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| A pirate adventure. |
As a fan of 2D platformers and developer Wayforward, I've been reading nothing but praise for the Shantae series, which takes its roots back to the GameBoy Color days. After years of showing slight interest in the series, I finally decided to give it a try with Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. Released back in 2014, Pirate's Curse is the third game in the series, which sees the return of half-genie heroine Shantae as she's on a another quest to save her land form a pirate threat. Is it the perfect entry point for newcomers like me and is it any fun? Let's set sail and find out.
We follow our now human heroine Shantae as she's been stripped of her genie magic powers after the events of the second game. Now, a new threat emerges upon Sequin Land when the legendary Pirate Master awakens and threatens the land. With the help of her hotheaded nemesis, Risky Boots, the pair must sail across various islands and destroy the Pirate Master's evil dens in an effort to weaken his powers. The story was straightforward as it gets while being pretty interesting. I enjoyed the wacky cast of characters that Shantae meets and the interactions between them were pretty hilarious at times.
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| Despite some callbacks to previous games, the story is still enjoyable for newcomers. |
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is a 2D platformer where you control Shantae as she hops around platforms, beating enemies by whipping her hair, and collecting treasures along the way. Enemies drop health and money that can be used to buy potions, spike balls, shields, and even new attack power upgrades for Shantae at the shop in Sequin Land, which kind of acts as the game's hub. At it's core, you'll be exploring dungeons and solving some tricky platforming segments, which will net you a new power-up like a pistol, cannon jump, and scimitar, which offers new ways to beat enemies and progress through said dungeon. The boss fights were neat as you'll be making use of your new power-ups while noting down their patterns. My favorite one has to be the final boss fight against the Pirate Master, which was tough but pretty rewarding at the end.
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| The gameplay was fun and at times, even challenging. |
The game is a Metroidvania in the sense that there are blocked areas that you can't access at first, but as you explore the other islands and gain new abilities, you can come back and unlock new passageways and items. The likes include "Heart Squids", which upon collecting four will increase Shantae's health by one; and "Cacklebats", which upon defeat will give you dark magic, which is needed for getting the best ending of the game. That being said, you can easily lose direction on where to go next if you're not keeping tracks of certain characters and points of interest. Other than that, the game took me close to 8 hours to beat with me getting a 90% completion rate and in terms of replay value, there's Pirate Mode, which unlocks all pirate items for Shantae from the start, which is good for speed-running.
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| The boss fights were cool and will make use of your newfound abilities. |
Like many of Wayforward's offerings, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse boasts a charming presentation. The detailed character sprites, unique art-style, and varied level designs looked great and I enjoyed the color palette as Sequin Land's packed with color. The game runs smoothly on Switch, both in Handheld and Docked modes, though I noticed that backgrounds tend to look low-res occasionally, which could've benefited from more polish. The soundtrack was great, as you'd expect from long-time series composer Jake Kaufman. Tracks like the main menu theme, Scattle Town's theme, and Frostbite Island's theme, were great to listen to.
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| Minor issues aside, the game looks great! |
Overall, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was a pleasant adventure and one that I had a lot of fun playing. It's the perfect entry point for newcomers and those who've been on the fence on the series as the story was entertaining, the gameplay packs a challenge and is fun, and the presentation being impressive. At $20, it's a short game but an easy recommendation and I can't wait to try out the other games in the series sometime in the future.
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