Shantae

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

The long-running Shantae series got its start in 2002 on the Game Boy Color, at a time when the Game Boy Advance had already taken off and the Game Boy Color was on its way out, so even diehard Nintendo fans may have missed this classic Metroidvania. It’s unfortunate, because Shantae was one of the most stunning games to ever release on the Game Boy Color.

However, two decades later we’ve seen this game blossom into a franchise, and while the first game was ahead of its time in numerous ways, it’s a fair question to ask whether the game has aged well, or if you’re better off sticking with newer entries in the franchise. With a modern release of the game on Nintendo Switch in 2021 and a port to PlayStation 4 in 2023, modern players once again have access to this game to find out.

Rather than a simple port, this release gives players the option whether to play the game with its original visuals, or updated to reflect how the game might have looked on Game Boy Advance. While the Game Boy Advance visuals have a greater range of colors, I think the more striking contrasts of the Game Boy Color visuals work better, and give a good indication of just how impressive this game was for its time, with colorful 2D pixel art visuals that had some surprisingly good animation that would still look great even today, with cute touches like Shantae’s anticipatory little butt wiggle when crouching, like she’s anxious to pounce forward. This is paired with a decent chiptune soundtrack that isn’t quite as striking, but still decent.

The gameplay here has Shantae traveling from town to town and the outskirts surrounding them to try to stop the evil pirate Risky Boots, along the way gaining dances that will grant her new transformation abilities that enable her to change into different creatures whose abilities will enable her to get past obstacles. The game is at least somewhat similar to Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, though this also extends to one of its biggest problems.

Namely, this is the issue that Shantae will have to travel past long stretches of the game’s map without anything interesting to explore and find. And unfortunately for Shantae, the game’s problems don’t end there. You’ll frequently encounter enemies that spawn right in front of you with no warning, dealing you damage there doesn’t seem any way you could have avoided. Even worse, the Game Boy Color’s tiny screen size means that you’ll only have a claustrophobic view around you, leading to a lot of leaps of faith.

Because of this, it’s hard for me to recommend Shantae by today’s standards, especially when the Nintendo Switch is full to overflowing with great Metroidvania games, including every other game in the Shantae series, which are all better than this game is. This game is still a technical marvel, but unless you’re looking for an interesting look at the origins of the Shantae franchise, you’re better off with other games in the series.

tl;dr – Shantae is a Metroidvania and the first game in the self-titled series. This game was a jaw-dropping marvel when it originally released on the Game Boy color, but by today’s standards it is flawed in numerous ways that make it the worst game in its franchise. Definitely check out any of the other Shantae games instead.

Grade: C-

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