Shantae: Risky’s Revenge review

WayForward’s cultish charmer makes the hop from DSiWare to iOS by breaking a couple of rules. Firstly, it runs inside a tacky blue border, most likely due to fuzzy SD art assets that were initially designed with Nintendo’s lower-resolution screen in mind. Secondly, it bundles the paid version together with the free demo, requiring a mildly intrusive in-app purchase once the adventure is really starting to get moving. Stick with it, though. Annoyances aside, Risky’s Revenge is yet another elegant exercise in early-nineties nostalgia from the masters of the 16-bit throwback.

As with the studio’s excellent recent Aliens: Infestation, Metroid provides the blueprint for a sturdy construction built from platforming, combat, and exploration. Gear-gating opens up the game’s surprisingly large map at a steady pace, and it’s transformations rather than gadgets that provide the keys. Shantae’s knockabout quest sees the belly-dancing genie switching between monkey, elephant, and mermaid forms whenever a scalable wall, gigantic rock, or underwater cavern beckons, while elsewhere there are attacks to buy and upgrade, bosses to fight, and a range of brightly-drawn NPCs to chatter to.

WayForward doesn’t like to spend a lot of time providing signposting – unless you’re willing to head back to town – and the result is an adventure which will almost certainly be padded by at least a few minutes as you stumble around completely lost. Dungeons tend to be labyrinthine, while some overland sections are even worse, allowing you to jump in and out of the screen to explore areas that are stacked like pancakes. Add the odd cruelly-placed save point, and you’ve got an adventure that occasionally explores the agonies, as well as the ecstasies, of gaming’s past. At least it’s honest.

The game’s smart where it really matters, though, offering uncommonly reliable virtual controls and providing art and animation that are filled with life, even when miserably unoptimised for an HD screen. What’s most pleasing to contemplate, however, is the historical angle. Back on the Game Boy Colour, the first Shantae game was WayForward’s earliest crown jewel – now, it’s merely one ingenious treat amongst many from this resourceful and intelligent developer. [7]