Shantae and the Seven Sirens

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a family-friendly Metroidvania released on multiple platforms in 2020, including the Nintendo Switch. This is the fifth game in the Shantae series, and unlike the previous two entries, this time around the game is a full-fledged Metroidvania with one interconnected world rather than a world split into various sub-sections… sorta’. Yeah, actually, the game still splits the world into sub-sections, it just does it in a more contiguous way, using doors.

In terms of presentation, Shantae’s fifth outing shares a lot in common with its fourth, meaning you have some very well-animated hand-drawn anime-style 2D visuals with a bright color palette and a few additional nice touches like some good water effects. These are backed by a synthesized soundtrack that sounds very “videogamey” but works well enough for this game. This is interspersed with fully-animated cutscenes and sprinkled with some voice clips of the various characters (though the dialogue is not fully-voiced). It’s all pleasant-looking, but we’ve now seen multiple games in this style so it’s not as impressive as it once was.

As for the gameplay… yup, this is a Metroidvania all right. To be fair, this game’s level design and abilities are both excellent, but the levels themselves look a bit repetitive, and you don’t really get that great feeling of exploring and finding hidden treasure that the best games in the genre have to offer. It’s very good, but just short of greatness.

The other issue is the game’s challenge level. Enemies drop healing items like the game’s island locale has a food surplus, and many enemies will sit in place and let you assault them with repeated hits. It has the benefit of making this one of the more accessible games in the genre, but seasoned veterans of Metroidvanias will find the game to be a walk in the park.

If you’re a fan of Metroidvanias and don’t mind one being a bit on the easy side, Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a fine entry in the genre with some good qualities. However, it’s lacking that compelling exploration that lies at the center of some of the genre’s best games. It’s still well worth playing, but expect a solid, polished experience and not one that will blow you away.

tl;dr – Shantae and the Seven Sirens is the fifth game in this series, and this time the world design is a more standard Metroidvania, retaining the series’ signature great animation and colorful, cartoony art style. However, the game is a bit easy, and exploration isn’t as rewarding as some of the best games in the genre. That said, it’s still an excellent Metroidvania well worth checking out.

Grade: B+

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