Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, the second game in WayForward’s series of family-friendly Metroidvania-style games, was originally released on Nintendo DS in 2010 via the online-only DsiWare service (a precursor to the eShop). The game has been ported to multiple other platforms in the years since, gradually getting marginal upgrades along the way and picking up the additional “Director’s Cut” part of the title from the 2014 Windows port of the game and later releases. In 2020, this game finally was brought to the Nintendo Switch, meaning the only game remaining to complete the series on the Nintendo Switch is now the first one.

In terms of presentation, this game hasn’t changed much over the last decade. While it has some new display options and high-resolution character artwork for cutscenes, largely this is the same low-resolution pixel art that once fit on the Nintendo DS’s tiny screen which touted some animation that’s still excellent by today’s standards, but otherwise looks decidedly retro. This is paired with a Middle East-inspired soundtrack that’s decent enough, but not really memorable.

As for the gameplay, it’s honestly kinda’ hard to go back to this game after playing more modern releases in the series. While it tries some interesting ideas with its multi-plane level design, this level structure works against the feeling of exploration and discovery that goes hand in hand with a great Metroidvania, making it feel like you’re working your way from one arbitrary point to another rather than exploring. What’s worse, this game feels slow, floaty, and stiff compared to more recent entries in the series, and as a result it’s kinda’ frustrating to play.

Still, if you can tolerate these frustrations, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge is still a decent Metroidvania that at least tries to do a few interesting things, even if those attempts don’t always succeed. Fans of this series and the genre as a whole may want to give it a look, but be warned that this game simply isn’t on par with later games in the series.

tl;dr – Shantae: Risky’s Revenge is the second game in the series, a Metroidvania that was originally on the Nintendo DS and has aged pretty poorly, with low-resolution visuals, stiff gameplay, and level design that isn’t really conducive to a Metroidvania. It still has some good qualities and fans of the genre may still want to give it a try, but it’s a far inferior game compared to later entries in the series.

Grade: C+

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