Shantae (GBC, 2002)
Graphics-9 Sound-8.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-7.5 Story-7
Level Design-6.5/7.5* Frustration-8 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-7
*Dungeons
+
Visual showcase (nice animation, environmental and day/night changes during levels, very good use of color, many in-game cutscenes and some regular cutscenes (artwork stills and text)), Impressive music, Great art direction overall
Animal transformations (have to perform a short rhythm mini-game to transform but can do it anywhere outside of towns; monkey - small (some shortcuts are made for it)+fast movement and can climb, elephant - slow+weak jump but can destroy certain rocks+walls+creatures with a tackle, spider - small and can climb surfaces in the background, harpy - can fly (by tapping the button) but not crawl or crouch, hidden and optional tinkerbat form (have to play on GBA or use debug mode to access it) - monkey and spider-style climbing+wall jumps and elephant-style charge/tackle, neither of them can attack unless you find items that upgrade their moveset; Wonder Boy/Monster World)
Platform Adventure/MV-style gameplay after the intro level (towns w/ NPCs connecting to two maze-like sub areas each - these areas connect to dungeons/labyrinths with locked doors and hidden keys, gain new combat moves via bought gear, buy inventory items in town in-between levels with gems collected in them (healing, invisibility, float muffin - saves you from pits until it runs out after about 18 seconds, exit candy - teleport out of a dungeon, twin mint - 2x attack for about 14 seconds, greedy jar - double loot from enemies for about 15 seconds (too short); ammo-based sub weapons: storm cloud - hovers forward and shoots once, pikeball - temporary spiked spinning shield orb which hits enemies, flash bolt), rescue missions (4 baby warp squids per town), upgradeable life bar),
Good bosses (multiple phases, most make you use gained transformations)
Day/night cycle with an effect on gameplay (some enemies are stronger during nighttime and some events only take place during day or night - Simon's Quest)
Can speed up dialogue on a per paragraph/message box basis
Pretty good writing overall
Get tips on what to do next from helper NPCs in the towns (directions are too vague considering the lack of maps but you can get better ones from some NPCs)
Hidden items
Decent puzzles and gimmicks (magnetism/color puzzle in dungeon 2 - enemies flee while neutral creatures holding keys move towards you if you're the opposite color (switch at pads placed in the dungeon, a bit like Ikaruga), dungeon 3's eye platforms - similar to Yoshi's Island, antenna guy, spinning launchers in dungeon 4 - similar to Sonic 2 or DKC)
Some good enemy design (the blocking and dashing enemies in the 1st dungeon for example)
Some large sprites
Minor sequence breaking at a couple of points (can sometimes use muffins or the tiara's twirl move instead of a transformation to reach an item)
Mixes in a short escape segment which is also auto-scrolling
+/-
Mostly linear structure (can backtrack for optional upgrades including for warp squid babies placed in beaten dungeons with later transformations, bandit town is locked until you've beaten dungeon 3)
Save point and healing point/bath house in town (one slot per game) plus mid-area save points
Streamlined town hub (TP/behind the shoulder view, similar to an Adventure game or Shining in the Darkness)
The world loops around so if you keep going in one direction for long enough you'll end up where you were (as long as you didn't hit an ability gate or key gate) - however this only works going right to left until you have the harpy form
Mini-games (win money; On foot race - decent, gambling, mandatory sliding puzzles in dungeon 4 - pretty basic, dancing/rhythm: very simple, weird in that you press slightly after the beat instead of on it on lower ranks and how it's an odd syncopated beat with no accompanying music plus when you press correctly there's an offputting sfx played each time - when transforming in-game you press on beat, super hard at highest rank as they just up the speed to a silly level)
Lives system w/ fairly frequent checkpoints
Can't walk/run and attack at the same time
Weird how enemies that take more than one hit to kill fall over into you when hit while standing close to them (they don't hit you if you keep mashing the button though)
Pretty forgiving hit detection overall
Run button is the same as the attack button (probably better than double tap to run though, but perhaps auto-running would've been best since walking is rather slow by comparison) - what's annoying is that you have to finish the attack animation before you start running from standstill or walking which is bad in some platforming segments
HP drops are rare outside of dungeons - have to rely on healing items (this+low initial HP+the death pits and spikes make for a pretty tough start to the game)
The elephant is pretty small
Sexualized female protagonist
Some Kid Icarus and Zelda II references (healing springs and respawning snakes / tall enemies that become shorter as you hit them, upwards attack?)
