Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Director's Cut (2014)

Publisher: WayForward Technologies
Developer: WayForward Technologies
Director: Matt Bozon
Platform: PC/Steam

Overview:
The pirate Risky Boots returns, stealing a magic lamp and vowing to unlock its hidden power. Shantae loses her job as the guardian of Scuttle Town, but that's not going to stop her from thwarting Risky's latest scheme.

Gameplay:
I started picking up the Shantae series because I was having serious Metroidvania withdrawals and ever since IGA left Konami, the chances of a new Castlevania game in the SotN formula is unlikely and the debacle of The Other M leaves Metroid's future in doubt too. This is a fun game with tight controls. In fact, the controls are so precise that I found myself screwing up my jumps because I'm used to compensating for sloppier platforming. The transformation dynamic allows for a wider range of operation.

Story/Characters:
WayForward has a good sense of humor and that comes across well in the story and characters. The writing's a little rough, but no one's expecting high literature here. The characters are fun and interesting with appealing designs.

Graphics:
The graphics are bright and vibrant with highly expressive animation. The original platform was the DS, so on a much larger PC screen, things are going to look fairly blocky, but that's probably not going to be a problem for most fans of 2D games. Character portraits for dialog sections are sharp and may have been updated for this rerelease.

Music/Sound:
The music fits the atmosphere and the sound effects do the job.

Other:
The director's cut also includes Magic Mode, where Shantae has a different costume that reduces magic consumption but halves defense.

Conclusion:
This is a fun game with a good sense of humor. It's a bit short, though, but still well worth it.

Rating:
Own It