Shantae: Risky's Revenge (Part 1)

Hey, remember that review of DuckTales Remastered I posted early this year? Well, I’m going back to the Wayforward well for now. And, this time, I’ll be playing a game I’ve never played before! Even before I played through Super Metroid for my review, I knew the “Metroidvania” genre was large and encompassed multiple franchises – I mean, what was I expecting? Only Metroid and Castlevania? Come on, Nic. There’s got to be more than those. And, indeed, there are. Tons and tons of games that are set under the genre. Gigantic maps, with a lot of secrets? Weaponry, abilities and items required to move forward in the game? Memorable environments? Yep, Metroidvania alright.

There is one franchise that I had never played before, and it falls squarely into the genre. Tell me, who is a dedicated heroine who feels the need to help her fellows, thanks to her prehensile purple hair and generally friendly demeanor?

What? No! I meant Shantae!

That’s her. While Shantae’s franchise only contains four main games for now, she has already found a large following thanks to the intriguing storyline, the tongue-in-cheek comedic tone, and the endearing main characters. That cutesy art style on the main cast couldn’t have hurt, either… and same for the fanservice, if Pervert-Me is allowed a single comment today in this review. The clash between the cuteness of the style and the very revealing clothing is what makes this game hard to pin on the ERSB charts. Is it for kids? Yeah, but there are many jokes that would be understood only by adults…

How else would you get a half-genie anyway? You can guess the implications behind this term, right?

Shantae first appeared in her eponymous title, on the Game Boy Color, in 2002. She then took an 8-year break until coming back again in 2010's “Shantae: Risky’s Revenge”, a downloadable title on the Nintendo DSiWare. This one was re-released in 2014 mere months before the release of “Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse”, available on Nintendo 3DS and WiiU through the eShop. Then, a fourth game was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and the resulting title, “Shantae: Half-Genie Hero”, came out on WiiU, PS4, PSVita, Xbox One, and lately on the Switch. The last three games were also released on Steam… and I already own two. I only need Half-Genie Hero now. I decided it would be best to discuss the games in order, so I’ll start with Risky’s Revenge, and see whenever I can review the other one – and the last one, if I get to buy it. This intro has been long enough, let’s jump into this game, shall we?

The game begins at Shantae’s house, the Lighthouse, where she’s assaulted by various enemies. Why? Well, ever since she saved her world from her arch-enemy, any baddie that believes itself good enough wants to pick a fight. Or they attack in gangs. No problem though, Shantae will just smash them with her prehensile magical purple hair! Hey, that’s a pretty neat way to fight! Hm, I wonder what would happen if all the video game heroes with that sort of magic hair got into a fight…

Sephiroth was just passing by and he got "tangled"
into this mess. You could say he was "roped" in.
But that's nothing to be splitting hairs about.

…I gotta agree there, it's probably not a good idea.

That oil looks like it could have been someone's itty-bitty
living space.

Going forward, we meet Shantae’s friend Bolo who reminds her that today is the great Relic Hunter Expo in Scuttle Town. We’re asked to retrieve another friend’s egg before we can leave. This allows us to control Shantae and see some of her limitations – that is, for now she can’t swim underwater and will come back quickly at the surface. It will become possible to dive once we find a special ability that allows it. This is a Metroidvania, after all: Our hero doesn’t start weak, but lacks multiple talents needed to find everything. Off to the Expo! We then see Shantae’s honorary uncle Mimic, renowned Relic Hunter, presenting to the crowd his latest discovery… an oil lamp!

I love the mythos behind the Shantae franchise. It has those nods to the Arabian Nights, but it also implies that the relics are more advanced than the technology currently existing in their world, Sequin Land. As if a cataclysm caused them to revert to those days, with remnants of modern society still out there. It’s as though someone took that theory about Aladdin being actually set in the far future (solely because the Genie references multiple modern celebrities), and based a whole franchise on it. Then we have all the enemies based on Arabian Nights myths, the main recurring villain is a pirate…

Is that... Is that a SKULL she's wearing as her bra?
Holy crap.
Must be incredibly uncomfortable.

Despite Mimic’s insistence that we shouldn’t focus on the lamp, the people present are mesmerized by it. Well, until the wall is blasted open and Shantae’s arch-enemy, Risky Boots, shows up in her flying ship. You know what, most women in this game franchise are scantily-clad, so I’ll just keep this on hand. I get a feeling I’ll be saying it frequently, with Risky Boots being already the third character it applies to.

