Year: 2002/2022
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: WayForward Technologies
Genre: Action/Adventure
Review Date: 2/8/24
Rating: ***

Shantae's original 2002 Game Boy Color adventure finally got ported to PS4 and Switch, and published by the kind folks at Limited Run Games. Not surprisingly, the presentation is a bit crude and the gameplay is frustratingly difficult. However, the game is still full of charm, imagination, and clever wit, and Shantae herself never fails to be entertaining. Unfortunately, having previously played all of the other Shantae games, this one feels woefully unoriginal because all of the others are just a riff on the foundation that it created.

Shantae is an adorable and energetic young half-genie whose job is to protect Scuttle Town. When an inventor in town creates a revolutionary steam engine, the notorious lady pirate Risky Boots shows up and steals it. Shantae has to stop Risky from collecting four mystical relics that will turn the steam engine into a super weapon, and along the way she learns some genie magic that can transform her into various animals with different powers. This allows her to access more parts of the world map in a classic "Metroid" way. Her default weapon is her hair whip, and while you can upgrade her to use different attacks, the hair whip is adequate 99% of the time. Collected gems can be used to purchase various spells and potions, some of which are only used once in the game to get past very specific obstacles.

For better or worse, it's a very accurate port of the original, complete with awkward and clunky controls. There's no in-game map, so it's difficult to keep track of where you are and where you need to be. Like many older video games, memorization is key! Inventory use is cumbersome, and requires you to select an item in the menu screen, leave the menu, consume the item with an awkward key combination, and then unequip it from the menu so that you don't accidentally use it again when you don't want to. Shantae's dances are also annoyingly difficult to execute, and require perfect timing and precision. I also discovered early on that the D-pad is not good for entering directional cues, and the analog stick provided much more accurate inputs. Some of the warp dances have six inputs, which can be tricky to remember and pull off. The combination of audio and visual dance cues helps, and after a few hours I was eventually able to find my dance groove so that I succeeded more often than I failed. But apart from that, the controls are very tight and responsive. Save points are few and far between, which means a lot of trial and error, and a strategic use of 1-ups.

Presentation-wise, the game is cute and colorful, but the GBC's 160 x 144 pixel resolution makes the art look really chunky on a big screen. The character designs are wonderful and Shantae herself is immensely charming. Her animation is superb, and it's astonishing how much personality, attitude, emotion, and sex appeal the animators were able to convey in such a small sprite (she's only 35 pixels tall!). Not surprisingly, the text is super large and blocky, and scrolling through conversations can be tedious. Jake Kaufman's soundtrack is excellent, although it's frustratingly hampered by the technical limitations of the original GBC hardware. That said, it still has a delightfully retro chip tune sound that evokes the era.

As I mentioned earlier, the game can be brutally hard in the classic old school platformer way, but the new port has added a nice feature that allows you to save and reload your state at any point in the game. That was the only way I was able to make it all the way through. I also encountered a handful of bugs and glitches in the game, but I was only forced to do a hard reboot a couple of times. While Shantae's debut outing is far from the best in the series, it's a fun piece of history for completionists and provides more of the character's origin and backstory. Sequin Land is always a fun place to visit, and I never grow tired of watching the effervescent Shantae bounce, jiggle, and throw her hair around.