Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut
N/A
Metacritic
87
Steam
81.105
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$9.99
Release date
15 July 2014
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
87 (1 043 votes)

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut brings hair-whipping, belly-dancing to your PC! Play one of the most critically acclaimed handheld series of all time, now with brand new features!

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Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows®XP™ SP2, Windows®Vista™ or Windows®7
  • Processor: Intel™ Pentium 4 2.4 ghz with Hyper Threading
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® Geforce 9600GT, AMD® Radeon™ HD 3870 or higher (it must be able to manage Pixel Shader 3.0) with at least 512MB of display memory
  • DirectX: Version 9.0
  • Storage: 1 GB available space
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poisonmaker
poisonmaker

It's fun. I like it. The other games are a bit expensive even on discount. So, I will play them another time I guess. For now, this one looks like a solid classic

InTheNameOfDove
InTheNameOfDove

Shantae Risky's Revenge is a big step up from the mediocre original game in my opinion. Here we have a platformer featuring the ability to transform into one of three different forms, dungeons filled with puzzle solving, combat, and some fun dialogue.

Presentation wise this is an excellent title which is beaten only by Shantae Pirate's Curse within the series. The sprite-work looks great with fluid animation for not just the protagonist but all the enemies as well. The backgrounds look great and its nice to see the other layers of scenery behind the current plane when in an area with multiple layers. When talking to any important character full sized artwork is shown which matches what you'd expect for the character. Some of these such as Bolo's look a little off but nothing awful. The music is great and I'm hearing some of it in my head as I type out this review. The story was simple but fun with great dialogue from all characters as I've come to expect from the series. I found myself chuckling a little at several lines.

The transformations are the main gimmick of the Shantae series but this is certainly not their best implementation. Here we have the monkey, elephant, and mermaid. The monkey is present from the first dungeon onward and is useful for its greater platforming abilities but this meant frequent switching was required since it is unable to attack enemies. The elephant and mermaid get significantly less use with the mermaid only being required for the last half hour of the story or some optional content and the elephant being purely for destroying elephant-specific objects. Changing between these forms is a huge hassle as you have to hold the dance button and release within the correct move so every time you transform into the mermaid a few moments have to be waited which hurts the flow. To add to this whenever you pick up an item, move through a door, etcetera you switch back to human form thereby requiring you to change back again if you were still using that transformation.

I was glad to see proper dungeons implemented and all present were a lot of fun. They included involved puzzle solving interspersed with sometimes tough platforming challenges and enemy gauntlets. This made it all the more tragic that there were only two proper dungeons in the game. The third is purely a timed fight against many enemies which has its own merits but only takes about seven or eight minutes to complete. When I arrived at Risky's lair at the end of the game I expected to have another dungeon but instead it was a short walk through a darkened room with nothing else. The bosses at the end of these dungeons are not very interesting at all. They're all fun at first but take far too long to defeat and begin to drag by the end. This is worst with the final boss in particular.

Overall this game is a lot of fun but could really have been made longer with another dungeon or two. I could have gotten more time out of it if I found all the optional items but even in the short time I'd spent on the game I already backtracked enough for my liking. I might come back and play this again later with magic mode and try to get more items as I feel it has decent replayability. It isn't the best Shantae game, I would still say that's Pirate's Curse, but it isn't the worst either.

iriyap
iriyap

Risky's Revenge was originally a DSiWare game, a downloadable title for Nintendo DSi, and the size limit on those was only 16MB. As such the game has only 4 levels: 2 "real" dungeons, 1 challenge tower and 1 short final level. There's an overworld and lots of backtracking to pad the game out a bit but you can still easily 100% it in just 4 hours. NDSi also had a tiny 256x192 (4:3 aspect ratio) screen, so there's no widescreen support and the resolution is only 192p resulting in a very pixelated picture and a zoomed in look. The only improvements in the PC version are HD UI and character portraits (in dialog scenes), which frankly look rather jarring against the pixelated game assets.

So, is this even worth playing? It depends, this was the first modern Shantae game and it set the framework for all later releases, both art style and character development wise. Risky's Revenge mainly acts as a prologue for Pirate's Curse (which is an amazing game), and the latter's story might not make much sense without having played this first. Oh, and there's a pretty cool unlockable mode where Shantae is dressed in a very revealing Princess Leia like outfit (yes, it's the same outfit as that one scene in Pirate's Curse but for the whole game).

But still, the gameplay is nowhere as refined as the sequels, the combat is slow, the backtracking is tedious, and the platforming is a bit of coin toss due to the zoomed in camera. There's 3 transformations (monkey, elephant and mermaid) and 3 spells (fireball, pike ball and storm puff).

Bottom line, very mediocre metroidvania/platformer, but historically important. Give it a shake if you're a Shantae fan, otherwise it's safe to skip it.

Templore
Templore

Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a great platformer with a lot of charm and depth as you explore around collecting what you need to progress, It might have just been my controller but at times with the climbing chain sections there would be issues but otherwise everything is great and i recommend it.

