Shovel Knight (universe)

Shovel Knight (universe)
Developer(s)	Yacht Club Games Nitrome VINE
Publisher(s)	Yacht Club Games Nintendo (Treasure Trove, JP)
Designer(s)	Sean Velasco
Genre(s)	Action, platform
Console/platform of origin	Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U
First installment	Shovel Knight (2014)
Latest installment	Shovel Knight: King of Cards/Shovel Knight Showdown (2019)
Article on Wikipedia	Shovel Knight (universe)

The Shovel Knight universe (ショべルナイト, Shovel Knight) refers to the Super Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from the franchise spawned by the indie game created by Yacht Club Games. Serving as an homage to classic NES platformers, the original game, retroactively dubbed Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope, stars the titular Shovel Knight in his adventures to the Tower of Fate to save Shield Knight from a cursed amulet, and defeat the Order of No Quarter in the process. The game was expanded to include other playable characters and even has its own amiibo collection of the four different playable characters. A wide variety of crossover appearances and two spinoffs in collaboration with other developers, Shovel Knight Dig and Shovel Knight Pocket Dunegon, have since followed in the original game's success.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The Shovel Knight universe made its debut in Ultimate, being represented by an Assist Trophy and some spirits.

Assist Trophy

• Shovel Knight: Shovel Knight, the star of the original campaign and following spinoffs, appears as an Assist Trophy. He uses his shovel to dig the ground, sometimes pulling up items, and also hops around the stage on his shovel.

Spirits

The following characters from the series are spirits.

No.	Image	Name	Type	Class	Slots	Ability
1,264		Shovel Knight		★★★	2	No Effect
1,265		Shield Knight		★★	2	Weapon Resist ↑
1,266		Plague Knight		★	1	Fire & Explosion Attack ↑
1,267		King Knight		★	1	Weight ↑
1,268		Specter Knight		★★	2	No Effect

Trivia

• Shovel Knight is the second indie franchise to be represented in Smash, following BIT.TRIP.
• Link's down aerial attack, the downward thrust from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, serves as the inspiration for Shovel Knight's Shovel Drop attack, which they both use in Smash.
• In the Assist Trophy category in Training Mode, Shovel Knight is listed as the last Assist Trophy in order, being placed with the 3rd-party Assist Trophies. However, in the Spirit Collection, all Shovel Knight spirits are grouped with the 1st-party series rather than the 3rd-party series, being placed between the Dillon's Rolling Western and Culdcept spirits. This is likely due to Nintendo publishing the initial Japanese releases for the game.
• All of the Shovel Knight spirits are playable characters within their home series. Shovel Knight was the first character; Plague Knight, Specter Knight, and King Knight later became playable in their own individual campaigns; and Shield Knight became playable in Shovel Knight Showdown.