Target Acquired: Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows

Last year, Yacht Club Games released Shovel Knight to much acclaim, starring a blue shovel-wielding knight in a retro-styled platformer inspired by 8-bit classics. The knight uses his shovel to uncover treasure and to defeat enemies with downward strikes. Now, one of his former foes is being showcased in Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows a free expansion to the original game starring Plague Knight in his own adventure.

Rather than a simple re-skin of the Shovel Knight character, Plague Knight has an entirely new moveset, requiring that he tackle previously-visited levels in a very different way. Plague Knight uses his bombs for mobility in order to boost high into the sky and to deal with enemies at a distance. Throughout his adventure, he acquires a number of bomb upgrades that have different properties, allowing him to toss bouncing bombs, send them high into the air, extend their fuses, etc. For a detailed look at the Plague of Shadows expansion, check our coverage here.

Shovel Knight and the Plague Knight expansion are available for your platform of choice: PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam and GOG; PS4, PS3, and Vita via PSN; Xbox One via XBLA; and Wii U and 3DS via the eShop. You can also grab the game at retail for PS4, Wii U, and 3DS, with the original game and expansions included on the disc/cart. And if you're in Europe, you can get a boxed copy of the PC version as well.