This was the first of the Shantae games I had played way back in early-mid 2018, when I had been randomly compelled to try out the series and became her number one advocate for a Smash Bros. inclusion, which... :(... but oh well. I think this is easily the one everyone should start with, as it's not as frustrating as the first game, yet nowhere near the polish and style of the later entries. It's a valuable playthrough if you're hoping to get into the series yourself, but I wouldn't blame anyone for skipping it to play Pirate's Curse instead.

Admittedly, Risky's Revenge is not quite as good as I had remembered as a kid. Dungeons are all pretty bland in design, sluggish to traverse, and the world outside of those dungeons can be rather barren. Shantae herself doesn't control the best either, her hair attacks always carry the long windup and cooldown whether she's fully upgraded or not. It's not terrible, especially for being only her second (...third?) outing, but it's not easy to come back to after playing the rest of her series. I couldn't help but think about how much more I'd be enjoying Pirate's Curse or Half-Genie Hero throughout my playthrough.

i'll also admit that i tried to play the first game before this and gave up after a short while, so hey, Risky's Revenge is definitely a fine improvement.

It's really hard to recommend this on any merit besides Shantae being the cutey 3.14. Aside from the aspect that the game is constantly making her jiggle and bounce, it's kinda easy to get attached to the fact that she is clearly the closest thing to being a normal functioning person in a cartoon world.

The Game? It's there. It's a serviceable explore'em up but it's too zig-zaggy in it's world and has no moments were everything clicks and you get a handle for playing it. It's kinda just all over too quickly. I wouldn't recommend this unless you are really trying to experience the evolution of the franchise and nothing else

I used to like this garbage years ago but, I actually have played GOOD games at this point so I realized it is ass. Not just this game but the whole series. OG shantae is unplayable garbage, this game is bland and forgettable AT best, same with the newer entries, and Pirate's Curse is the only one with any semblance of competence. First of all, how do I have 8 hours? Well, the game isn't 8 hours. It is short and has next to no content. The reason is because this port is GARBAGE and I spent tons of time trying to get the settings to function properly and for the control scheme to actually be somewhat tolerable. BTW, I have a very good gaming PC so no, it has nothing to do with my computer. Shantae's controls are stiff, characters and story are incredibly bland and unmemorable, the locations are crappy and uninteresting. Don't buy this game. Buy LITERALLY any other indie game, please. Why people want this bland series in Smash Bros. is beyond me. She will never be playable, by the way. Go play Symphony of the Night or something, a GOOD Metroidvania.

4.5/5 if you turn into a Tex Avery wolf and hit yourself in the head with a huge mallet every time you see some 32-bit titties bounce. 3/5 for everyone else.

This is my first Shantae game and it seems like a decent enough place to start. Real easy to get into, not a whole lot going on mechanically but has some interesting ideas. Caught somewhere between a proper search-action game and Monster World IV. The elephant and mermaid transformations feel underbaked compared to the monkey (which is adorable and fun to use), and I wish the dungeons had their own aesthetic theming. However, I think if the later games make good on the promise of Risky's Revenge, I'll have a great time with them.

Sights & Sounds
- I really liked the detailed 16-bit-ish pixel art styling of the characters and backgrounds. The set dressing really is top-notch, full of vibrant colors and small touches to make the environments feel distinct and varied. Same goes for the characters; I liked how well the features of the character portraits were captured by the sprites
- Speaking of the sprites, I suspect the uneconomical use of anime cleavage explains the popularity of the franchise at least in part. I usually roll my eyes when a game tries to pander to my Y chromosome that hard, but hey, there's no accounting for taste
- One part of the presentation that I was especially impressed by was the music. I don't really know how to describe it other than "90's video game-y". Different pieces here and there reminded me of the music in Super Mario RPG and Tomba

Story & Vibes
- You play as Shantae, the tit-ular half-genie protagonist and protector of Scuttle Town. Things are going well until the pirate Risky Boots swoops in to kidnap your uncle after he gathers the town to show off an artifact from one of his recent expeditions. Shantae has to travel in search of three seals needed to unlock the hidden power of the artifact before Risky Boots can carry out her nefarious plan
- It's a fairly generic video game plotline; just a mish-mash of "collect the macguffins to save the world" and "save the princess" tropes. Clearly, people aren't playing it for the plot
- Vibe-wise, it's playful and fairly silly. Even the dramatic beats come off more as a Sunday morning cartoon than anything actually serious