Sawworm Brando
Sawworm Brando

My first Shantae game and it won't be the last~
Kinda reminded me of Tomba out of all metroidvania games~
Pretty short compared to the other games in the genre~
Welp, my score is~
7/10

SemperFudge
SemperFudge

You know those games that everyone bugs you play because they're the dog's bollocks? And then you finally go ahead and play them and you've no idea what the big deal was? Yeah, well...even taking into account the game's age and being ported from a handheld:

The Good

+Bright, colorful graphics and bloody amazing spritework. Clearly a labor of love.
+Soundtrack is catchy and pretty much free on bandcamp if you want it.
+Challenge modes after completion for hardcore/spreedrunning players.
+A few jokes in the dialog got a chuckle.

YMMV

~This is more of a platformer. The Metroidvania aspects are limited by a very small, very gated world. Hidden areas are rarely hidden and typically contain money you don't need or a powerup that you'll only use once or twice - usually to get another powerup you'll never use.
~Magic and animal forms are severely under-utilized. The few areas that do require clever use of them are welcome, but they're few and far between.
~It's nearly impossible to die or run out of magic since you can carry a lot of cheap, powerful HP and MP potions. Each of those hearts you see on the screenshots is actually about three-hits worth. Pits and spikes won't kill you, either.
~Short game. Ignoring extended paused time and overzealous Metroidvania exploration, my clear time was about 6 hours on the first blind playthrough.
~It's a bit weebish? Is that the right term for anime fanservice? I'm too old for this stuff; get off my lawn. I'm very confused as to where things go from cute (which the game is) to weird (which seems to be where its headed).

The Bad

-You're going to have frustration with thumbstick sensitivity any time you're dealing with doors, chains or monkeys.
-Speaking of controllers, why do I need dedicated buttons for talk/accept and cancel? Why not just let those be the same as jump/attack/whatever like every other game?
-Inventory access to change spells and items is annoying. Because you can't cycle items/magic on the fly, you find the one overpowered spell and just stick with it until you're low on HP. I'm guessing this wasn't an issue on the source version.
-The map isn't the best, and is considered an item, so you have to cycle through your inventory to view it.
-There's zero explanation of the previous game, which PC players probably haven't played. The devs just assumed you know what happened and who all of these characters are. It leaves new players detached from the characters and world.
-Some of the later enemies are so annoying to deal with, it's just easier to run past or through them.
-While the first and second real bosses had some manageable mechanics, it was easier to just facetank them because you had infinite HP and their health pools were huge. The final boss was just a boring zerg anticlimax.

I'm legitimately sorry to say that I can't recommend this at full price. In fact, other than the artwork and fact that it's part of an (apparently?) really good series, I have a tough time recommending it at the $5 sale price. Was there enough potential in this game to try out the next in the series? Probably, but only on a hefty sale and I already know Shantae games only go on very conservative sale maybe once or twice a year.

Duskztar
Duskztar

I played this shortly after finishing the first game on GBC. Firstly, it's a decent sequel, the graphics, of course, are a significant upgrade, the overworld itself is much better than the original as well. Transforming has been streamlined to make gameplay flow better, the music has also improved greatly. The story is about the same level as the first, so it's fine, nothing amazing. But the biggest flaw this game has, is lackluster dungeons, doesn't help there's only really 2 proper dungeons, 3 if you want to count sunken cavern. the original had 4/5 depending if you count the final area, each of which were pretty good, the 2 dungeons in this one has are ok, sunken cavern was more of a shoot-em-up, the final area of the GBC game was also more of a gauntlet than a dungeon, so that's fine. Still, this game felt much shorter than the GBC entry, that doesn't amke this a bad game, and considering it's only 10$, I find it hard to really complain about that part. In the end, I feel that Risky's Revenge is a 7/10 game.

Hayama Akito
Hayama Akito

This is a charming little game, and I realize it is rather old, but I can't recommend it. It's missing a lot of QoL features that would have made it a lot more bearable, such as dialogue speedup, maps for dungeons, etc.

CookieGlob
CookieGlob

the last game to have shantae's arm circle things, pour one out

+cute girls
+cool dungeons they made me use my brain
+actually one of the 'dungeons' isnt even a dungeon, it's an enemy time trial gauntlet which i thought was cool enough to mention
+backtracking is pretty nice in this game with warp statues
+items use a magic meter which made me want to use them more than i did in the first game
+monkey bullet
+very rad final boss and it sets up for the next game really nicely

=transforming is far more streamlined now but it was also fine in the first game
=you stop time when you do a dance unlike the first game, meaning you don't get hit cheaply while you're trying to transform but that element of strategically choosing when to dance is now gone
=ost pops off significantly less hard than its predecessor and sequel but i wouldnt call it bad

-exploring with the mermaid was very not fun (too much open space and aimless wandering in places that could've been way smaller)
-the overworld map kind of blows but it's usable
-the textboxes look so poorly aged, they're like something i'd see from a flash game
-the weakest opening tutorial in the series (having played the first three games)
-dancing doesn't change the music like a cool dude (somewhat makes sense having been streamlined)

sock
sock

If you're coming from pirates curse to this game, it may feel a little rough. Attacking starts out really slow, the amount of screen shown is small, and moving between the foreground and background of stages can be weird. Despite that, I believe that if you have played every Shantae game from pirates curse onward, or even if this is your first Shantae game to pick up, you will have a good time with it. You should buy it anyway, even if you don't like Shantae. How many games do YOU have that are ports of dsi ware? Yeah didn't think so.

