And, yes, there are some areas that are initially locked off until Shantae acquires an ability or item that allows her to access them, but the game resists using this to the same extent as Metroid or modern Castlevania games do. It’s not entirely a “Metroidvania” either, but Shantae does need to explore the environment vertically as well as horizontally, and does need to solve numerous puzzles along the way. But, regardless, we have Shantae, and from the music to the vibrant, exotic colours, this game does the setting justice.Īs a platformer Shantae is much more open ended than the “move left to right and reach the goal,” of many of its contemporaries. And if that’s the case it would generally make poor business sense to use fantasy Arabia as a setting, and I find that to be a sad loss to us all. I suspect without being able to prove anything that there’s a certain bigotry both among many developers and the community against the setting as a consequence of the ongoing political dramas in the real-world Middle East. And yet the occasional notable attempt aside (Prince of Persia), it’s a rare game (or film, book and so on) that makes use of that setting. I’m not entirely sure why fantasy Arabia isn’t a setting that is used more often in games because 1001 Arabian Nights (the book that inspires just about every fantasy Arabian story) has everything it’s high on action, magic, sensuality (if not outright eroticism) and drama. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse isn’t a long game, but it’s a game that wisely understands that by giving players a constant sense of wonder and discovery that they’re going to feel like they got their money’s worth.Īnd, despite the art direction, Shantae games have always been effective in capturing the exotic appeal of one of the most underdone settings in video games, and Pirate’s Curse is no different. When Shantae crouches down, for example, she wriggles like a kitten about to pounce, and while the foreground and background don’t have a lot going on in terms of activity (I presume because on the smaller screen that this was originally designed for animated backgrounds would have been confusing), there is a lot of variety between levels, and so repetition never sets in. Still, WayForward have crammed a lot of personality into the game’s design. Related reading Wayforward also builds entertaining games away from the platformer genre, such as Silent Hill: Book of Memories on the PlayStation Vita. Unfortunately as it stands they clash quite glaringly with the in-game action. Character portraits during dialogue sequences are “HD” and highly detailed, and these act like a tease of what could have been. It’s highly pixelated, and while it’s beautiful in terms of that aesthetic context, I am disappointed nonetheless that a “HD” Shantae is still not a thing. Sadly, Pirate’s Curse instead looks like a deliberate homage to SNES games. Games like Bloodrayne and the Ducktales Remastered remake demonstrate pristine sprite work, lush backgrounds and an intensity to the art that can very easily distract you away from the actual game. Shantae should have been the same, because here WayForward had an exotic fantasy Arabian setting to work with, and I was quite literally jumping with anticipation to see that vision realised with the same graphical fidelity of Duck Tales. WayForward is a company that understands how aesthetics work on 2D platformers better than any other developer out there.
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