Hi Shantae sub-reddit!! 😃
I have finally started to play the games for my first time! I've played Risky's Revenge, Pirate Curse, Half-Genie Hero, and Seven Sirens. These games have all been fun and it got me wanting to share my thoughts on each of them!
Risky's Revenge! I loved how, from the get-go, there was an almost "indie game" feel to it? like the game was made via a Kickstarter or something and it didn't have the big production values that I knew would come later. It took me straight to the Super Nintendo and I quickly realized that the game, and the whole series, were Metroidvanias! the pixel art and music were great, it was funny, and it was such a great introduction to the series. The most noteworthy thing about it is actually the map screen. Having the ENTIRE game world available to me right from the get go was actually really nice! it was colored in and everything and it's weird how, as far as I know, this is the only game in the whole series that did that.
The only complain I have with Risky's Revenge is that I would say it's the weakest of the bunch. I don't want to say "worst" because that implies that it's bad and I don't want to call it that. It's simply held back by the nature of it being much earlier in the series and it wouldn't be fair to judge it for that. It felt like the best place to start getting into the series. I think the fairest critique is that you hardly get much use out of the Mermaid transformation which you really only get at the very end. It's probably the game I'd revisit the least, not because it's "bad", but simply because better games have been made since. But I did enjoy my time with it and I loved the twist at the end and the shock of Rottytop actually trying to sell out her bestie. I knew it all had to be addressed in the next game, so yeah! it was a fun entrypoint!
Pirate's Curse! Oh man...I can gush about this game so much! everything that was great about Risky's Revenge just went up a whole new level. The pixel art is even more beautiful and I love the new enemies like the dragon head that pops out of the waterfalls to bite you. I love how I'd sometimes just enter a new area and there's this giant THING in the background that makes me want to stop and look at it. I love how we were actually going outside of Scuttle Town for our first time and how Risky herself wasn't actually the bad guy. There were so many new environments in this game, like the snow island, that weren't even options in the previous one. I love also just how HARD the game was at times. Because save-points can sometimes be so far away, there were moments where I'd die and have to traverse a really long way to get to where I was going. It made me feel really rewarded!
I think my favorite thing about it is just, as a whole, how much more fun it is and that's because of Risky's kit. Her pirate kit: the parachute hat, the cannon ball double jump, her scimitar, are all WAY more fun to play and use than the three transformations of Risky's Revenge. The plot was more intense and I was genuinely shocked that those two random girls hanging out by the waterfall were working for Ammo Baron the whole time! The music was great and the "Run Run Rottytops!" sequence was really funny. I loved how the game properly followed up the previous and Shantae and her properly made up (at least as well as could be expected haha!). The final boss with the Pirate Master was HUGE and I made sure to get all the Dark Magic before then. I think my only "critiques" is that the map system felt like a downgrade? going from seeing the entire map, all colored in with geography and all, to seeing this tiny blue watchamacallit felt so small! but I understand that they didn't want to just spoil where everything was for the player. This was also the first time Cristina Vee was introduced as Shantae, which I wasn't against, but it made me wonder what happened to the actress who voiced her sfx in the previous game?
But yes, this was such a fun game and if I want to play a proper traditional old-school pixel-art adventure, this was definitely the best!
Half-Genie Hero! Woah!! totally new art style! 3D! the feeling felt like going from the Super Nintendo to a PS2. Right off the bat, this game was A LOT easier because there were save-points between every "stage". It took me awhile to realize this wasn't a proper Metroidvania games like the last two games, but something much smaller, easier, and arcade-like. After my first playthrough, I realized how that was actually a good things in a lot of ways. Because the game is so small and easy, it makes replaying the game much easier to get into and the game has so many modes!
Playing as Risky and wielding her kit from the last game! playing as Rottytop, Sky, and Bolo for the first time! and all sorts of other gimmicky and fun modes that change things up! Half-Genie Hero feels the most feature-rich and Nintendo-like out of all the games because it gives you so much content! and because the game is so short, I don't feel burnt out after a playthrough. In fact, I became very familiar with all the levels by the time I was working through on the fast and speedy Ninja mode and the Mega-Man-esque Officer mode. Hilariously, I actually found the Pajama mode to be the easiest. You do SO MUCH DAMAGE! in contrast, the Beach mode was the hardest just because I was struggling to always find sunscreen. Climbing up the desert tower in Beach mode was tough!
Honestly, now that I've had time away, Half-Genie Hero is honestly the best game in the series for me. It's so Nintendo-like in just how feature rich the experience is. So many ways of revisiting the game, the return of transformations now that Shantae has her powers back and some new ones. I feel like Pirate's Curse and Half Genie Hero occupy two sides of the same wonderful coin. There's way more voice-over, the animations are beautiful; pixel-art will age like fine wine, but going from the first two games I played to Half Genie Hero really did feel like going from a Super Nintendo game to the PS2 generation. I loved it!
Did I have any criticism? Honestly, no! It's such a different experience that I feel you can't compare it to what came before. That's why I see Pirate's Curse and Half-Genie Hero on the same level. If I had to pick ONE game however as the best Shantae game to date, it would be this one. The sheer volume of gameplay modes and things to do make it hard to pick another game as the best.
Seven Sirens! It's a Metroidvania again! this game felt like a builds right off of the previous one in the same as that Pirate's Curse builds off of Risky's Revenges. From a presentation standpoint, this game was definitely the one with the biggest budget. The intro music video, the cutscenes and little "boss encounters" everytime you step into a room with the Siren's as if it really WAS a Metroid game. This game "felt" the biggest from a presentation and story aspect. I spent so much of the game looking at the Tinkerbats hammering away and thinking "What are they up too?".
I love how we leave Scuttle Town altogether and travel to a completely different place and are introduced to new characters and get completely new powers. I wouldn't say this power set is my favorite since I can't speak enough about how much hecking fun Risky's kit from Pirate's Curse is, but I do like how this game tried to be different. The game as a whole "felt" big, I really did not see a lot of big twists like the true identity of the Mayor, the secret behind the island, and just how hecking evil Risky was in this game. I mean, she was bad in Half-Genie Hero, but she felt downright diabolical in this one! I kept laughing to myself and saying "But we teamed up that one time!"
Personally though, between Half-Genie Hero and Seven Sirens, I'd say the former is better. My main issue is that, while it's a return to the Metroidvania format and back to being a longer and harder game (no more saving between stages!), the main gameplay system as a whole just didn't gel with me. I applaud that they tried to make something new with the card system inspired by all the enemies you encounter, but I hardly bothered or felt incentivized to experiment. Once I got the Siren boss cards, I pretty much just get them enabled the whole way through. There also just wasn't the sheer breadth of gameplay modes and alternative playstyles like in Half Genie hero that totally change things up which was a huge thing in it's favor.
I also felt a bit let down that the Sirens of the "Seven Sirens" were hardly in the game at all! they had virtually no presence or personality apart from Lobster Girl (who I was super curious about everytime we'd see her peek through a porthole), but even she didn't get much when she finally joined the good guys. There were at least new characters like the other Half-Genie girls (which was huge! there's more than just Shantae? woah!), but whether it's because we didn't actually see them much once they were rescued, I just felt like I didn't end up being too attached to the new characters? hopefully they'll appear in future games so I can get used to them.
As a whole, I'm really happy to have finally gotten into this very fun, very anime, and goofy series! there's only the first game and Risky Revolution that I haven't played yet, which I want to try and some point. But I'm happy to have finally tried out this series! thank you for reading!