Can't enter towns while transformed
Can't use the dive spin kick move to reach farther
Can't teleport to visited towns until you've found at least four warp squid babies (game makes you use later transformations to reach some inside dungeons which drags this, need to find 4 for a mom to allow teleporting to the town she's in however it is possible to mix baby squids from different moms to create warp points to some places sooner as they apparently can't tell them apart)
Can't use Shantae's tackle/elbow dash (cuff gear) to air dash unless combined with the tiara's twirl move
Can move through bird knights while they're flying
Can circumvent some of the spinner launcher segments with the monkey form
The harpy can attack before getting the claw for it but only the dungeon 4 boss (from above like in Joust)
Flash bolts (triple shot) are very good vs the final boss while shantae's final move is kind of useless
-
Some control/interface issues (attacks are canceled if performed right before landing, sub weapons/items are too tricky to use (have to time pressing up+B - can't hold one button and then press the other), can't see exactly what time of day it is, unforgiving hit detection at times (first shadow creature west of desert town), power ups don't last when moving between rooms, can't jump onto ladders, can't use items/sub weapons while transformed, can't cancel out of a tackle - has this slow deacceleration period at the end of it, the dive spin kick move isn't quite worth it a lot of the time since there's no invincibility time and you have to be hitting enemies with your feet, can't climb ladders as the monkey, can't cancel shantae's tackle and twirl moves - makes them situational)
Cheap hits (enemies spawning right on top of you, homing shots from off screen (!), enemies shooting as soon as they enter the screen, etc)
No sub area maps or world map (there's a vague world map in the manual but it's not helpful, can find a vague world map online as well as area maps)
Trial & error ("go to the highest point!" (to get to the final area; so where the hell is that?) - this is at least hinted at but only by a random town NPC early in the game, two NPCs tell you to go east after dungeon 3 but really you should go west - can also end up going to dungeon 4 and then taking a one-way path to the west side of the mountain (locking you out of the snow area so you have to backtrack and enter it from the east again), spike traps in dungeon 3, can only find the zombie caravan at night (none of the helpers up to that point tell you about this and going past it and further east leads to a dead end death pit) - would've been fine if you knew exactly where it should appear so you could connect the dots instead of thinking you took the wrong path, can get semi-stuck and have to die if you go west of oasis town too soon, leaps of faith - can't look down/up (instant death pits and spikes are common even in the intro level), kinda zoomed in view making it harder to react to various things if running, the directions are so-so - if you go to the left in the beginning which looks like it'd lead to "water town" since it's a beach then you hit a dead end and if you go left halfway through the forest which was to the right of the first town you hit another dead end, various boss patterns, there's nothing to the log floating in the river - can't stand on it, no clue that you need to first use a twin mints item to get the clown blocking a heart container move and leave? - he just says he likes to watch cute girls dancing, unintuitive invincibility periods for the final boss)
Frequently respawning enemies in various segments - in dungeons they don't respawn until re-entering
Backtracking (for previous shops since old ones don't restock with new items as you progress, have to open some shortcuts like the one below the forest from both sides to use them, )
Several temporary dead ends since you can only take one path to progress and you'll likely run into them all
Some enemies take too many hits to kill considering their patterns and how early you meet them (medusas and wallcrawlers for example - gets worse during nighttime where the latter take 10 (!) hits to kill, some also don't drop better items so killing them doesn't feel worth it)
Some sub weapons and items kinda suck (storm clouds - too hard to hit with, greedy jar)
Unskippable cutscenes
Enemies keep dropping items that you already have a full stock of, no wait or speed up time feature (fireflies can only be found at night - optional collectathon quest (12, lets you gain a healing dance), Item drops disappear after about 5 seconds, Some invisible walls where you'd expect there to be room exits, The elephant and spider forms are too situational and not that fun to move around as, minor slowdown, some grinding for gear (unless you gamble and cheat in an emulator), overworld areas tend to be somewhat bland in terms of the platforming, having to switch between multiple forms in a row gets a bit tedious at times (they could've let you dance with a menu selection after successfully doing it once), if you move away from an item drop until it's off screen then it disappears, pointless frozen enemies in dungeon 4 (you just transform into the elephant and tackle them to open the door to the next room), easy final level and penultimate boss
