We waited what seemed like an age for this downloadable delight to arrive, now seemingly out of the blue in a Nintendo Direct it transpired that Shovel Knight has finally been released on the eShop for both Wii U and 3DS, but does it manage to bury the competition or merely dig itself an early grave from making us wait so long? Thankfully you can throw that pile of digital dirt in your hand aside because this is one retro platform game that manages to deliver in spades.

The story goes that there was once a prosperous age for Heroes where Shovel Knight and his companion Shield Knight would go on merry adventures together across the land, until one day when they ventured to the 'Tower of Fate' where the power of a cursed amulet befell them. Shovel Knight reawakens to find that Shield Knight just vanished, leaving only her helmet behind. Presumed missing, it then transpires that Shovel Knight went into leading a quiet life. While this was going on the Enchantress crept forth from the darkness to rule the land in the Order of no Quarter and thus Shovel Knight takes up his former digging device once more to save the land from evil, meaning that he must uphold the code of Shovelry; Slash Mercilessly and Dig Tirelessly!

From the very first stage everything feels right; from the fluid directional movement to the swing of your shovel, revealing valuable treasure under dirt and flipping enemies with relative ease, it would seem like nothing much could go wrong on the green pastures of the opening area. Once you've beaten this initial trial you will have dispatched several enemies with your shovel, dug multiple dirt piles, plundered treasure chests by finding secret areas, crossed chasms by bouncing on bubbles or enemies, slain multiple dragons and had your first battle with the Black Knight; all in a stage's work naturally.

You are then presented with a map screen which is very reminiscent of Super Mario Bros 3 crossed with Mega Man. The Village features various NPCs who will help you spend your recently acquired treasure on valuable items and upgrades, and even a rather fun mini-game hidden away. You actually get to pick from various stages, even if it does become a means to an end being that you need to beat certain ones in order to unlock some others, but it's still nice to have that illusion of choice.

It's really fun to have plenty of things to work towards, because there are plenty of unlockable items to buy from the chest-dwelling Chester, found in stages and in the village. You can acquire such items as a Flare Wand, which grants you fiery projectiles, Phase Locket that lets you negate damage for three seconds, a Throwing Anchor and even a Fishing Rod that lets you fish off ledges within stages for hidden items. My personal favourite has to be the Dust Knuckles as they allow you to dash through multiple piles of dirt, even in mid-air.

All of the stages have been deviously designed by someone with a clearly sadistic streak as they are all challenging in their own way, taking inspiration from Mega Man, Castlevania and Zelda II to a certain extent, yet it never feels brutally unfair - aside from when you get knocked into a bottomless pit for the tenth time over. Instead of having lives you actually lose a certain amount of the treasure you've collected with the option of reclaiming it if you can get back to the point where you departed without falling again. Indeed, if you're over-confident in your skill level then you can even break the checkpoints with your shovel which will gain you more treasure, but if you should slip up then just be aware that it'll be back to the start with you. I personally wouldn't advise it, nice as it is to at least have the option for perhaps more masochistic players.

Being that you need a certain amount of treasure to advance in the game - at least until you've purchased all of the available upgrades - it certainly will affect the way that you play. After clearing a stage with a few thousand gold do you then opt to cash it in for one reasonably priced but useful upgrade, or do you risk another stage to try doubling your haul so that you can go for that super-flashy armour set? You also have the health and magic upgrades to factor in, which means you have a brilliant risk versus reward system that feels unique. Feats are the in-game achievement-like system that will reward you with an accolade for doing all manner of things, ranging from normal game progress to safely putting out a camp fire. There are over forty to collect, which adds some variation to things. You get to face off against a range of enemies including beetles, dragons, mice attached to rotor blades, magicians, electric frogs, ghosts, armoured skeletons and those blasted spectres with fans who manage to propel you off the edge with blasts of air just when you think you've made it to a safe spot... yes, many 'delightful' enemies to decimate with your dirt-digging implement.

I must say that Shovel Knight is nothing but a finely polished masterpiece that uses 8-bit style graphics to its credit. Honestly, there is more subtle detail in some of the environments that actually make you sit up and take notice than in many modern-day titles. Everything is produced to the highest standard. There are no vanishing projectiles or graphical artifacts that shouldn't be there, it's just sheer wonderment from start to finish. Thanks to modern hardware you'll get to enjoy some of the best examples of parallax scrolling possibly ever produced, a painstaking level of animation that will make you just want to watch many of the weird and wonderful NPCs - including Deer-Women, Alchemists, a Bard and many more - that populate the land. The stages themselves are wonderfully varied too; Woodland Plains, an Underground Cavern, a Laboratory, a partially-submerged Ship in the Shape of a Whale and many more surprises for you to discover yourself, all gloriously presented.

The soundtrack contains multi-layered compositions, with each stage theme thematically different from the last, helping to enhance the distinction felt in each part of the world, plus it really spurs you on during those challenging moments. The soundtrack was composed by revered composers Jake Kaufman, famous for the Shantae series amongst others, and Manami Matsumae who composed the original Mega Man soundtrack and worked on Mega Man 10, which may account for some of the pleasing similarities, resuling in music of a high calibre.

Fortunately, if you wish to hear any of the fantastic music within the game there is a delightfully whimsical way to listen to these tunes - through the town bard. He will play you any of the games many pieces of music, providing you have found the music sheet hidden in the stages, and provide an excellent example in how to reward the player who likes to collect things. An omnipresent boss health meter will condition you to assume there will be a boss fight at the end of each stage - against a brilliantly brutal set of Knights - you will actually get to face off against bosses in some of the most unlikely places. This is yet another example of how the game can surprise you. While on the face of it you do only get eight substantial stages, plus a final section, there are actually a good few challenges that will pop up periodically on the map in a similar way to the battles in SMB3 on the NES. These can include making it through a mini-stage in a dash for treasure or even a duel. I must have spent a good ten hours on my first main play-through , but that isn't including the unlockable modes to play with too.

Personally I would say that it's worth owning Shovel Knight on either machine - or both - because they each have their plus points, the Wii U version feels like you're playing a NES title that feels like it could have been in development since that very era, as well as the Digger's Diary - Miiverse integration from within the game - and the promise of the Battle Mode is tantalising. The 3DS version feels like you're playing a modern version of a game that's already known as a classic - if that makes sense - as the 3D elevates it to an entirely different plain of greatness, the advantage of portability and of course the Streetpass Arena mode that feels like a Super Mario Bros arcade coin collecting challenge fused with a Zelda II style battle which you're only half aware of taking part in. It really is understated genius.

Whichever version you pick though just be sure to enjoy what it most definitely one of the greatest games of this generation that is uniquely rewarding. If you're a fan of classic game design filled with fantastic humour, engaging mechanics and above all something that's fun to play from start to finish then I really can't recommend Shovel Knight enough. I find it hard to believe that such a finely crafted experience was created by barely a handful of people whose talents surely know no end. Yacht Club games really are a credit to this industry as is this game, which I would really urge everyone to 'dig deep' for. I can verify that it is worth every piece of gold and then some.