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Pick your favorite book in the Shantae series!
What do you get when you mix monkey-based platforming, belly dancing, and more Aladdin memes than Disney lawyers could shake a stick at? You’d get some funny looks, but you’d also get Shantae, which is one of the biggest success stories in independent game creation in the last 20 years.
WayForward and Capcom were supposed to work together on this project, but WayForward chose to continue the tales of the brave half-genie girl long after Capcom had moved on to other projects. Shantae has danced and hip-swayed her way through five major games with their help. Almost all of them are modern classics.
Shantae
The first Shantae game came out for the GameBoy Color in 2002, which was pretty much the end of the system’s life. This may have doomed it to failure from the start. There were times when WayForward really struggled to find its feet, but a lot of the things that fans love about the series are here, like the Metroidvania structure, the beautiful animation, the animal transformations, and the quirky, endearing characters.
Unfortunately, that’s the only good thing about it. The camera is crooked so far on Shantae that it makes platforming a nightmare and limits your view. Plus, the overworld is very confusing, the difficulty keeps going up, and there is no way to find your way around. If any of these things sound like problems to you, you can pretty much skip this game. Things will get better!
Shantae: Risky’s Revenge
After Capcom dropped the IP, WayForward shopped their golden girl with purple hair around for almost a decade, but no one liked her right away. This could be because the first game didn’t do very well. But Shantae finally found a home in the DSiWare shop and came out on the handheld in time for the holidays of 2009. It had much better graphics and animations that moved more smoothly, but it still had the stylish pixel art of the original game.
Jake Kaufman does a great job with the music, which includes a great collection of catchy songs. The writing is also funnier. In terms of gameplay, the world now flows together much better, there are lots of save places, and so many NPCs dropping progress hints that huge neon arrows would be needed to make it any clearer where you need to go.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
While making Half-Genie Hero, WayForward decided to try something new for the series. This was after three straight Metroidvania games, so Half-Genie Hero is kind of like a test run. The overworld and dungeons are no longer connected. Instead, Sky, Shantae’s partner, can choose from a list of stages on a world map.
Even though the game is linear, WayForward tries to add some of the series’ old tropes. You can easily finish all five stages in less than an hour, but characters in the central hub keep making it last longer by demanding different things that stop you from progressing. And get ready to go back to that damn burning town, the mermaid factory. And other places up to three times to get everything. It gets annoying, but there’s a handy warp dance that can help.
But Half-Genie Hero’s graphics are what really make it great. The developers really knew how to make this world look at this point. And the bouncy 2D hand-drawn look hasn’t been topped yet. Kaufman’s catchy, danceable beats are also back, and the game’s strong value is made clear by its six DLC missions.
Shantae and The Seven Sirens
The sudden departure from the series’ standard in Half-Genie Hero got mixed reviews from fans. So WayForward fixed things with 2019’s Seven Sirens. This is a great adventure game that was first released on the Apple Arcade. It includes the best parts of all the games that came before it, with the great art style of Half-Genie Hero and the usual Metroidvania fun.
During Geometry Dash Subzero, you’ll meet other half-genies for the first time, which adds to the story. We still don’t get to see Shantae’s mother, though. Exploration and fighting are as tight and responsive as they’ve ever been. And the fully animated anime cutscenes that Studio Trigger made for the game make it even better.
Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse
Pirate’s Curse is not only the best game in the Shantae series. But it’s also a great example of how to make a platform game in general. This part is often called the best in the Shantae series, and it’s easy to see why: exploring all of its corners and crannies feels great. And the art style is a great mix of Half-Genie Hero’s smoothness and Risky’s Revenge’s pixels.
Shantae has to work with Risky Boots when a bigger bad guy threatens Sequin Land. This is a brave move from a story point of view. Shantae’s powers are worn down by the end of Risky’s Revenge, so she has to use Risky’s pirate gear. The cutlass, boots, and jumping gun all add their own unique twists to the platforming.