Mama Bruno
Mama Bruno

Its a fun, simple game, the only problems is finding out where to go sometimes, or getting all collectables, the spike ball power up is more broken then anything else in the game

FaeGalore
FaeGalore

As someone who played this game a kid and decided to pick it back up, I recommend this for others who like Shantae. Granted, sometimes its easy to get lost without directions but you'll eventually figure out where you need to go.

Cuddly Kitty
Cuddly Kitty

This game was my first introduction to the Shantae series and it was a good experience. I managed to get all the ending pics on the DSi version and did so again on this version.

Is this the best game out there? Nope.

Is it the best Shantae game? Nope

This game is a little too short, but if you want to get into the Shantae series, this is the one I recommend starting with. The first Shantae game for GBC has great dungeons, but is pretty rough by today's standards if you don't use save states and you have to deal with screen crunch. By contrast, many of the improvements that Risky's Revenge made over its predecessor are still being used in later games in the series and there's enough info story-wise for new players to begin to understand Shantae's world and her relationships with other characters. In addition, the next game, Pirate's Curse, continues directly from the events of this game and assumes you've played it.

MB
MB

Great platformer with only minor inconveniences!

The combat feels great, it's easy to progress but you never feel like your hand is being held through any part of the game. Puzzles aren't too difficult but sometimes you gotta use some of your brain. No grind or farming required to get any of the items which is nice and the enemies are pretty balanced.

I LOVE THE FONT ITS SO BAD BUT I LOVE IT FUCKNEWI ARIAL!

Also pretty funny conversations and the quests are all pretty funky. Nothing it taken too seriously, which is great.

My only issues are with the controls and the bosses. It's a short game so I won't bash on them for having only a few bosses, but almost every single one was very repetitive. Additionally, the controls were a little weird. You can change them in the options, but I wasn't able to change the B and A button on my xbox controller, so it felt a little weird having to use B as the YES button. This is just nitpicking, it really doesn't matter.

Overall fantastic! I had fun, and I don't usually enjoy platformers. There was no bs platforming to do that made any sections annoying. Give it a try, bruh it's literally 10 bucks.

chicken nuggets
chicken nuggets

I played risky's revenge on 3DS back in the day so I can honestly say it's fun but short, because of this I can say that for 10 dollars, yes, it's worth it

armoredrobot
armoredrobot

Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a sort, fun little Metroidvania. Appealing (if a bit overly horny) retro-platformer-but-for-adults presentation, pretty standard for the genre mechanically (with a couple overly-obtuse puzzles). Won't blow anyone away, but it's a good time.

Khronikos
Khronikos

What a lovely game. Beautiful graphics, a lot of love, and a really solid array of stages with a touch of difficulty here and there. Nothing shocking, but it's worth it to explore the game and meet everyone. I feel like the high-res art and the blocky pixels are not really my cup of tea, so I prefer using Reshade and Lottes CRT filter with a touch of Gaussian Blur and a little Tonemap for gamma. The game looks like my old CRT would with Lottes without destroying the high-res art. Really a nice looking game on a large screen. I don't mind the raw look either really. You can view the comparisons on the forums.

As for this Metroidvania, it's pretty solid. More like an open world 2D platformer with different choices and a few transformations and weapons than an actual Metroidvania where you are constantly getting a new ability. I think it does what it needs to do. Fresh, smooth, and clean with a creative edge that is cartoony and well-designed. This is my first Shantae, and it's a great game to start off the series.

kluhyarg
kluhyarg

Fun platformer! Great graphics and music, with a decent story.

The backtracking for itens can be a little tiresome, but aside from that I have no complains.

Crudmuffin64
Crudmuffin64

Shantae: Risky's Revenge is definitely one of the best metroidvanias that I've played. A bit short, and the labyrinths are a bit lacking compared to other games, but the inclusion of Magic Mode in the Director's Cut and the revamped quick travel system boosts this one in my eyes. A must-play for Shantae fans, but also for those who want to play the third game, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, as this one sets up the plot of that game. In conclusion, this game is third place on my personal Shantae tier list, behind Half-Genie Hero and Pirate's Curse.

King Offa of Mercia
King Offa of Mercia

I went into this game totally blind, just bought it because I heard the soundtrack and thought it was cool. The game is actually a lot of fun and quite satisfying to play, though it has its flaws.

The game is platformer fighter where you have your base attack and a selection of spells to choose from. It's really fun to play and the movement feels fluid for the most part, though some hitboxes are way too big and sometimes you get hit when you think you shouldn't. Besides the fighting there's a fair amount of exploring the world, you really need to be willing to check everything on the map because there are secret chests and things hidden all over. There are also areas that you can access only after getting certain abilities, so re-exploring the map can uncover hidden secrets too.

