![]() ![]() While Shantae is again working to save her native Scuttle Town, she is joined by her nemesis Risky Boots in an unlikely alliance against the nefarious Ammo Baron. This title significantly shook up the series in plot and gameplay. A Nintendo Switch version was published just prior to this article being written. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse was published on 3DS and Wii U in 2014, then experienced a wider release on all major game platforms (plus Amazon TV!) in 2015-2016. Consequently, the 2012 announcement of a new Shantae game was met with rapturous anticipation. This was rectified with later re-releases on iOS, PC, Wii U and PlayStation 4 featuring new elements and higher-resolution visuals.īy the early 2010s, the Shantae series had become a major cult classic among retro platformer fans, and sprite-based platformers had come back in style. This title was significantly more commercially successful than the GameBoy Color entry had been, but still suffered from limited exposure due to its presence on an inherently ephemeral online platform. At the conclusion of the adventure, Shantae loses her genie abilities and is reduced to being a normal human, but is happily reinstated as Scuttle Town’s guardian regardless. ![]() After failing to defend Scuttle Town, Shantae is fired from her role as the town’s guardian and takes it upon herself to defeat Risky Boots without institutional backing. Gameplay mechanics are quite similar to its predecessor, but the plot is a direct sequel to the events of Shantae. Risky’s Revenge marks the series turn towards a less linear level design, with powerups available to backtracking players, but the map system is of limited use. Titled Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, the game was intended to be comprised of three episodes but was eventually released as a single, standalone game. It was the result of a prototype developed but not published on GameBoy Advance, and hewed very closely in style to the original Shantae game. In 2009, WayForward announced that it would be publishing a sequel to Shantae on the Nintendo DSi eShop service. The game’s critical reception was quite positive, on the other hand, and it went on to experience success as a cult-favorite platformer in an era dominated by more large-scale adventure games. This is generally attributed to the release of the GameBoy Advance and the dwindling user base of the GameBoy Color. Sadly, the game performed very poorly upon release in 2002. Unlike later titles, though, level design in Shantae was strictly linear. Shantae gains the ability to transform into various animals via dancing and gains life-restoring items and new combat skills these character progression elements would go on to be significant features of future games in the series. In her first adventure, Shantae is tasked with saving her hometown from the machinations of her antagonist, Risky Boots, as Risky seeks to assemble a powerful weapon. The plot is set in Sequin Land, and revolves around the adventures of half-genie Shantae, guardian of a small fishing village called Scuttle Town. Its mechanics were heavily influenced by Castlevania and Mega Man, while the visuals took inspiration from Aladdin, The Legend of Zelda and Ranma 1/2, among others. This alteration of console necessitated a significant overhaul in visuals, and Shantae went from being a polygonal PlayStation prototype to a pixel platformer much more in line with the games WayForward had developed for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Much of this made it into an early PSX/PC prototype for a Shantae game (pictured above), but the game was unfortunately never published.īy 2002, WayForward was on surer footing and got its first Shantae game published by Capcom on the GameBoy Color platform. The universe continued to be worked up by Bell and Bozon, as Shantae gained the ability to weaponize her long hair and was joined by other characters. Bell successfully pitched a heroine she had been thinking about for some time: Shantae, a genie who danced to alter her form or summon animal companions. WayForward’s creative director, Matt Bozon, turned to his wife, Erin Bell, for ideas. With the Sony PlayStation dominating the market in the late 1990s, development began on a new intellectual property. It had entered into a business partnership with American Education Publishing in 1994 to develop visual assets and edutainment games after four years of working on other companies’ licensed games, but the core staff wanted to move back towards more engaging action game development. WayForward Technologies, founded in 1990, was in a transitional period during the middle of its first decade. This week we’ll be looking at Shantae, a series of platformers that has only seen four releases over the past two decades! Welcome to the newest installment of Franchise Festival, where we explore and discuss esteemed series in gaming history. ![]()
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