Shovel Knight Dig Review – The Deeper You Go, the Better It Gets!

by Jim Smale · Published May 21, 2025 · Updated May 21, 2025

Shovel Knight Dig review – When Drill Knight and his crew blast apart Shovel Knight’s peaceful campsite and steal his loot, he grabs his trusty Shovel Blade and starts tunneling after them! Jump, slash, and dig your way down an ever-changing chasm of mystery in this thrilling adventure.

Shovel Knight Dig Review Pros

Beautiful pixel art graphics.
489.1MB download size.
Platinum trophy.
Own in-game achievements called feats.
Controller settings – remap buttons and you can change the confirm button.
Accessibility options include screenshake, extra health, food chance, gems chance, attack damage, and game speed.
Action gameplay.
It plays a lot like Mr. Driller; you go down the screen, avoiding obstacles, collecting gems, etc.
Classic enemies and combat are mixed into the formula.
Compendium fills in as you play.
The ground you dig is the main way of moving around the level, for you can dig into the ground just by being close to it, so think of dirt above spikes, you can go along the dirt and avoid spikes if you time it correctly.
Runs are broken up into levels, and you progress through the chain of stories in a set location.
Every run is randomized in terms of level design and enemy placement.
The way it’s structured in its layout means there are multiple routes and secrets.
Puzzle elements, as you may need to plan your route in order not to trigger traps and get the cogs and gems.
Many hidden rooms to find.
Gems are the currency for the shop, and you keep a small percentage of them after death so you can buy permanent upgrades or keys for your next run.
End of run breakdown.
As you are making your way down, there is a constant threat; take too long and the digging machine will get you and will end you.
Highly addictive.
The hub or top world has many characters to interact with, but you can also discover trials, treasure mini games, and fill out the shop and camp with new characters and amenities like the Blacksmith.
Online leaderboards for overall progress with weekly and daily run variations.
Relic keys can be found/bought and open up a new random relic that can appear in future runs.
The surface has the main shop, but small ones can appear in runs.
Health is handled by three hearts.
Quick restart menu option.
Cogs can be collected and cashed in for a choice of two bonuses during the levels.
Forks in the road allow you to choose your route.
Bite-sized gaming.
You lose a percentage of your gems upon death.
Earn the right to buy shortcuts to new locations.
Despite dying a lot, I really like the gameplay loop, and the game is just quick enough that starting again isn’t a huge deal.
When you die, it does the Shovel Knight thing of dropping gems and loot into money bags that fly around and will appear in the next run, hit them to get them back!

Shovel Knight Dig Review Cons

Accessibility options disable feats which is a bit unfair.
Takes some getting used to, especially the blending of combat and exploration.
Can attack in every direction but up.
The tutorial is very basic.
Never really sure what the bonuses are before selecting them.
You are very weak at the start and everything hurts, sucks but it does get better.
Again, the early game is a lot of repetition, and the game does little to mix it up.
It does take time to show its potential.