Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is one of the best games to come from the Nintendo eShop. Developed by WayForward Technologies, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is the sequel to Shantae (2002) and Shantae: Risky's Revenge (2010) and it stars the eponymous Shantae, a precocious half-genie girl who is appointed the guardian of Scuttle Town, protecting the town from the sexy nefarious pirate Risky Boots. Unfortunately, due to the events from Risky's Revenge, Shantae has lost her genie powers and has been spending her days as an ordinary human. This boring life comes to an end when the Ammo Baron starts destroying Scuttle Town with his army and Shantae aims to stop him. Not only that, a greater evil awakens and it's up to her and her arch villain Risky Boots to form a truce and stop the Pirate Master from taking over Sequin Land.

Since Shantae has lost her belly-dancing powers, she'll have to learn a new arsenal of moves if she can achieve any progress. Thankfully, her hair whip ability retains so she won't be completely defenseless. In order to eliminate the sources of evil that can power up the Pirate Master, Shantae and Risky venture into various islands and infiltrate dungeons and steal Pirate Gear. Shantae uses Pirate Gear to advance to new places, like using a flintlock pistol to shoot things from afar, a captain's hat to float down slowly or a scimitar to strike the ground. There are also Cacklebats, creatures infused with dark magic that need to be destroyed before confronting the Pirate Master. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is the final adventure in the original Shantae trilogy and it's the longest and best one of them all.

The gameplay is similar to Super Metroid, complete with a map in the bottom screen and upgradeable moves based on items that were collected in dungeons, but overall game progression reminds me of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Difficulty isn't terribly hard save for the final level, and the game takes about 8 to 10 hours to complete with 100% items, although the game can be speedrun in about 2 hours. The ending screen you get depends on how fast you clear the game and how many items you've collected. Content-wise, there's some silly humor and a few 80s references, and the character artwork is very cute and sometimes sexy (psst, use the 3D slider!). As usual, WayForward's spritework is amazing and the music is even more amazing, with Jake “virt” Kaufman returning to work on the game's soundtrack. The most important thing in platformers in my opinion is control and it's safe to say that Shantae plays tight like a classic Nintendo game. 

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is one of those indie games made by people who really care about making games and I wish more developers (AAA and indie) continue to show this much love with their products. It's currently out on the 3DS eShop, with a Wii U port coming this Winter.

Hint: Be sure to find and eliminate all 20 Cacklebats! You won't get the good ending until you do.

by Ray n.