Shovel Knight: Shoveling (seriously...?)

Given a screenshot was used in the my "introductory" post, it's perhaps best that I explain or deconstruct a bit of why Shovel Knight is perhaps one of the best -- if not the -- examples of post-irony and performatism in gaming. But to understand that it's probably best to explain why other retro themed games are not good examples of post-irony and performatism.

To make a 2D platformer of almost any kind is making a bit of a statement. Even though 2D platforming has become fashionable again, it is still rife with both intentional and unintentional historical and cultural baggage. The 2D platformer was the go-to genre for over a decade and has largely retained its popularity over 3D platformers (which has all but given out to the 3d action/adventure). A lot of this is because 2D platforming had over a decade of additional time to develop and refine. In many ways, the a 2D platformer is in of itself performative because it relies on an established vernacular of what we know to be "good" versus "bad" in platforming design -- a great platformer is then able to create its own dialect on these established rules.

So the crux of what makes a 2D game performative versus non-performative lies in how the game reconciles the cultural backlog of its genre. Games have the option of ignoring it, parodying it, deconstructing it, or embracing it. A majority of 2D platformers ignore this backlog and this is for good reason, it has kept the genre moving forward -- including games as recent as last years Inside or Ubisoft's revival of the Rayman franchise to Wayforward's brilliant Shantae franchise. They instead focus on making the most advanced platformer possible. By default, because of the genre, they inadvertently employ the tropes of older games but don't acknowledge them beyond accept norms such as good controls or basic concepts of level design.

Parody is then the second most common and probably the easiest: a quick reference to a famous game or the genre as a whole generates easy laughs since anyone playing a 2D platformer in 2017 is "aware" of the inherent irony. The jokes more or less write themselves.

The difference then between deconstructive games versus this performative "embrace" is a bit dodgy. Obviously, embrace refers to Shovel Knight and implies performatism. It would not be wrong to say that part of Shovel Knight does rely on deconstructing the genre. But, to the extent that a truly deconstructive game such as Fez does would be wrong: Fez is about a 2D character discovering the world is 3D, it is challenging the accepted language of the platformer in a creative way. The titular Shovel Knight has no such revelations of the world around him, he and the player accept the world as it is. Similarly, there are no "game logic" related jokes: an excellent moment in Super Meat Boy involves the third level boss -- a golem made of all of Meat Boy's dead carcasses (raising the question: so Meat Boy really does die all those times?!?!).

Shovel Knight then exists in the weird in-between. As a joke or parody, most of the humor derives from the knightliness... what kind of knight uses a shovel? And have coordinated powers? Yes, this is an obvious nod to Megaman, and partly Duck Tales, using the tropes of the 8-bit area in a way that we acknowledge is not quite accurate but conveys the seeming arbitrarity to how that generation assigned names and power to characters. On the outset, it's a simple parody.But with closer study, Shovel Knight is a lot more subtle.

But then Shovel Knight goes out of its the way to be a period replica of the 8-bit era and does so convincingly (notably the technically possible soundtrack). This is in of itself a deconstructive idea, using pastiche to either criticize or provide commentary. But when it is played so straight, it becomes performative. We are aware of "the joke," this is an 8-bit game in 2014, yet none of the characters are aware of the joke/there is none of the proverbial winnings at the camera. To make a cinematic comparison, the films The Artist and La La Land are both pastiches. However, La La Land plays its genre straight and commentary, therefore, comes from recognizing that this is a period musical akin to the golden age of Hollywood in 2017 (just not set in the appropriate setting), as opposed to The Artist which uses its silent film genre inauthentically for more overt commentary.

Through this lense, suddenly the humor in Shovel Knight is not just humor. The fact that Shovel Knight is so accurate (beyond obvious technical inauthenticities) puts the game in a light that makes us consider that in an alternate world this game might have been conceived of in the 8-bit era. The period authenticity only aids this -- compare it to other games that use simplistic or low-bit inspired pixel art and the juxtapositions are obvious.

In a sense, with regard to Shovel Knight context is key. If Shovel Knight were made in 1980 (not technically possible, but let's assume) it would have less impact than it being made in 2015 because it relies on this performative double frame, the inner frame being the game the outer frame being the context. 

All of this with an actually serious story about a knight seeking redemption and rescuing his/her friend (the Shield Knight) makes Shovel Knight not revel in obvious parody but is instead an amazingly smart pastiche that very few games come anywhere close to. It also displays, in excellence, how post-irony and performatism works in a total art form and not in the more typically assumed "hipster contrarianism" that we stereotype. Dark Souls was merely parts and elements of, Shovel Knight is designed around it. In general, I do believe this to be one of the smartest and most profound games ever released in the indie sphere and has certainly set the bar for future platformers almost impossibly high.