Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is a fairly easy 2D action platformer. You play as Shantae, a half-genie who is now just all human.
Oddly for a platforming game, there is actually a fair bit of story here; Shantae and Risky Boots, your sidekick/captain, are both reasonably well characterized, and the game makes a lot of call-backs to previous games… which I haven’t played. While the game IS comprehensible, I have no idea who any of these people are so the little side-stories which feature them lack meaning for me. That said, the game is full of funny dialogue, and Squid Baron in particular made me smile with his fourth-wall breaking rants. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, and he was a particular highlight of that, but on the whole it worked reasonably well, even if it did rely a bit heavily on lampshade hanging for its humor.
Graphically, the game is reasonably attractive as well; the 2D Sprite graphics look pretty good, and the larger character portraits which appear while the characters are chatting look great. The game’s comedic style extends to its art, with the characters having amusingly exaggerated expressions. The game’s art is somewhat sexualized – the artist clearly loves voluptuous women, and the hips of the game’s female characters don’t lie – but it wasn’t to the point where it bothered me, and it is often played for laughs, particularly given one of the characters is an attractive female zombie. Plus, let’s face it – a lot of people like looking at pretty ladies, so that’s really probably a plus for a lot of folks. If that sort of thing DOES bother you, though, this is likely a game which will trigger your distaste, as several of the female characters are a bit bouncy.
Squid Baron, again, really shines here – his sprite is amusing enough, but his character art is great, and his hyper-exaggerated expressions really help sell his silliness.
As for the gameplay itself, the game is… well, okay. It is a reasonable 2D platformer, but frankly, it is quite easy for almost its entire length. The game, unlike most such games, grants the player an inventory menu containing 12 items, each of which the player can carry 9 of – and this includes vast numbers of healing items, as well as items which block projectiles, damage enemies passively, and greatly increase Shantae’s attacks. You accumulate them over the game, you don’t really need to use them too frequently (especially once you get used to the way the game plays), and by the later portions of the game you will have acquired vast numbers of them, to the point where nothing can realistically challenge you. There is an in-game shop as well, selling items in exchange for gems dropped by pots you break and enemies you kill, allowing you to further top-up on stuff, as well as buy upgrades for your attacks which allow you to deal more damage.
The net result of this is by about halfway through the game you run out of upgrades to buy and pretty much end up with gigantic piles of items in your inventory which you don’t even need to use. I started using some in the second-to-last dungeon just because I had so many, but I still had enough gems to be capped out by the end. I did use the damage-enhancement items on the bosses because there is absolutely no reason not to, and it makes getting the various no-damage achievements that much easier.
Honestly, the achievements are the most challenging part of the game; beating it is almost trivial, and beating some of the bosses without taking damage is quite simple, while for others, it is moderately more difficult. This sort of thing – along with a few other random optional achievements – are likely to contribute almost all of the difficulty the game holds. It is only in the final two dungeons that the game really starts trying to challenge the player, and while the final dungeon does contain some pretty challenging portions (and a sharp difficulty spike), the final two bosses are strangely easy, with only the optional form of the final boss posing any real challenge to the player.
That said, the game isn’t that short. While it seemed short while playing it – and the ample save points made it easy to get out of – the in-game timer said it took me a little under 9 hours to 100% the game. I’d guess it probably took about 10.5-11 hours including the time spent getting the side achievements. That said, if you’re looking for a really substantial experience, this probably isn’t it – a lot of the time in-game was spent doing relatively unchallenging things, and there was some backtracking involved in gathering various collectibles. In terms of fresh content, you’re likely looking at 6 hours or so of gameplay, maybe a bit more.
All in all, this is a decent but not amazing game. I recently played Strider, and that game felt a lot more satisfying to me than this did. Not to say that Shantae was bad, but it just wasn’t exceptional; it is a decent filler game, but if you’re looking for a high-end platformer, you’re better off looking elsewhere. This is middle of the road; it probably won’t be disappointing, but it won’t impress you particularly either.
2.5