off the play area.

If we had to pick something that frustrated us it would be that the font in the rule book can at times be hard to read. It matches the theme and we like it, but the sentences are fairly close together making it more challenging than other fonts.

Theme

The theme of Shovel Knight Dungeon Duels falls along the lines as the original video game, which was formatted as an homage to 8-bit video games. Like the video game, the board game has the same retro feel and incorporates many of the enemies you would expect: propeller rats, wizzems, boneclangs, king knight, the enchantress, and many more!

In keeping with the side-scrolling effect of the original video game, the board game utilizes a tiled play area. At the end of each round a new tile is added to the right side which pushes the leftmost tile off the play area. The tiles, the models, and all of the cards - which include loot, equipment, spawn, relic, hero, and boss cards, all tie into the theme perfectly and were well thought out.

Replayability

There are several things that add to the replayability of this game, including:

• There are 11 different bosses, each with their own set of tiles that the shovel knights must pass through before the end fight on the double-sided boss room tile.
• Boss enemies have unpredictable movements that are controlled by their own unique set of AI cards. The AI cards show where the boss moves to and which shovel knights are affected by that movemvent.
• Each game is made up of the five plains of passage tiles along with five tiles that match the end boss and the boss room. The plains of passage tiles are double-sided, and them and the boss tiles are randomly stacked together to randomize the game.
• Treasures and enemies added to incoming tiles are randomized.
• The four different types of loot cards have far more in them than will usually be used in a game.
• Games go quickly so you will want to play again.

Upgrades

There is a 2D- and 3D-version of the game. The 3D version backed on Kickstarter came with just over 50 models. These include shovel knights, enemies and all of the bosses. The models are very cool and fun to play with even though the standees for the 2D game are also really colorful and well designed.

Rule book

The rule book is very organized and uses lots of images to explain the game play. While the rule book is really long, nearly half of it is made up of detailed explanations for how each of the unique boss enemy tiles work. This includes all the features specific to that particular boss. There is also a decent number of pages dedicated to explaining all of the included tokens, cards, and tiles.

What threw us off initially was that the boss tile room was explained before the unique boss tiles stacked under the beginning plains of passage tiles. When we read it we weren't sure which bosses used the boss tile room, and instead thought the boss was supposed to be fought using their specific tiles. This of course did not work out at all! Now that we understand how the game plays, it makes sense that the boss tile room is quickly explained before the 20+ pages explaining the tiles unique to each boss.

Setup

Setting up Shovel Knight Dungeon Duels is pretty quick and only takes about 10 minutes. The decks of cards are separated out, the boss enemy picked, tiles randomized and tokens set around the board. Once this is done, treasure mound tokens and enemies are randomized on the board and you are ready to begin playing.

Turns

Player turns go pretty quickly as each player has three actions to use. Players choose from moving onto a new space, jumping past an obstacle to a new space, attacking an enemy or another shovel knight, purchasing equipment cards, using loot cards (which are free actions), using their shovel knight special action and standing up if they were previously knocked down. Actions can be done in any order and multiple times.

Overall learning curve

The overall learning curve for this game is relatively low. Players have the same actions available each turn, and while the playing tiles change every round, players can always see the tile that will be added next. Spaces on each tile are broken into two categories: those that shovel knights can enter and those that shovel knights must jump over to avoid.

Enemies move at the end of each round after all shovel knights have taken a turn. Enemy movements, attacks, and skills are easy to understand using the oversized enemy overview card. Each boss has their own set of five tiles before the boss room tile which are explained in detail in the rule book. The boss AI movement cards are a great way to add randomization without complicating the game.

Play type

Shovel Knight Dungeon Duels is a symmetrical dice rolling, dungeon crawling competitive board game. Players compete to collect the most coins which can be gathered by defeating enemies, collecting treasure mounds, picking up coins dropped by defeated shovel knights, and causing damage to or defeating a boss.

Game flow

This game plays fast but packs a decent amount of strategy, luck, and fun into the small amount of time it takes. Player turns are quick with each player having three actions. There are ten tiles, or ten rounds, made up of five plains of passage tiles and five unique boss tiles before the boss room tile which spans 1-3 rounds. Turns are a fine balance of battling enemies, grabbing coins and moving forward because being on a tile rotating off the play area defeats that player and costs them half of their coins.

Rule you are likely to forget/miss

The rule you are likely to forget is to choose one of the four types of loot cards when your shovel knight is defeated. I think this happens because you are focused on moving your model off the board and counting your coins before placing half of them on the board where you were defeated. Still, loot cards are extremely helpful so it is important to remember to pick one up when defeated.

Favorite aspect

Our favorite aspect of this game is the ability to respawn your shovel knight if you are defeated. You lose half of your coins, but knowing you can jump right back into the game without a huge loss or hassle is nice. Respawning makes it more fun to play aggressively - going after enemies and trying to jump over pits, etc. We also like how the side scrolling tile element is so unique!

Overall Shovel Knight Dungeon Duels is a fun board game that greatly complements the retro video game. The side-scrolling tiles are unique, the models - including the enemies and boss models - are great, and controlling the boss movements through the use of randomized AI cards are a neat twist. The ability to respawn on your next turn and get back into the fight keeps the game light and fun. Lastly, the game moves fast and with so many different bosses to fight, you will want to play it over and over again.