Playability & Replayability
- But brushing the presentation and and plot a-sideboob, how is the platforming? Fine and mostly competent. I didn't feel like the actual platforming bits offered much challenge
- I did kind of like the depth-flipping mechanic to add another dimension to the world, but it could have been utilized better for puzzle purposes
- The "metroidvania" tag sometimes gets applied to this game, but its not very generous or creative with those elements. During the course of her adventure, Shantae unlocks three animal transformation spells that are necessary for progression. Unfortunately, these don't see much creative use in platforming (just accessing places you couldn't otherwise) and have only limited utility in combat
- Speaking of combat, it's not very exciting. Most enemies can be overcome by whipping them with your hair, so you'll barely notice the spells available in Scuttle Town's shop. The only one I used regularly in the course of the game was the fireball, and it was mostly for activating distant platforms
- There is some annoying enemy design. The section with the mermaid enemies is technically pretty easy; if you go slow, you probably won't ever get hit. But the number of enemies and the range of their attacks means it's way more efficient to just use your i-frames and chug a potion when you reach the end of the screen
- In spite of that litany of complaints, I did enjoy the boss fights. They were a little on the easy side, but I liked the variation of the challenges offered, and the one reused boss fight didn't feel cheap and made sense in context
- I don't think I'll play this one again or retread it for achievements. I hear the gameplay gets better in the sequels, so I'll probably just move on to those

Overall Impressions & Performance
- I never played the GBA prequel to this game, but I don't think this one has really enticed me to see what an even more feature-barren Shantae game would play like
- It ran fine on the Steam Deck, but the text boxes are huge and the font is ugly. Not sure if it would look more proportional on a better resolution

Final Verdict
- 5.5/10. There are more efficient ways to see cleavage on your computer

A solid, not that hard (excluding some stuff like the time-trial tower which would've worked much better as a side quest), and light-hearted in themes and tone metroidvania.

The pixelated graphics are good and the music is pretty good as well.
The plot is what it is and you won't lose much by ignoring it. Some of the dialogue can be amusing to read though.

The overall gameplay is fast-paced and fun. I liked the boss battles and the different magics you had at your disposal.
Unfortunately, at times, I felt like the game was on the more cryptic side, and not giving you the best hints at where you should go, ultimately leaving you to figure it out on your own. Makes me wish they made it somewhat more linear. Luckily, as you unlock more teleport waypoints, the backtracking you do becomes more tolerable.

Potions were way too cheap for how much health and magic they restored. The game can really become a cakewalk if you abuse that too often.
I'm getting nitpicky here, but I also wish you could select which save file to save your progress on together with there just being more of them in general. 3 is a little low.

The game is pretty short. Took me 6 hours to beat, so if you're gonna play this, I recommend getting it while it's on sale.

Despite its shortcomings, I enjoyed my time with the game and I'm looking forward to playing the other games in the series.

The Shantae games are one of my guilty pleasures. They’re often dismissed as being low-effort titles that only sell because of the cute girls, but that’s not the entire truth. The simplicity and cuteness are only pieces of an overall strategy to make the games as pleasant as possible. The basic controls and low difficulty make them relaxing, the bright palette and upbeat music make them inviting, there’s a lot of hard work that goes into making it all seem so effortless. However, Risky’s Revenge isn’t the best example, since it was the first sequel to the Game Boy game from eight years prior. Since the first game was so rare, releasing when the Game Boy Advance had already been out for almost a year, the sequel was more of a soft reboot or remake than a new iteration. The next game, Pirate's Curse, received a much higher degree of polish and refinement, so that’s where I would recommend people with a casual interest in the series to start. The story is so simple that you really wouldn’t be missing much by skipping Risky’s Revenge, and if you end up enjoying the series, it works just as well as a lower-budget prequel story.

Despite (or maybe thanks to) the smaller scale, I find this to be a considerable improvement over the original game.

Game is more straightforward in many ways, the warp system no longer requires finding lots of collectibles, dancing transformations are simplified and there's only 3 actual dungeons to go through. What makes this an improvement for me is that it simply feels more focused, I was rarely lost but still found myself exploring as opposed to lost and hoping not to explore areas that will kill me accidentally.

The game is overall easier, but I prefer that over frustratingly hard. Not that Shantae GBC is a super hard game, but its shortcomings from all the padding with long backtracking, increasingly mazey dungeons and tanky enemies being gone makes this one way easier to swallow.

Asides from all of that it doesn't do much different to being a simple platformer with some of metroid, and that was exactly what I expected. It's easy to tell that this game had a rocky development, so it's good that it functions as it should.

I would put this more towards a 6.5. There is a lot to like from this game: solid gameplay, great music and art, decent level design, just all around charm

On the other hand this game really fumbles its metroidvania elements. Progression never felt as clear as it should and the backtracking never felt enjoyable as new powerups had limited uses. The map also was not well connected with teleporters never in convenient places. Lastly bosses were fun but take too long.

Over all this is a game that propels itself forward with its more surface level mechanics and visuals but struggles at a more in-depth level. Luckily the game is short so most complaints do not last long.