There's not much handholding when it comes to what to do next. You have 3 dudes who can give you hints on roughly what to do but it's up to you to go and figure it out. For the most part this was fine as natural exploration of the map uncovered most of what I needed to find. There was one time where I spent like an hour in the desert because I was told to look there for some artefacts, when I actually had to first get the artefacts in the forest. I only realised I was looking in the wrong place because I googled it. Maybe that's just me being an idiot but I think the game could have been a bit clearer there.

The game is actually quite easy to be honest, I didn't die once. Falling off cliffs only takes away like half a heart and resets you at the beginning of that part of the map and by the end I had 6 hearts. In fact there is one part of the map which is really annoying and slow to move through because of all the monsters, so I just tanked it and drank 1 health potion at the end to replenish myself. Once I understood the mechanics I had no problems with the bosses. The fight tower took a few attempts (it's a timed thing so you can't make a bunch of mistakes) but the boss fight for the final seal and the final boss fight I aced first time with almost no problems. In fact I got an achievement for speedrunning the baron on my first ever attempt on him. It's because you have access to OP spells and as many health pots as you want. Health pots cost like 35 gems for 3 and I had 999 gems by the end of the game. I was also using a spell where I had to spinning balls circling me which probably over tripled my base damage. You can pot up as much as you need so even in the final boss fight, where I was taken down to 1 heart a couple times, I never felt like I was in any danger unless I had a brain fart and forgot to drink my potions. It's not a bad thing necessarily, I don't think it took it away from the game, it's just not that hard to beat it.

My biggest issues are probably only due to the controller support being a bit weird. I feel like controller is the best way to play this game but trust me it can get annoying at times. 2 things... 1: Walking through doors. You need to hold up on the joystick to go through a door. Unfortunately it sometimes things right is up (not sure about left but probably the same thing) so as soon as you get out of the door you character turns around and walks back through it. A minor thing, but when it happens a dozen times it stops being quirky and just gets annoying. 2: Those bloody chains. There are quite a few sections of the game where you need to climb up chains and jump from one to another. This is fine and I like that it's in the game, but it just doesn't work with controllers. So you need to hit A in order to let go of the chain. Now if the jump is tight you will move your joystick first and then hit A... but that doesn't work. It won't let go of the chain while you have your joystick holding right. So you need to hit A and immediately hold the trigger right so you don't miss the jump. Now to get back onto a rope you need to move the joystick up. Sometimes, like with the doors, it doesn't go up, it goes right instead and you just miss the chain entirely. If there's a platform directly under the chain and you land on that instead, you will probably walk off the edge and have to do it again. It's sort of hard to explain, but if you play controller you'll see what I mean. My advice to you is this: take it slow. Even in the time trial section, falling is much slower than making sure every jump is perfect.

This is getting long so I'm just going to end it here. My run took about 6 hours and I collected about 2/3 of the things to collect in the game. There's replay potential in the game so I bet you could push your playtime up to 20 hours if you want to get everything out of it you can. For the price, I'd recommend. It's a lot of fun, for the most part controls well, quite lighthearted, anime boobs and can be played casually.

GT3Gamer
GT3Gamer

Really hoping I can play the first game in steam. But I skip over it. Need to get some emulator going on so that I can play the first one.

Just like Lego games, I really one to play all of this series and complete all of them (Including the achievement). Because not only I got addicted playing this, I also have fall in love with Shantae.

Dima064
Dima064

As a first Metroidvania game (speaking from experience) don't start with this. Go play Pirate's Curse instead. But as a Shantae game? It's a fun and interesting experience! I would say the game is a bit dated, since even Director's Cut is in 4:3 Aspect Ratio and the transformation can be really annoying to get used to, but it's also worth your time. Though it's recommended to just complete the main objective first, then go for achievements. Sometimes it can be a chore to look around since this game doesn't have fully-implemented map (only for outside in the Director's Cut). So yeah, if you want to play a Shantae game - go for it, but only if you are ready to confuse yourself sometimes.

MrBubbles
MrBubbles

Went on a Shante marathon. All but the most recent game "Seven Sirens" are adorably cute and enjoyable.

SmolHoot
SmolHoot

Having first been introduced to Shantae through what is arguably the high mark of the series; Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Playing Risky's Revenge was a noticeable step backwards in many respects. The art has more of a rough-around-the-edges sketchy feel, (in hte artistic sense of the word, not the creepy pasta dark web is-this-safe-to-play feel), the level designs lack the same scope and sense of well-seasoned mastery, the over-laying level traversal is cumbersome and at times tedious to navigate, and what passes for a mapping system is, to be quite frank, rather abysmal. But if it seems like I'm being brutally hard on the game, consider this. In spite of every detracting factor I've just rattled off, I'm still slamming the thumbs up button without so much as a sideways glance at a second thought. This is because, in spite of all the ways Risky's Revenge hasn't quite reached the pentacle of Shantae perfection, it is still very, very, VERY fun. Any Shantae devotee will little more than grumble at the egregious navigational issues before immediately becoming re-immersed in the tight controls of hair-whipping, platform-jumping, belly dancing, magical transformation puzzle-solving action, and any newcomer will likely find said action ultimately winning them over in spite of the aforementioned issues. It's flaws are made even more forgivable by the games climactic stunning finale. As I played the last level, I found myself struggling to remember the last time I'd seen such a beautiful and lovingly crafted backdrop in a game I'd played. I can certainly tell you it wasn't in any of the Triple A HD graphics race 3-D asset showcases of the last several years.

