Shantae is at its core one of those Metroidvania-style platformers, where the game takes place in one large world but sections are blocked off until you acquire certain abilities. In order to make it work, she requires the spirits of Water, Earth, Metal, and Fire, so Shantae must acquire them from the four dungeons to keep them from her. In the first act, the town gets beseiged by the crew of lady pirate Risky Boots, who makes off with a steam engine. Our eponymous heroine is a half-genie, employed as the protector of Scuttle Town. I'm sorry, enough of my musings, let's get to the review. (And to think this was well before Capcom became public enemy No.1!)Д«elly-dance moves trigger transformations. Heck, its final title would be released less than half a year later! (For the record, it was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which I also happen to own.) So, I can understand Capcom for the lack of promotion. Besides, the most likely cause of Shantae's failure was because it was made for the Game Boy Color, a system which in 2002 was being phased out in favour of the Game Boy Advance. Plus, I've read reports that the character was first conceived by a woman (Erin Bozon, future wife of the game's director, Matt Bozon). To be fair, the Game Boy Color's screen doesn't show that much detail, and there's a balance between the characters' sexy-cute and adorable-cute appeals. While the level of violence was tame enough for an E rating in North America, picture this: all four named female characters (the hero Shantae, the villain Risky Boots, the falconer Skye, and the zombie Rottytops) wear outfits that bare their midriffs. Not helping matters was the unusual amount of sex appeal for an otherwise kid-friendly title, which as you recall I fell victim to. And guess how much it's going for these days? A minimum of $150!! Yeah, I just broke you. I finally caught up with the game in early 2008, buying it cartridge-only for about US$40. Failing to pick it up is one of my life's greatest failures, just behind not applying to the German Honors Society and not going to the Genesis reunion tour.

So why didn't I pick up the game on day one? Welp, the best reason I can think of is a botched release: the game was first reviewed in the Februrary 2002 issue of Nintendo Power, but it didn't get released until June that same year, and by that time I had forgotten about the game (but not the girl ^_^). Its star character has become an unofficial mascot for its developer, WayForward Technologies, and the girl herself instantly became one of my teen-era sex symbols. I cannot believe it, but this month marks ten years since the release of Shantae for the Game Boy Color.

Shantae gba moves