Platform: PC
Developer: Wayforward Studios
Genre: Metroidvania, 2d, Action, Platformer
Gameplay Stats: 7.5 hours, 100% items collected, 68% Steam Achievements
Visuals: Shantae is a game that's done in a pixel art-style closest to the SNES, so it's a 16-bit style. There's a pretty consistent style for each of the world which is nice. The enemies are largely recycled from previous games as are many of the assets, which is kind of confusing. The game looks great, don't get me wrong, but I kind of feel like there wasn't that much effort put into this game. The game is polished, but it's not new polish. The previous game in the series was released in 2010, so I don't understand why there is so much that's reused. They are very clear in the boot screens for the game that they've been around since 1990, so it's not like they're new. Every girl (any many guys) in the game is highly sexualized also, which is kind of weird. Even the zombie!
Audio: The music in this game is probably my favorite part. Each track is unique and has a pretty upbeat, dancy feel to it while keeping the style relevant to the area. The Middle-Eastern town's music had a Middle-Eastern feel in the music while keeping the tune fast and encouraging exploration and play. The sound effects are equally satisfying.
Gameplay: The gameplay is also pretty great. The moves feel solid, the hitboxes are where they look like they should be, and there's a decent amount of variation within the challenges that are presented to the player. The player attacks feel a little weak, but after you upgrade a bit, the frequency of the attacks make them feel pretty fair. The controls are pretty tight. The map is pretty shitty, I could literally copy/paste my gripes with Super Metroid's map (game released 20 years prior). Being unable to check the collection while in a map is also pretty bad. If you're going to give the player a number of things to be collected in a particular level, why would you make them quit to the world map to check it?
Story: The story is pretty cute, I suppose. It fits well within the bounds of the universe in which it was created. It's not particularly ground-breaking, nor is it offensive. The writing is done pretty well though as most of the lines are tongue-in-cheek. There is lots of innuendo which is kind of to be expected since the whole game is about highly sexualized women. Eh. To progress the story, you need to revisit the level from 2 levels ago, do a trade quest and then go back to the current level. It seems like it's following a recipe.
Overall, this game feels like a flip. It feels like a flip of the previous game and a flip directly from the Wii U version. It doesn't seem like anything was changed in the game apart from Steam achievements and playing cards. Mechanically, the game is perfectly fine and the story is okay. The audio is amazing, but it doesn't feel like this game has a heart. I didn't perceive that there was very much effort or love put into the game and that colored my judgement. The game is better than okay, but definitely not worth the $20 asking price. [6/10]
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