KnightFall
KnightFall

"Shantae: Risky's Revenge DC" is another game I found myself looking forward to its end. I didn't enjoy this game and here's why (in no particular order):

It's boring, the controls are imprecise, the map is useless, the story gets in the way, I didn't care about any of the characters, the platforming includes areas where you can't see the bottom of where you're landing (hallmark of lousy design), all of the jokes fall flat, the pixelated graphics don't scale well on the PC, when Shantae dies she explodes into a supernova (is she some kind of nuclear powered genie?), battling through monotonous dungeons only to earn a basically useless upgrade, (which allows me to jump a little further or smash open a few rocks?), the frequent backtracking (most of this game is backtracking...ugh..), having to suffer through the duck, animation pause, and hair-whip to get at smaller enemies, her hair never gets any stronger; only slightly faster, and who wiggles their butt when ducking? Did I mention the enormous amount of backtracking for lousy upgrades? Underline it.

There are worse games, but you can do much better than "Shantae: Risky's Revenge DC" on Steam. Looking on the bright side, this game did save me from playing all future games in the series.

Summary Rating: 3

Maxoun
Maxoun

Like all Shantae games, it's okay-ish. Nothing incredible or even memorable, but good enough as a time-waster.

Skalue
Skalue

Risky's Revenge is a sequel to the first game, but this one is fine to start with if you're looking to dive into the older entries. I chose to YouTube a playthrough of the first game to familiarize myself with the story, which introduced regular characters that will be around throughout the entire series, and the ending of course which sets up this game. While the series is full of charming, amusing writing, it doesn't really kick off until this entry anyway, which had me laughing aloud a handful of times.

Risky's Revenge is a vast improvement and holds up well enough today, with the movement and controls being far quicker and more responsive than the prior title (further improved in the next game, Pirate's Curse), and allows you to customize your button mapping which is always something I wish more games would do. It features a bomb soundtrack done by Jake Kaufman, great pixel art and character portraits for dialogue, and interestingly I was able to choose 2k for my in-game resolution (not sure if it's really 2k or just upscaled), though it doesn't seem to be widescreen which was fine for me.

Magic Mode is unlocked after you beat the game, adding replayability, that gives Shantae a costume change and more magic but makes her take more damage as a result. I would have liked to have this option from the start, but not a big deal.

My only negative about the game is that the boss fights seem to drag on for far too long, like they have too much health. It would be more interesting if they had different phases to learn, but they really only get faster and that's it.

Positives

+ Charming story, amusing writing
+ Quicker and more responsive gameplay than the previous game
+ Customizable controls
+ Great music
+ Great pixel art, and character art for dialogue
+ Higher resolution support (no widescreen though)?
+ Magic mode adds replayability

Negatives

- No widescreen
- Boss fights drag on too long

m4j3sty
m4j3sty

This is a lovely platformer game, lighthearted and cheerful!
- It's ported and feels dated and rightfully so. Map is the absolute worst especially for backtracking and actual exploration, sometimes controls might be annoying when you need to be very precise
+ Shantae is a bae, pixel animations are filled with love, transformations are fun, music is nice, not to mention challanges and achievements if you really want to make things harder

vhytom
vhytom

As most people would expect, a great little game. My biggest issue is button recognition for UP on a stick and for climbing chains. Between that and a bit of bad platforming in the third dungeon, I became frustrated towards the end, and heart drops early were rare enough to have me constantly feeling half ready to die.

T30s
T30s

I went into this completely blind, as i did not even know that it existed in the gba/gbc years. however i cannot recommend this, you could argue that it is a type of metroidvania, but the controls imo are not that good nor responsive and the game is WAAAAAAY to fan-servicey. Only buy this if you are a fan of the series, otherwise there are a lot of better games than this in the store.

Yokoelf
Yokoelf

If you're interested in getting into the Shantae franchise, know that the next two games, Pirate's Curse (Shantae 3) and Half-Genie Hero (Shantae 4) are objectively better than this one. You may start with one of those, or with this one (Shantae 2) to get a feeling of the evolution, you may do as you prefer.

This game is a ported version of the DSi game that resurrected Shantae after 8 years of the release of the original Game Boy Color game. Being a ported version, this game is, in essence, a DSi game. This means the menus are clunky, the controls may be unresponsive, the resolution can feel weird and the sound isn't so clear. And it's short.

Knowing that these "problems" are just circunstancial of the game's origin, there's an excellent platform / metroidvania game here to explore. This game is a culmination of what Shantae can be at its best: an action platform game with some degree of adventure in the form of dungeon exploring, accompanied by an unique cast of characters and an excellent sense of humor (biased opinion).

Being a short game, it's excellent to play more than once, specially because, like Metroid, to get the better "endings" (just a picture) you'll need to beat it below a certain time and/or collect all items.

