Shovel Knight took the gaming world by storm last year giving players compelling gameplay reminiscent of old school franchises like Mega Man and Duck Tales and a fantastic chiptune soundtrack, all mixed with new school ideas like breakable checkpoints for an added challenge. After a very successful Kickstarter campaign and very positive reviews from players and critics alike, the developer is finally ready to announce what's next for the popular title.

In an official update on their site, Yacht Club Games has begun working on the content detailed in their stretch goals for the Kickstarter project and they're now working to deliver that content. Shovel Knight's first and biggest update yet is a free campaign.

Shovel Knight: The Plague of Shadows introduces fan favorite boss character, Plague Knight, as he works to concoct the ultimate potion known as Serus Supernus. Crafting such a potion is not as easy as it should be for Plague Knight however. The catch here is that he first needs to take certain ingredients from his former associates in the Order of No Quarter.

In addition to the new story line and playable lead character, Plague of Shadows also adds a brand new soundtrack, new play styles to utilize, and new bosses for players to defeat. Fans can get their first hands on with the Plague Knight expansion this coming weekend at the annual Penny Arcade Expo in Boston, Massachusetts at booth 6224.

In addition to the big expansion news, the update post also detailed the PlayStation version of the game which is part of Sony's Spring Fever promotion. Shovel Knight is hitting the PlayStation 4 on April 21 and as an added bonus, fans will get to fight Kratos from the God of War franchise. The game will also be cross buy compatible across the PlayStation 3, Vita, and PlayStation 4 upon release.

With planned DLC campaigns being centered around boss characters, we were curious to see how a story could be created around them and what Yacht Club Games has created for Plague Knight in this expansion is a very cool idea. Having a villain character go around to steal items from his fellow boss knights to advance the story is pretty ingenious. With all of the content additions on the way, there's a ton of incentive to jump back into this game world.

The Plague of Shadows update is due out sometime this year. Shovel Knight is available now across many platforms including PC, Mac, Linux, 3DS, WiiU, and coming April 21 to the PlayStation platforms.

Source: Shovel Knight Kickstarter Update