Notes:
-GBA ver. beta info: https://shantae.fandom.com/wiki/Shantae_Advance
Level Design-6.5/7.5* Frustration-8 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-7
*Dungeons
+
Visual showcase (nice animation, environmental and day/night changes during levels, very good use of color, many in-game cutscenes and some regular cutscenes (artwork stills and text)), Impressive music, Great art direction overall
Animal transformations (have to perform a short rhythm mini-game to transform but can do it anywhere outside of towns; monkey - small (some shortcuts are made for it)+fast movement and can climb, elephant - slow+weak jump but can destroy certain rocks+walls+creatures with a tackle, spider - small and can climb surfaces in the background, harpy - can fly (by tapping the button) but not crawl or crouch, hidden and optional tinkerbat form (have to play on GBA or use debug mode to access it) - monkey and spider-style climbing+wall jumps and elephant-style charge/tackle, neither of them can attack unless you find items that upgrade their moveset; Wonder Boy/Monster World)
Platform Adventure/MV-style gameplay after the intro level (towns w/ NPCs connecting to two maze-like sub areas each - these areas connect to dungeons/labyrinths with locked doors and hidden keys, gain new combat moves via bought gear, buy inventory items in town in-between levels with gems collected in them (healing, invisibility, float muffin - saves you from pits until it runs out after about 18 seconds, exit candy - teleport out of a dungeon, twin mint - 2x attack for about 14 seconds, greedy jar - double loot from enemies for about 15 seconds (too short); ammo-based sub weapons: storm cloud - hovers forward and shoots once, pikeball - temporary spiked spinning shield orb which hits enemies, flash bolt), rescue missions (4 baby warp squids per town), upgradeable life bar),
Good bosses (multiple phases, most make you use gained transformations)
Day/night cycle with an effect on gameplay (some enemies are stronger during nighttime and some events only take place during day or night - Simon's Quest)
Can speed up dialogue on a per paragraph/message box basis
Pretty good writing overall
Get tips on what to do next from helper NPCs in the towns (directions are too vague considering the lack of maps but you can get better ones from some NPCs)
Hidden items
Decent puzzles and gimmicks (magnetism/color puzzle in dungeon 2 - enemies flee while neutral creatures holding keys move towards you if you're the opposite color (switch at pads placed in the dungeon, a bit like Ikaruga), dungeon 3's eye platforms - similar to Yoshi's Island, antenna guy, spinning launchers in dungeon 4 - similar to Sonic 2 or DKC)
Some good enemy design (the blocking and dashing enemies in the 1st dungeon for example)
Some large sprites
Minor sequence breaking at a couple of points (can sometimes use muffins or the tiara's twirl move instead of a transformation to reach an item)
Mixes in a short escape segment which is also auto-scrolling
+/-
Mostly linear structure (can backtrack for optional upgrades including for warp squid babies placed in beaten dungeons with later transformations, bandit town is locked until you've beaten dungeon 3)
Save point and healing point/bath house in town (one slot per game) plus mid-area save points
Streamlined town hub (TP/behind the shoulder view, similar to an Adventure game or Shining in the Darkness)
The world loops around so if you keep going in one direction for long enough you'll end up where you were (as long as you didn't hit an ability gate or key gate) - however this only works going right to left until you have the harpy form
Mini-games (win money; On foot race - decent, gambling, mandatory sliding puzzles in dungeon 4 - pretty basic, dancing/rhythm: very simple, weird in that you press slightly after the beat instead of on it on lower ranks and how it's an odd syncopated beat with no accompanying music plus when you press correctly there's an offputting sfx played each time - when transforming in-game you press on beat, super hard at highest rank as they just up the speed to a silly level)
Lives system w/ fairly frequent checkpoints
Can't walk/run and attack at the same time
Weird how enemies that take more than one hit to kill fall over into you when hit while standing close to them (they don't hit you if you keep mashing the button though)
Pretty forgiving hit detection overall
Run button is the same as the attack button (probably better than double tap to run though, but perhaps auto-running would've been best since walking is rather slow by comparison) - what's annoying is that you have to finish the attack animation before you start running from standstill or walking which is bad in some platforming segments
HP drops are rare outside of dungeons - have to rely on healing items (this+low initial HP+the death pits and spikes make for a pretty tough start to the game)
The elephant is pretty small
Sexualized female protagonist
Some Kid Icarus and Zelda II references (healing springs and respawning snakes / tall enemies that become shorter as you hit them, upwards attack?)
