Any players who were won over by the vibrant attitude and charm of recent games in the series like Seven Sirens or Pirate’s Curse owe it to themselves to play this and see where it all began. It doesn’t add much to the package aside from a handful of modern quality-of-life improvements, but even these few additions serve to ease the pain associated with some of the game’s more archaic design decisions and make it the best way to experience this classic. This faithful rendition of the game keeps things simple. It was a true cult classic when it first released, and perhaps most impressively, it largely still holds up today.Īfter the series has gone on for nearly two decades, WayForward has partnered with Limited Run Games to give this original title new life on Switch. As one of the few games at the time to feature a female protagonist and an early metroidvania before the genre exploded in popularity later on, it was a forward-thinking title that pushed the boundaries of what could be expected from smaller developers. When Shantae first launched on the Game Boy Color in 2002, few could have imagined that the half-genie protagonist gracing its cover would go on to become one of the most recognizable faces of independent game development. While this is tolerable, enemies can interrupt and damage you while dancing, and two of the bosses require one form to expose their weak point, and another to deal damage.Developer: WayForward | Publisher: WayForward | Genre: Action Platformer | Platforms: Nintendo Switch | Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch Transforming is done by inputing a list of button commands after pressing select, essentially pausing the action for a few seconds. This mechanic is the basis of the gameplay, but is really clunky. Because of the small aspect ratio, you are often required to take leaps of faith that can lead to you plummeting to your death, restarting you at the beginning of the area if you have any lives to spare.Īfter learning special dances from genies found deep within each of the four labyrinths, Shantae can transform into different animal forms with special abilities that help in progression. Couple this with some unpredictable enemy spawns and the game can feel very unfair. There are some additional attacks you can learn in exchange for gems, but they are expensive and not very useful.
Shantae starts with nothing more than a ponytail attack, making for a really lackluster moveset and an up-close, unreliable means of defeating enemies, especially considering you cannot move while attacking. The lack of direction is also a huge issue a simple in-game map would have really helped the constant problem of knowing where you need to be but not knowing which direction to travel. Revisiting areas in this gameplay style really only works if there is a lot of verticality in the design, and aside from the dungeons, Shantae is a presented as a horizontal platformer. Shantae’s progression is often compared to the Metroid formula, but I would argue it is a lot less refined and the backtracking doesn’t offer anything but padding in the overworld design. People seem to really dislike the music I didn’t think it was great, but I’ve definitely heard worse. It’s unfortunate that I cannot say much good about the gameplay, because I really like the visuals.
#Shantae gba review full
The sprites are fluid, colorful, and full of personality, but what I found most impressive is the use of a day/night cycle with a seamless transition that effects the colors of the environment and the characters themselves. The only downside about this game is that it's not available on Steam, even though every other game in the series is there. If you've played any of the more recent Shantae games or want to play an old but good platformer, this is a good game to get. The soundtrack and visuals were pretty decent, even if they couldn't show too much of what's happening in the small screen they had to work with.
#Shantae gba review how to
I decided this time to use a guide since I had gotten almost halfway through the game last time and I felt that it didn't ruin the overall experience, especially now that I knew how to play the game well enough.Ĭonsidering how games were back in the early 2000's, I feel this game does very well as a platformer with combat elements. I had tried to play this game without a walkthrough a couple years ago but found myself getting very confused on where to go and frustrated with the way that combat made me get too close to enemies to hit them, making me get hit a lot in the process, so I gave it up then. I noticed that I forgot to start the timer a couple times during my playthrough after I had taken a break, so I added 20 minutes to my timer and rounded it up. This was my first attempt at using the timer that this website provides.
A complete walkthrough was used which cut my playtime down.
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