Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution Review – Two Decades of Sealed Memories

Of the numerous platforming mascots out there, Shantae is undeniably one of the most beloved. While her titles aren’t as monumentally prominent as the AAA heavy hitters, she has accrued a sizable fanbase of her own over twenty-plus years. Having played each entry myself sans The Seven Sirens, I became particularly intrigued by the franchise’s latest announced outing: Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution.

For those unaware, Risky Revolution possesses a standout history. Initially beginning development way back in 2022, this title was planned as the series’ second entry before the lack of a publisher resulted in its cancellation two years later. Then, development shockingly resumed in 2023, with a surprise physical Game Boy Advance release having arrived earlier this year via Limited Run Games. Now, the game has finally made its way to modern platforms, giving the vast majority of fans a realistic avenue to experience this long-lost sequel.

Story: A Familiar Yet Charming Adventure

This title follows Shantae and the other residents of Scuttle Town after the recurring villainous pirate Risky Boots suffered her first defeat. However, rather than basking in peace alongside her newly acquired friend, Rottytops, Risky Boots persists with a new plan to rule the setting of Sequin Land. This time around, she uses a tool called the Tremor Engine to rotate the continent to enable easier takeovers. To counter this endeavor, Shantae sets off on a quest to rescue members of the Relic Hunter’s Guild who can help conceptualize a solution to this ongoing dilemma.

The narratives of the Shantae games are never their central appeal, but they do always boast a charming cast and quippy writing with a tad of fourth-wall breaking thrown in for good measure. Risky Revolution is no different in this execution, feeling at home with the rest of the franchise’s identity. The central goals in place are also familiarly straightforward, so fans of the series should have a strong idea of what to anticipate here.

Gameplay: Classic Metroidvania with a Twist

Of course, the gameplay is the major appeal here, and Risky Revolution slots right at home with the franchise’s metroidvania specification. At its core, progression is rooted in exploring as much of an area as you can, gaining a new item or power-up that unbars a previously encountered obstacle, and then rinsing and repeating. The uniqueness here resides in Shantae herself, who, besides her hair-whipping attacks, standard jumps, and crawls, gains the ability to transform into several types of creatures. As you would expect, these transformations each offer different exploratory boons for optional and mandated purposes.

For instance, the monkey state lets Shantae climb onto walls and jump across longer gaps, while the crab moveset lets her sink to the bottom of the sea floor, enabling access to paths hindering her default swimming proficiency. These upgrades are the primary avenue of the metroidvania-induced progress, with the other being dungeon keys or crucial items that must be handed off to characters to move events along. To be honest, there isn’t really all that much new to say about Shantae’s gameplay, whether you’re a practiced series veteran or not. It’s all quite intuitive in control and feel, and the area design is mostly compact.

Level Design & Backtracking Concerns

Still, the level layouts are where I had mild issues with this long-lost second entry. While there are a handful of gratifying dungeons each imparting well-appreciated strides, there’s an over-reliance on backtracking here that feels excessive compared to my admittedly dim memories of the other games. To elaborate, you traverse locations thanks to the pet bird of the friendly NPC Skylar, as well as via findable maps revealing these new lands. These discoveries are sometimes connected to NPCs, encouraging players to engage in frequent character interaction.

However, I found the backtracking across specific maps somewhat dull, accentuated by the relatively brief, sub-ten-hour playtime. Naturally, there has to be some manner of backtracking for the metroidvania components to be meaningful, but I just wasn’t too in love with a chunk of the maps here, which can be needlessly drawn out for what feels like padding.

In hindsight, I suppose I’m more of a fan of Shantae’s combat focus or when that and the puzzle-solving are balanced. This time around, the latter certainly comes across as the priority, which is not an inherent negative; it just didn’t quite click for me. The Pirate’s Curse is the game that, to this day, remains my favorite in every facet of its gameplay design, being so satisfactorily spun together. Yet, Risky Revolution is by no means an outright poor actualization of its chosen cornerstone, though.

Unique Mechanics: World-Swapping & Exploration

Where this sequel attempts distinction is how the quadrants of Sequin Land have swapped parts of themselves due to Risky’s ongoing machinations. Typical examples involve opposing elements clashing together, negatively impacting the lives of the everyday citizen. This also impacts the exploration, with each major area boasting another side to it that you can peruse once its vicinities have been restored to their default state.

That aspect directly reinforces the metroidvania identification here in a clever way that neatly integrates into the plot. It’s also worth noting that Risy Revolution likes to make use of swapping control across the foreground and background, giving certain locations a literal other layer of investigation, even if it’s all fairly lite in the grand scheme. Select enemies can swap between these planes as well, which can honestly be somewhat vexing when you’re just trying to navigate older locations to their fullest extent.

Upgrades & Combat: Simple but Effective

Other elements of advancement include a shop helmed by Rottytops that sells a plethora of permanent upgrades and consumable items that can aid in a bind. Like the other titles, it is pretty simple to grind out the currency needed to obtain these upgrades early if you really want to. Still, you’ll assuredly gain enough to grab at least all the permanent boons, such as raising Shantae’s hair-whipping speed and damage output. Another appreciable facet is that the creature transformations have boosts of their own, granting further individuality.

In terms of combat design, Shantae’s standard attacks and the spells you can obtain are the crux of it all. There’s a respectable variety of methods for success here. Still, while the bosses may be a challenge to figure out during your initial go-arounds, victory is relatively painless once you spend a few attempts. As stated before, battling feels more secondary and supplemental here than usual, so I wasn’t too attached to its execution, but it gets the job done.

Additional Modes & Final Thoughts

Risky Revolution has a handful of other modes worth highlighting, such as the fact that you can play the title in its modernly presented rendition or a classic mode mimicking the Game Boy Advance release. This choice is stellar for those who value classic Shantae but lack the official capacity of obtaining that Game Boy Advance launch from earlier this year. Then there’s the mode that I did not try out whatsoever, the four-player battle mode that requires at least two to three other players in total, including yourself. From what the game explains, the goal is to be the last warrior standing, seeming quite simple if anything. If you have friends by your side willing to try out this battle mode, then by all means.

Verdict: A Worthy Entry for Fans & Newcomers

If you’re a dedicated Shantae fan, then Risky Revolution will feel familiar. In place of what would ordinarily be nostalgic visuals, characters, and gameplay design philosophies, you have reinvigorated executions that are essentially sealed memories from two decades past. Between tried-and-true platforming and metroidvania progression, this revived entry is undeniably Shantae, being a natural fit next to its siblings. If you’ve been yearning for your next 2D platforming fix, then Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution will remedy that itch, regardless of whether you have any history with the franchise. Plus, you have one hell of a soundtrack here, rivaling the series’ best.