You have infinite lives, so there?s no penalty for dying again and again (not that you will, for the most part). What?s more, there?s little in the way of a challenge here. There are the odd levels where the game switches things up - a rising floor of spikes here, a level comprised entirely of floating platforms there - they happen so rarely they?re barely worth mentioning.

While the game officially features 25 levels, for the most part you?re just running through the same dungeon again and again, with slightly different layouts and a few more enemies here and there to mix things up. That?s really all that can be said for it. Where Shovel Knight was a brilliant homage to platformers of days gone by that still offered more than enough to players to stand on its own two feet, Bucket Knight…exists.

Unfortunately, this goes for quality too. Sure, they?re both retro-y platformers, and sure, both feature knights defined by objects, but that?s the extent of what they have in common. Despite what you may think from the name, Bucket Knight is in no way affiliated with Shovel Knight.

Free downloads Bucket Knight