Is that a... robot pirate ship?
Holy crap.
How did she get that?

I could totally deal with the purple skin. Although, what an odd name for a Pirate. “Risky Boots”. Well, it’s not like she could go with [Color]Beard, amirite? Risky steals the lamp and orders her men to raise her back on the ship. “Hoist my booty through the roof”? Come on now, there’s no way this wasn’t intentional. Risky leaves, but Shantae fights her near the Lighthouse. A decent first boss battle. When she’s beaten, Risky states her desire to crush Sequin Land once and for all through use of this new magic lamp, after which she leaves.

Mimic shows up, with Mayor Scuttlebutt following soon after. And the Mayor fires Shantae from her role as guardian genie of Scuttle Town for not preventing that attack from happening in the first place. After the ungrateful fat bastard leaves, Shantae asks Mimic to explain the magic oil lamp to her; Risky had to have a reason to take it, no? He soon explains that the lamp contained great power that once put the whole land in danger, but its dark abilities were separated in three seals scattered around the land, handed to three Barons. Alright, got it. Find three seals, save the world. Simple enough.

You can actually see through the entrances on both
sides what's going on in the plane behind this one.

We can finally explore the village, and it’s rather impressive. Here's a cool thing about this game, and the Shantae series in general it seems. Parts of the world are split in layers, and using special pads you can go from a layer to the next by pressing the Jump button. And so Shantae can move back and forth, as she pleases, and we can see every layer behind the current one, making for a very cool multi-plane effect. Some areas turn this into some kind of puzzle, like a miniature maze of sorts. Add to this every roadblock that can only be passed once Shantae has the required ability, and you get a great take on the Metroidvania. After buying some supplies, we can move East through Lilac Fields towards the Tangled Forest.

I can see two or three planes behind in this forest!
And that's a good, thing, that's where I'm going!

I dunno if you can see it, but Rotty is using her spider
computer thing.
Also, close-up of characters when they're about to talk,
as we can see here with Shantae.

The Squid Baron’s dungeon is located here, but he won’t let anyone inside unless he’s given a tasty meal. At the end of the forest, we find a house with a cook, but she’ll make the tasty meal only if we rescue her dog. Where do we find the puppy? In possession of Rottytops, a zombie girl who’s also an on-and-off ally and friend of Shantae. She was gonna eat the poor thing… At least Rotty helps us using her spider friends and something she calls the “web” to contact other zombies’ spiders and gather info. I mean, the web’s nice and all, that’s definitely avant-garde in Sequin Land, but it tends to get quickly full of bugs. After this comical interlude, we continue our quest: Dog brought, meal gotten, brought to the dungeon. We enter and meet the Squid Baron… who eats the meal and flees. Stupid slimy… er… slime! Get back here! Huff puff… for such a large, heavy creature, I’m surprised it can go hide so far into its own dungeon.

(Dennis Hopper voice) "Monkey!"

Thus begins the Squid Baron’s dungeon. You know what to expect: Find keys, unlock doors. Make your way through the maze. It’s in here that Shantae regains her first ability. See, one button on your keyboard would make Shantae do a belly dance, but it didn’t do anything else yet. Turns out, each of the three parts of her belly dance tie to one form she can take – Monkey, elephant or mermaid. You access one ability by holding down the belly dance button until she’s reached the required dance, then release it at the right time to transform her. As a monkey, Shantae jumps higher and can climb most walls, allowing her to reach normally inaccessible areas. Since the monkey is so small, she can also crawl into spaces where she can’t go as a regular-sized humanoid. Only downside being, as a monkey, she has no way to attack enemies.

What a terrible parent if he's attacking us with his own kids!

With this newfound ability, she makes her way towards the boss room, where she finds and fights the Squid Baron. He has a plethora of attacks and takes dozens of hits from her hair whip before going down. Thankfully, he is defeated soon enough, and so Shantae gets her hands on the first seal. When she leaves the dungeon, Risky shows up, asks to get the seal, Shantae refuses, Risky leaves. Aww, I wanted to see a catfight.

Fireball! I want to burn things!

