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Shantae: Risky's Revenge
PC (Steam)
A SNES Classic Displaced in Time and Space
4/5 stars
“Shantae: Risky’s Revenge” (“SRR”) is a direct sequel to the Game Boy Color title, “Shantae” that started a new franchise. Unfortunately, I was never able to find a copy of the GBC game way back in 2002 when it was new, and haven’t gotten around to emulating it. Of course, back in 2002 when developer WayForward first released the game, cute, colorful 2D platformers weren’t the rarity that they would eventually become. Thus when a sequel was released, it got my attention… but as a DS game and a sequel to a title I’d missed, my interest could only go so far. However, when WayForward made the insightful move of porting their formerly handheld-exclusive franchise to non-handheld platforms – including Steam – I figured it was time to see if a platformer about a belly-dancing female genie was something I needed in my life.
Presentation
“SRR” looks very much like a SNES game. Even at full resolution, the game runs in a 4:3 letterbox, and the in-game graphics have a slight amount of pixilation. Other graphical assets, such as the title screen, menu chrome, text boxes, and character portraits during cutscenes have no pixilation and are incredibly sharp and eyecatching, which is merely a result of these later assets being added to the ‘director’s cut’ non-handheld version of the game.
The entire time I was playing “SRR,” I couldn’t help but think of the iconic visuals of the SNES era. At times, “SRR” reminded me of “Super Ghouls and Ghost,” at times “The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse,” at times “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.” Everything from characters to enemies to backgrounds are stylish and painstakingly detailed.
The soundtrack, and especially some of the in-game sound effects, are also highly reminiscent of the SNES. Fortunately, even as a port of a handheld game, “SRR” doesn’t have any fuzziness or hissing in its audio.
Story
“SRR” follows directly on the heels of “Shantae,” apparently. This leads to a slight bit of narrative weakness, as the game seems to expect the player to be familiar with the events of “Shantae” and the character development given to the cast of characters in that original game.
“SRR” opens with an archaeological display by the titular character’s – a half-genie named Shantae – uncle, a Dr. Robotnik/Eggman look-alike named Mimic. Uncle Mimic plans to open up a lump of dirt with an artifact inside live on stage for all the denizens of Scuttle Town to see. Unfortunately for our heroes, Mimic accidentally opens the wrong lump of dirt, revealing a stereotypical genie lamp, which is immediately stolen by the buxom, purple-skinned pirate captain, Risky Boots.
Uncle Mimic evasively explains that the lamp holds a dark power, and Shantae volunteers to head out into the surrounding wilderness in order to snag the three magical seals needed to activate the lamp before Risky can get to them. In the process, Shantae runs into a number of familiar (apparently) faces, as well as several new, quirky personalities that will both help and hinder her quest for the seals.
“SRR” is an incredibly short game by any measure. I managed a completion run with no FAQ consultation in exactly 8 hours. The entire time I was playing, I kept thinking that the original map (which I was able to buy at the in-game store after approximately 10 minutes of playing) would eventually expand into something greater, but it never did. However, for such a compact game, it still manages a decent story with a number of twists.
Gameplay
“SRR” loosely falls into the ‘Metroidvania’ style of 2D Platformer. It has a completely connected world, with various areas cordoned off by obstacles that must be overcome by collecting a specific power-up. However, the entire time I was playing “SRR,” I wasn’t thinking about ‘Metroid’ or ‘Castlevania.’ The two games I was thinking about were “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” and “Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link.” “SRR” is exactly the type of game that would have resulted from Nintendo stubbornly taking a second stab at transliterating ‘Zelda’ from a top-down Action/Adventure to a side-scrolling Action/Adventure.
Shantae attacks enemies by whipping her long, purple ponytail of hair at them, plus she can purchase three different offensive spells (and upgrades for said spells) at the item shop. The key gimmick that makes the ‘Shantae’ series unique, though, is her ability to transform into various animals by belly dancing. In this particular game, Shantae can become a money, an elephant, and a mermaid, with the ability to climb walls, smash rocks, and dive underwater, respectively. Further, each animal transformation has an extra power-up that expands its capabilities.
While the player traverses the interconnected world map with Shantae, they will come across a number of small caves. Some of these contain power-ups, some of them contain Heart Holders (which expand Shantae’s life meter from 3 hearts to a maximum of 6), and some contain trade items like gems and magic jelly, but all of them contain a puzzle to navigate. Each of the three magical seals Shantae is tasked with finding in “SRR” is hidden within a puzzle-laden dungeon, lending even more similarity to the ‘Zelda’ franchise.
“SRR” employs the semi-obsolete concept of save points. Unfortunately, these save points don’t restore all of Shantae’s hearts. Instead, she has the option of purchasing health and magic potions at the item shop, of which she can carry 9 simultaneously. Since the save points are so judiciously placed, though, they never really felt like a downer.
Overall
If Nintendo had taken another attempt at transforming ‘Zelda’ from a top-down game to a side-scrolling game, it probably would have looked a lot like “Shantae: Risky’s Revenge.” Between the evocative 16-bit era presentation and the clever puzzle design, “SRR” has a lot to offer in a compact package (though I do wish it had twice as many dungeons). If I didn’t know better, I could easily be convinced that “SRR” was a SNES-era classic from an alternate universe.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 3.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
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