Having played Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment last year, and having no idea when Shovel Knight: King of Cards will arrive this year, I figured there was a sufficiently large enough gap in the schedule to squeeze in Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, the first of Shovel Knight's three "Treasure Trove" spin-offs. Shovel Knight's developers, Yacht Club Games, has been supporting their debut game on a level heretofore unprecedented: it's something to add new features or characters or release a free DLC bonus campaign post-launch, but it's something else to do that three times over. Anyone who bought the original Shovel Knight or the more recent Treasure Trove edition has access to three additional campaigns starring some of the blackguard Knights of the Order of No Quarter. Of the two I've played so far, Plague of Shadows is the weakest, but only because the ambition of Specter of Torment (and, I suspect, King of Cards) is that much more substantial. If you were told that the DLC campaign would let you play the original game as a separate character, with separate upgrades and controls, you'd probably imagine something like Plague of Shadows. Specter of Torment, conversely, felt like an entirely new game with a handful of reused assets.

That isn't to say Plague of Shadows is bad - it's riffing on one of the best retro platformers of all time - just that it's a little underwhelming after Specter of Torment, which placed high on my GOTY list last year. Plague's a lot more of a remix, keeping most of the stages (and bosses) as-is barring a few Plague Knight-specific side-areas and an alternate route through most of its obstacles. Plague Knight doesn't have Shovel Knight's shovel-bounce, but can instead project himself up and forward with an explosion. This allows him to cross larger distances than a regular double-jump, but requires a small charge-up period that makes it tricky to master in some of the game's more intensive platforming challenges. He also has his own set of Relics, called Arcanes, which compliment his platforming style and include the likes of potions that increase speed, allow Plague Knight to siphon health from enemies, or even create a temporary platform under his feet. The last of those is easily the most useful, having saved my bacon several dozen times, but as was also the case for the accessories in Specter Knight and Shovel Knight the others proved useful in the right context or were fun enough just to experiment with.

The story has Plague Knight and his assistant (and bottle mini-game hostess from Shovel Knight) Mona concoct an "ultimate potion" from the essences of the game's knight bosses - including Shovel Knight, who pops up several times in a mute role and even has his own tough boss fight - as the contrivance required to play through the whole game again. There's romance, there's drama, there's a lot of dancing, there's Plague Knight not taking any of his fellow armored goons even remotely seriously, and there's a lot of neat twists on the conventions, characters, and locations of the original game. One particularly great diversion was visiting the "Hall of Champions" - where the game's big Kickstarter backers are enshrined in portrait form for all posterity - and wrecking up the place, destroying the paintings of all those smug (but very generous!) patrons. A nearby NPC even concurs with how cathartic it must feel. The game's allowed to let its hair down and be self-referential, treating the whole adventure as a "what if" alternative telling rather than the quasi-canonical prequel that was Specter of Torment.

So, that's Plague of Shadows in a nutshell: a fantastic follow-up to the core game if you were looking for some slight tweaks and a new protagonist, but overshadowed by its far more ambitious and confident successor. Kind of like the middle child who doesn't have the academics or athletic prowess of their siblings, but makes up for it with a laid-back attitude and a great sense of humor.

Rating: 4 out of 5.