We go back to Scuttle Town, and with the money gathered in the dungeon, we can buy stuff at the shop. Of course, there are regular HP potions, but you can also buy magic potions – those will replenish your magic bar when it’s low. A map can be bought here, then there are three different spells: Fireball, Pike Ball and Cloud Puff. You can equip either of those three to your item button. Each one uses some of your magic bar (thankfully, refills are commonly found when enemies are killed), and has two upgrades. Fireball lets you cast fire, the Pike Ball will spin constantly around you and hit enemies around, and Cloud Puff summons a little cloud guy to help you.

Not that one, sadly.

Urgh, I hate having to help you.
But I have no choice if I want the plot to continue.

Next up, we have to go towards the second dungeon, but we’re stopped midway by Shantae’s friend Bolo who says the Mayor wants to see her. What? After he fired me? And he's at his seaside resort? Yeah, right. Okay, fine, I’ll go… The monkey ability is very important to get there. Gotta wonder how that adipose imbecile managed to get there, since we needed so much precise platforming to reach him. We meet the Mayor, who explains that with the rising threat of Risky, the main land is afraid of sending cargo ships with merchandise. With Scuttle Town in upcoming financial ruin, the Mayor has decided to hand over the deed to a certain Ammo Baron. And Shantae is the one who has to do it, of course.

Give me a second, the cutscene wouldn't allow me to give
it to you just yet!

Thankfully, by this point, we’ve awoken a few Warp Squids (altars scattered around Sequin Land), so we can use them to quickly find our way west towards a desert. The enemies get more and more dangerous as we go, those archers in particular can be a pain to deal with. We soon reach the camp held by Ammo Baron and his army. Don’t worry, they’re reasonable guys! …I hope. Unfortunately, as the name implies, he’s very much military-minded, and wants to make Scuttle Town into his barracks. He doesn’t seem to be doing much else, I’m not even sure he’s an actual villain – at the moment, at least. For the deed, he gives us a passport that lets us enter the second dungeon, the Battle Tower. Okay, let’s leave before this guy offers her to join his army.

Not so bad right now with only oner enemy left...
But that's because I killed the other 10 already. 

We find our way into Battle Tower and are welcomed by a guy named Barracuda Joe – apparently a reference to a Let’s Player of the first Shantae game. He asks for a passport, we give it, he explains the rules: 20 gems for the entrance fee, then we just go in and try to reach the top. Sounds like a simple enough dungeon. Oh wait, you also have a time limit of three minutes, with a chance to regain 30 seconds after every room of enemies. Ten rooms, many of which have more than one wave. In fact, the tenth room has a wave for every single type of enemy in the Battle Tower. How’s that for an exam? Using her arsenal and the spells bought in Scuttle Town (you practically need them at the end), she beats the last room and gets to the seal, which she takes and leaves, with congrats (and a special key) from Barracuda Joe. Well, that was relatively simple.

As we leave the Battle Tower, Risky Boots shows up again and requests the seal, threatening Shantae’s uncle is she refuses. Uh oh. Still, Shantae refuses, and when we’re back at Scuttle Town (now renamed Ammo Town), Uncle Mimic seems fine. No harm yet. He does mention that, now that we have two seals, only one still has to be found – but we need a special ability for that purpose. There are talks of a locked door in the forest area that may lead to said special ability. And, well, as it turns out, we also got the key to open that door! Thanks, Barracuda Joe!

Inside this mini-dungeon is another altar, and this one gives Shantae a new special ability: If you release the dance button during her second dance, she’ll turn into an elephant that can ram into blocks and enemies to destroy them. If you do it near a ledge, the elephant will even continue into its ramming path while in the air, though not for long. A powerful attack, which you get at the cost of losing most of your agility. The law of gravity? Eh, we'll follow it whenever we want to.

Geez, for a zombie, this guy is friggin' ripped!
Also, he looks evil, but don't worry, he's actually a
good guy. Kinda-sorta-usually.

As we leave this mini-dungeon, we run into two other zombies, Abner and Joe Cadaver, Rottytops’ brothers. They say that Shantae will need their help to get in the third Baron's fortress. They demand one thing in return – no, not her brain! They need coffee. That’s apparently what makes them able to resist their zombie urges. …Huh. Then again, with the silly tone of the game so far, I’m not surprised. Shantae questions the offer, but reluctantly accepts as it’s pretty much guaranteed that the plot won’t let her move forward till she does it. Okay then, time for a coffee run! Sge must be feeling like an intern own game, what a shame.

Well, I think this is as good a time as can be to pause. How about we continue this next Monday?