Pirate's Curse (Shantae 3) is better than this game, was made for PCs/modern consoles and also has a very similar gameplay style. So, if you have time for just ONE Shantae game, I recommend that one instead. But, if you have time for more, this definitely is also a great game.

Turoel
Turoel

Only downside is that Fighting is a sometimes annoying, if you get caught in enemies.
Potions are not overpowered. Get them.

Straw
Straw

The platform is imprecise and slow, the combat is unrewarding and also imprecise, and the exploration is boring as you have to backtrack through areas you're already explored. The soundtrack and artwork are nice but they are not enough to carry a game.

HungB
HungB

TL;DR: Don't buy this, buy the sequel Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, it does everything better and is a direct upgrade to this game imo.

0. The sequel's screen is much wider(zoomed out) and thus less claustrophobic than this game but this more of a technological(graphical) improvement that a sequel after years will have so it's not fair to make such comparison.

1. The usage of transformations and abilities feels plain and mostly tied to puzzle solving in particular scenarios only ,like the elephant stomp for some specific purple rocks, and the mermaid bubbles shot for once again, some specific rocks, underwater this time. Very rarely will these abilities be used in the other parts of the overworld, because the transformation itself is time consuming and I would generally like to avoid doing so if I can, which showed the flawed design of this game as this should be Shantae's "iconic move" and people should find this mechanics interesting and attracting.
Whereas in its sequel, your pirate items can maneuver the overworld creatively and fluidly, effectively help in boss battles, on top of solving puzzles , they also come out immediately, all in an exchange of being a less ordinary form of ability than dancing transformations, that is.

2. The basic movement is too slow, and spamming the back dash move is basically the only way to move around the map fast, which is so necessary for the speedrun achievements. Yet this strat is inconsistent as it's hard to react to enemies' appearance in time while moving too fast, plus the hitstun animation is punishingly laggy. These are all improved in the sequel where Shantae moves faster, and you can also buy abilities to act out of hitstun.

3. There are only 3 dungeons in the game where the first one is a tutorial and the second one is an enemy rush tower, the last dungeon is okay but there really should be more contents like that. As comparison, there are 5 dungeons in the sequel as well as the fan service costume area and final tower . More ironically, I took around the same amount of time to 100% both games in my first casual playthrough (achieving ending 2), mostly due to reason in (2) :)))

Tsuki Zero
Tsuki Zero

Not that I don't like the game, but it didn't EXACTLY age well, the trekking from a point to another is a bit too much, there's no indication of what is where (other than NPC hint, but that is for progression stuff. I mean it would be good to have markers for items that you know where they are but haven't got yet), the transformation dance requires holding and waiting for the right pose, managing inventory is boring, and the map requires pausing and picking the option "Map", the resolution is still pretty damn small...

I think this NEEDS a remaster. For remaster I'd propose:
→ Add the ability to equip two or three items at the same time or switch them without pausing (Maybe with a Shortcut Button option?)
→ Add a minimap
→ Add a Map Button
→ Add markers to where treasures may be (whether you've seen them before but couldn't get, or if there's someone to give Shantae a Treasure Map or something)
→ Move some Warp Squids so they are closer to points of interest and eliminate redundancy (there are TWO near Scuttle Town, for pete's sake!
→ And of course, NEW GRAPHICS. even if you double the sprite size and add detail, do something about it.

null
null

Game has Circle as confirm and Cross as cancel (like Nintendo consoles), and despite literally having rebinding in-game, there is no way to change this as you cannot bind the same button twice, so you can't have jump and confirm as same button even when the default has two actions binded to one button. And since jump is binded to Cross, you can't change this in Steam Config either.

Also it has a really annoying bug where the framerate continually decreases as you play. It starts as steady 60 but then decreases to 55, 50, 40, etc. then eventually 30. And this is especially annoying as the in-game speed is tied to framerate, making it nearly unplayable. This requires a hard restart to fix, and considering how saves work in this game, that can be very inconvenient.

For those reasons, I recommend another version of this game if possible.

Slozoni
Slozoni

This game is still charming even though it's clunky controlls kinda despairs it. But once you get used to it. It's a BOP

Shuba!
Shuba!

Great platformer with great humor and great gameplay, although sometimes a bit frustrating. Definitely still worth playing through at least once.

Citizen
Citizen

Pros:
- Classic metroidivania with tight level design and distinct locations
- Precise and fluid movement
- Shantae is hot af
Cons:
- Too short
- Not challenging enough

Overall a great sequel to the beloved GBC classic, but the triquel (Pirate's Curse) is superior in most aspects

Wolfychaos
Wolfychaos

Absolutely brilliant. This game feels so nostalgic and i have never even played it! Its like a mix of all my childhood games slapped together in such a way i feel like this game was made with me in mind. Its like a mix of Metroid/Mario/Tomba/Klonoa/Sonic all in one. The platforming is a joy, the skills you can unlock are interesting and fun and not hard to upgrade,the music score is absolutely amazing i was bopping away it has been ages since i have heard tunes like it it takes me back to Megadrive 16bit and Playstation 1 sounds.Bosses are fun. The only let downs is the FPS being stuck at 60, and the resolution being so low, it was blurry a lot of the time while moving, i had to run the game in a small window to counter the blurriness of the game, but even so it did not stop me playing it start to finish and i have bought all the Shantae's, i will be completing them all as it has been a very very very long time since i found a game i actually enjoyed ( i own way to many games across many different platforms and handhelds that most games have lost that uniqueness that makes them special to me and i find my self enjoying games of my past more so then any thing that has come out from 2010 onwards. So this game now holds a special place for me,one i will love to revisit a few years from now to play again)

