Shantae’s is a very pretty game that makes vibrant use of primary colours, animated sprites and detailed backgrounds. One area the game excels is in its visual presentation. It’s a fast-paced game and lots of fun to play but doesn’t give Mario a run for his money. The various upgrades open up new avenues in the open-ended world, a design quirk that goes hand in hand with some hefty back-tracking. The monkey for example can jump higher and climb walls. Additionally she can belly-dance to transform into a variety of animals and gain new abilities. Her unique primary attack is to whip her big purple ponytail at enemies in a way that would give any normal person serious whiplash. Shantae controls sharply with the usual run, jump and attack actions. The handful of dungeons switch things up with some neat puzzles and timed challenges and come complete with imaginative boss encounters. Don’t expect the level of depth from this world you’d get from one of Samus’ adventures, most areas are quite basic in design with the focus very much on action and there are a lot of enemies to take down everywhere you go. Rather than the usual linear succession of levels Shantae is set in an open explorable world Metroid style with various themed areas to discover. The game has been lauded as the best available to download from DSiWare and although I have little experience to allow me to make comparisons I’m inclined to agree. It’s traditional platforming fare with a fresh sass and some cool gameplay mechanics that make it stand out from the crowd. You must guide the sexy heroine around a colourful side-scrolling world in search of the magical seals Miss Boots is hunting. Shantae – Risky’s Revenge is the long overdue sequel to a popular Game Boy Colour game starring the eponymous belly-dancer half-genie who is called into action when busty lady-pirate Risky Boots pinches a mysterious lamp. It doesn’t help that the Nintendo consoles don’t offer the best choice of download games with many of the higher profile offerings limited to the HD platforms but for once I’ve made an exception. I have nothing against it in principle, cheap, new easy-to-access titles are obviously a good thing but I tend to favour more high-end releases that offer a richer experience. I’m not in the habit of downloading new games.
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