I understand where Tom is coming from since he's played a lot of the classic games Shovel Knight is borrowing from, and that's cool. For me, as someone who's played very few of the games it cribs from (Curse the Yellow Devil in MM1... I can't get past him!), I don't think the retread factor will affect me too much.

I feel that pointing out that SK is heavily influenced by older games, and suffering because of it -- for those who have played the influencing games -- is a very valid point.

Great review. I'm still picking up the game, but I think the opinion Tom expressed is valuable regardless.