Khodoque
Khodoque

I can't bring myself to give this game negative review, because it's not a bad game per se. There are bad games - ugly-looking, with awful gameplay, but it's not the case here. Rather, this game is extremely half-assed and undercooked. It's extremely short, abilites are not fun to use and awkward to switch, navigation is confusing (even more so because of jump pads which were obviously added as a 3DS gimmick), dungeons are generic-looking. Even music, while good, is rather forgettable, especially compared to the sequel. Definitely don't buy this at full price, or even go straight for Pirate's Curse instead.

GingeyKid
GingeyKid

it was good, i though it was very fun but frustrating at some points. I liked the ending bosses difficulty.

xspikex52 ✝
xspikex52 ✝

Rottytops is best girl. Everyone else can fight me, she's mine.
You can't have her
(ಠ_ಠ)>⌐■-■
( ͡⌐■_-■)

tzthm
tzthm

A fairly decent adventure-platformer that's kind of forgettable. Get it if you want yet another 'vania Shantae title apart from Pirate's Curse and Seven Sirens. Just keep in mind this one is bittersweet to an extreme: some bad cons, some great pros. I also feel like I'm the only one in the world who legit enjoys the map system for what it is, but that's a different, separate topic altogether.

Tons of better games out there in the same genre, but more or less recommended. It's worth the playthrough, I'll wager.

ThereforeDragons
ThereforeDragons

Shantae games are always a joy, and this one is no exception.
It's not talked about as much as the more recent ones, but I recommend it to any fan of the sidescrolling genres.

Creeping Malaise
Creeping Malaise

Really fun platformer. Not too long but not too short, had some challenging parts but played smooth, overall had a great time playing it. Love the Shantae series!

BiggieDubz
BiggieDubz

Fantastic Metroidvania game with colorful characters and just the right amount of fanservice. There were a couple frustrating precision platforming sections, but ultimately the challenge was rewarding and the story was cute. There are extra rewards for those who fancy themselves a few extra speedy playthroughs, but I couldn't be bothered.

RagnarockerBunny
RagnarockerBunny

I had way more fun with Risky's Revenge than I thought. Had an awkward start but when I remembered to go looking for the shop the game clicked into place for me. There's something a little off putting about the combination of high resolution text and artwork drawn over a tiny pixel game but between that and some annoying enemies, I don't have a lot of bad stuff to say about Shantae Risky's Revenge. It's a fun time, but the sequel is where Shantae shines the most.

quantumfi
quantumfi

play as a genie girl with razor sharp magical hair to murder various creatures throughout an interconnected map with upgrades while you dance on their corpses and occasionally turn into a monkey or an elephant doing so, meanwhile a pirate lady torments you all while some of the best soundtracks in gaming is jammin' in the background.

yeah i'd say Shantae is a good series, Risky's Revenge is a bit rough around the edges but a good one to start with :)

Timer.
Timer.

Good (and short) platformer with beautiful pixel graphic.
A bit annoying that the A/B buttons on the Xbox controller are mirrored in the menu.

ZappinDude
ZappinDude

Is the game good? Yes, especially considering how old it is.
Is it worth dealing with bugs, oversights, and potentially getting all your save data deleted? No.

Nox
Nox

Risky's Revenge is a passable platformer that has stiff controls, it's better parts are the appealing visuals and it's energetic soundtrack creating a charming audio-visual experience. The story isn't anything to write home about, it's lighthearted and simple with an interesting but shallow cast of characters. In terms of difficulty, it's generally easy but there are some parts that ramps up difficulty that can be a bit testing. The most difficult part albeit not that hard if you have a habit of talking to everything and everyone a lot is to find the key items to unlock the next part. There is a reasonable amount of backtracking which is helped by a fast travel system that does the job well but it won't cut the walking completely. So it isn't a game I would recommend with a lot of enthusiasm since it is far from the best platformer or metroidvania but it had its fun moments. I would say it's a 6/10, the gameplay has shown it's age with the controls and took quite a significant part of my enjoyment away.

Jimi
Jimi

Got a little pissed at the final battle because there is no saving point right in front of the boss battle room, which wasted me a few minutes each time I die in boss battle.
Overall is good, but I regret not taking time reading the store page to know Magic Mode actually is just a Challenge Mode instead of anything fancy.
Compare to the first Shantae game, this has shorter game length and lower difficulty, but improves a lot like the "dance to change form but enemy will kick your ass while you are dancing" problem, saving points, map, not to mention warp points are now much easier to use instead of first collecting tons of those punkass squid babies to activate it (though it was really helpful that I could warp back to save places in anytime/anyplace in the first game)

Angelus230
Angelus230

I saw a Shantae game as a teenager on my Nintendo (3)DS, the video trailer got me interested but for some reason I never bought it. Until a year or 2 ago, my best friend showed me Shantae on the Wii U. I got my interest back and bought all the Shantae games that are available on Steam.

