It's easy to tell that WayFoward is excited about Shantae's release on the 3DS. This is the only game I have for the Virtual Console whose manual contains concept art. It's as if WayFoward is so proud of this game that they want you to get to know it in depth. It's understandable, considering most of what they do is based off of licensed work (Batman: The Brave and the Bold - The Videogame, Adventure Time: Hey Ice King, and Hotel Transylvania) or reboots of older games (A Boy and His Blob, Contra 4, Double Dragon Neon), or both (DuckTales: Remastered). It makes sense that a company that does quality work with other people's properties would be elated at their own creation being put out in the open for the masses, especially since Shantae had a limited release back in the days of the Game Boy Color.
I was in seventh grade back in 2002, and the only things I ever saw having to do with Shantae were in the pages of Nintendo Power, mostly one page ads. I didn't think much of it at the time, only recognizing that it was by the same company that did a game based on Wendy the Witch. That bit about Wendy is interesting, though. I knew who the character was thanks to some old comics my father had, but I knew most kids my age wouldn't know anything about her. I also knew that licensed games tended to be very crappy. Yet Wendy: Every Witch Way got great reviews from more than just Nintendo Power. I still didn't play it, but I kept track of what else came from the creators of theses supposedly worthwhile games, playing what I could from them and waiting for the change to play their maiden voyage in IPs for myself. After a Virtual Console announcement and several delays, the wait is over. I downloaded Shantae onto my 3DS and have spent the past month playing it when I got the chance (which wasn't a lot since I was in the middle of a move). But I certainly want to play the sequels.
The first thing that struck me was how Shantae's hair moved as she walked. Her ponytail wiggles back and forth, and her bangs bod up and down, both in a perfectly natural way. It felt so natural that I had to take a minute to remind myself that this was for the Game Boy Color, a system that certainly had quality games, but usually focused on gameplay and story, leaving the visuals on the lower end of the spectrum. Simply watching Shantae walk around was a joy for me. WayFoward really took time and effort or her movements in order to make her feel more like a person, rather than just a player avatar. Sometimes I would just activate the dance button and make her dance just to admire how ahead of their time sprite animations were. It makes you wonder why no other developers at the time pushed the GBC to its limits simply because they could.
Yet, though I extol the work done on Shantae's animation, I have to acknowledge that the care that went into the main character only highlights how sparse the other characters appear. Shantae's sprite has three distinct colors to it. NPCs and monsters only have one, and their idle animation doesn't feel as fluid as Shantae's. This could be due to the hardware being used up on Shantae, or the importance of making the player's avatar stand out. But it makes her stand out too much, like she doesn't really fit in this world.
Speaking of the game's world, I admire how WayFoward created this backstory about guardian genies disappearing from this world they once inhabited, but making sure it has nothing to do with the plot of the game itself. I'm not sure if there's a term for differentiating a fleshed-out world from a story, but I've found that it helps the player/viewer/reader get an idea of what the setting is like without distracting them from the characters (not that a heavily realized backstory is bad, but if you're going to have one, make sure your main characters are directly involved in it. Otherwise the whole thing becomes cluttered. Read Bone to see how it's done right).
Gameplay wise, it's pretty simple. You run, jump and whip through in a manner that, in retrospect, reminds me a lot of Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Subspace Emissary mode. I know that sounds like a bad thing to many people, but here it works, since a platformer with combat elements was how this game was designed, rather than from a repurposed fighting game engine. Admittedly, trekking back and forth between the long, long areas just to get to one town was tedious at times, especially when I had to navigate back to this one particular spot just to get one item. A map screen would have been a nice addition, as there were plenty of times when I got lost in the overworld and the labyrinthian (but enjoyable) dungeons.
Shantae isn't a game that can touch you in ways that something like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time did. The gameplay and story are charming, but the naimation is the real standout. In that regard, what's sad is that had more people bought it when it first came out, I do believe that its animation would have pushed more developers to step up their game. WayFoward's games all share a common praise regarding the art styles and animation. Hell, just look at what they're doing with DuckTales. This shouldn't be a rarity. There should be more developers actively trying to push their art forward and stand out, rather than just resting on their laurels. The fact that unique visuals tend to be the first thing was praise about certain stand-out games, rather than talking first about core gameplay, feels to me like a bigger problem than people realize.
Then again, if unique art was commonplace, it wouldn't be very unique.
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