Can't enter towns while transformed
Can't use the dive spin kick move to reach farther
Can't teleport to visited towns until you've found at least four warp squid babies (game makes you use later transformations to reach some inside dungeons which drags this, need to find 4 for a mom to allow teleporting to the town she's in however it is possible to mix baby squids from different moms to create warp points to some places sooner as they apparently can't tell them apart)
Can't use Shantae's tackle/elbow dash (cuff gear) to air dash unless combined with the tiara's twirl move
Can move through bird knights while they're flying
Can circumvent some of the spinner launcher segments with the monkey form
The harpy can attack before getting the claw for it but only the dungeon 4 boss (from above like in Joust)
Flash bolts (triple shot) are very good vs the final boss while shantae's final move is kind of useless
-
Some control/interface issues (attacks are canceled if performed right before landing, sub weapons/items are too tricky to use (have to time pressing up+B - can't hold one button and then press the other), can't see exactly what time of day it is, unforgiving hit detection at times (first shadow creature west of desert town), power ups don't last when moving between rooms, can't jump onto ladders, can't use items/sub weapons while transformed, can't cancel out of a tackle - has this slow deacceleration period at the end of it, the dive spin kick move isn't quite worth it a lot of the time since there's no invincibility time and you have to be hitting enemies with your feet, can't climb ladders as the monkey, can't cancel shantae's tackle and twirl moves - makes them situational)
Cheap hits (enemies spawning right on top of you, homing shots from off screen (!), enemies shooting as soon as they enter the screen, etc)
No sub area maps or world map (there's a vague world map in the manual but it's not helpful, can find a vague world map online as well as area maps)
Trial & error ("go to the highest point!" (to get to the final area; so where the hell is that?) - this is at least hinted at but only by a random town NPC early in the game, two NPCs tell you to go east after dungeon 3 but really you should go west - can also end up going to dungeon 4 and then taking a one-way path to the west side of the mountain (locking you out of the snow area so you have to backtrack and enter it from the east again), spike traps in dungeon 3, can only find the zombie caravan at night (none of the helpers up to that point tell you about this and going past it and further east leads to a dead end death pit) - would've been fine if you knew exactly where it should appear so you could connect the dots instead of thinking you took the wrong path, can get semi-stuck and have to die if you go west of oasis town too soon, leaps of faith - can't look down/up (instant death pits and spikes are common even in the intro level), kinda zoomed in view making it harder to react to various things if running, the directions are so-so - if you go to the left in the beginning which looks like it'd lead to "water town" since it's a beach then you hit a dead end and if you go left halfway through the forest which was to the right of the first town you hit another dead end, various boss patterns, there's nothing to the log floating in the river - can't stand on it, no clue that you need to first use a twin mints item to get the clown blocking a heart container move and leave? - he just says he likes to watch cute girls dancing, unintuitive invincibility periods for the final boss)
Frequently respawning enemies in various segments - in dungeons they don't respawn until re-entering
Backtracking (for previous shops since old ones don't restock with new items as you progress, have to open some shortcuts like the one below the forest from both sides to use them, )
Several temporary dead ends since you can only take one path to progress and you'll likely run into them all
Some enemies take too many hits to kill considering their patterns and how early you meet them (medusas and wallcrawlers for example - gets worse during nighttime where the latter take 10 (!) hits to kill, some also don't drop better items so killing them doesn't feel worth it)
Some sub weapons and items kinda suck (storm clouds - too hard to hit with, greedy jar)
Unskippable cutscenes
Enemies keep dropping items that you already have a full stock of, no wait or speed up time feature (fireflies can only be found at night - optional collectathon quest (12, lets you gain a healing dance), Item drops disappear after about 5 seconds, Some invisible walls where you'd expect there to be room exits, The elephant and spider forms are too situational and not that fun to move around as, minor slowdown, some grinding for gear (unless you gamble and cheat in an emulator), overworld areas tend to be somewhat bland in terms of the platforming, having to switch between multiple forms in a row gets a bit tedious at times (they could've let you dance with a menu selection after successfully doing it once), if you move away from an item drop until it's off screen then it disappears, pointless frozen enemies in dungeon 4 (you just transform into the elephant and tackle them to open the door to the next room), easy final level and penultimate boss
Notes:
-GBA ver. beta info: https://shantae.fandom.com/wiki/Shantae_Advance