But then I was like... Why would I use so much computing power (high-end gaming PC) to such a simple pixel game? Sadly it started to collect digital dust in my library. Until Valve released the Steam Deck, and everything changed from then on, especially when I saw that Shantae was verified to play on SteamOS.

I was so excited, I felt like I was that teenager again who got interested in the game after seeing the gameplay video. I immediately started to play the game on my Steam Deck.

I tried Pirate's Curse before on my PC, and I had the feeling I missed a part of the story line. Since it started with a boss battle. I was like... Who is this guy? So I played Risky's Revenge and everything comes clear. Just sad that the original Shantae is not on Steam, because when starting Risky's Revenge I was like... Who's this hot pirate chick and why does she attack me?

The game played great on the Steam Deck. I could play the game on the lowest wattage and GPU clock frequency. So it was a nice game for great battery life. The only thing that was bothering me was the fact that you couldn't play the game on 30 or 40 Hz/FPS. Because the whole game got slower, literally. Not feeling less smooth, no it played literally in slowmotion.

The graphics looks easy, pixelated... I love it! It makes the game easier to play and very clear. The controls were a bit confusing on the Steam Deck, but also on my PC with an Xbox One controller. The physical A button was kinda a return button in the game. So instead of using an item, it left the item menu.

The story feels like a direct followup from the original Shantae. And since that game is not available on Steam, it was a bit confusing in the beginning. Like, who are these characters? But except for the characters, the story itself was clear: a pirate stole a magic lamp, continued by: go get that pirate!

The boss battles were amusing to do, and some trophies were very challenging. Especially the ending 4 trophy and beating the final boss without potions.

Overall I give this game a 7,5/8 and look forward to continue the rest of the Shantae games! I even wishlisted the newest game and will buy it as soon as I finished the other 2 games first.

8_bit_BEAR
8_bit_BEAR

This game is a pretty good Metroidvania action platformer. Overall I enjoyed going through this game and collecting everything in my first playthrough. I would recommend this game to anyone interested. I do think that the later entries may be more polished so if you're used to those this might be a little shock to you.

8/10

SteamDeck:
Playing this on Steam Deck worked wonderfully and overall this game well a great experience on deck. I didn't have to change any controls. The Deck and good battery life while playing this and overall I didn't experience any issues.

Brodyssey
Brodyssey

I found Shantae: Risky's Revenge to be a polished, gorgeous, and consistently fun Metroidvania platformer that had me hooked from the start. Like its Game Boy Color predecessor, this game draws heavy inspiration from classic games such as Castlevania: Simon's Quest with regards to its level design, progression, combat, and exploration. Risky's Revenge also pays great homage to the original Shantae, keeping many elements (such as animations, music, and environments) intact with a fresh coat of paint. Character animations are dazzling, the world is bright and colorful, and the soundtrack is absolutely fabulous. Exploration feels rewarding, and there are plenty of goodies to find in Sequin Land. The game is not terribly long (my first playthrough with 100% item completion was 5.5 hours), and the world is not extremely large, but I felt that the adventure had great pacing, and that there was plenty to do in every corner of the map. Risky's Revenge is relatively not very challenging, which may be an issue for some players, but I never felt as though the game's difficulty level impeded my enjoyment. Through and through I was captivated by this game, which is overflowing with charm and personality. I would call Shantae: Risky's Revenge a must-have for any and all players who enjoy a casual, cute, and funny Metroidvania platforming experience, and I feel that the $10 price tag is more than worth it.

Gray Atreides
Gray Atreides

It is the kind of adventure platformer that is really fun to play or watch someone play well. It isn't as good as Pirates Curse, and is much easier to speedrun / 100% / unlock all achievements. If you have a few hours to spare, or if you want to hang out on the couch with a friend, significant other or child and play a fun casual adventure, this will do the trick.

If you've never played a Shantae game and you can only pick one, I would recommend Pirates Curse instead.

Falconetti
Falconetti

An old NDS port that technically looks like a GBA game. Doesn't do anything new or memorable.
There are much better platformers out there worth of your time. Really easy, really empty, really short, not a lot of variety and no replayability.

Local Edgelord
Local Edgelord

Great Metroidvania game but it's clear this was meant for the Nintendo DS.

spacey-interruptions
spacey-interruptions

I think this is one of those "Seinfeld isn't funny" situations. I'm sure lots of people have good memories of this game, and that it was pretty good when it came out, but damn has it aged badly.

In my opinion, the level design is just awful. The art and writing is pretty good, but I just cannot get over how much I hate the map.
Combat is bland but passable.

Would not recommend.

SNESmapper
SNESmapper

3.0 / 5.0

A good stepping stone for the rest of the Shantae series. The game has some mechanics that have been greatly refined by other games of this genre over the years but in general this is solid game with lots of charm.

Exploration and backtracking can be cumbersome since the map is not incredibly helpful but all in all a solid effort for being an early game in the series.

https://youtu.be/G4Lj_rdkHKw