Departing Salute - The Best of DS #21: Shantae: Risky's Revenge

In 25 5 days, Nintendo launches its 3DS handheld system in Japan, to be followed a month later by the European and American versions. While the arrival of 3DS doesn't mean its predecessor is completely dead, we're definitely moving into the DS's latter days. That makes now the perfect occasion to catch on up all the DS games you've missed. In the days leading up to 3DS's Japanese debut, I'll be looking back at the best the DS had to offer -- my favorite games for one of my favorite systems ever, and some others that I may not be totally enamored with but can respect for their general importance. This isn't a definitive list or anything. It's an op-ed column! Please feel free to voice your dissent in the comments.

Previous entries: 1. Bangai-O Spirits | 2. Brain Age | 3. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow | 4. Contra 4 | 5. Dragon Quest V | 6. Dragon Quest IX | 7. Etrian Odyssey III | 8. Feel the Magic: XY/XX | 9. Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light | 10. Kirby: Canvas Curse | 11. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks | 12. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story | 13. Mario Kart DS | 14. Mega Man ZX Advent | 15. Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer | 16. Nintendogs | 17. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney | 18. Pok�mon HeartGold & SoulSilver | 19. Professor Layton and the Curious Village | 20. Retro Game Challenge

Departing Salute Entry 21: Shantae: Risky's Revenge
Developed by: WayForward
Published by: WayForward
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Date: Oct. 4, 2010

My parents' generation will tell you that they remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news that President Kennedy was dead. Me? I remember where I was when I first heard about Shantae: Risky's Revenge.

Not that I'm suggesting the two events are in any way equivalent! I'm just building a tenuous lead, here. But as one of the few (the proud) to have played the original Shantae back in the day, I watched as WayForward dangled the prospect of a sequel only to be shot down by publishers time and again with no small amount of annoying and anticipation. Shantae was a wonderful little game that perfectly recaptured the essence of open-ended NES games like Faxanadu (which is available today on Virtual Console, don't you know?), and I was eager to experience WayForward's spot-on revisiting of those bygone days on a more robust system than Game Boy Color.

It was ultimately the advent of digitial distribution through DSiWare that made Risky's Revenge possible, as a cheap ($12!) faux-16-bit adventure that didn't need to rely on timid, conservative publishers for retail distribution. Unfortunately, Nintendo has done a terrible, terrible job of tending to DSiWare and promoting quality content and user awareness of the service. Shantae therefore is possibly the only scientifically awesome thing to come from DSiWare (well, this and Cave Story), but what the heck! Risky's Revenge is good enough that it single-handedly justifies the platform's existence.

The basic game here is the time-honored 2D platformer. You run, you jump, you attack (in this case by whipping the holy hell out of things with your half-genie heroine's ponytail). It's a free-roaming adventure in the -- yes, sorry, here's that word again -- Metroidvania mold, so you can freely backtrack at your leisure and will need to find the right skills and tools in order to overcome certain obstacles and advance to new areas.

That in itself is a solid recommendation, since outside of the increasingly tedious Castlevania games the DS has been awfully short on that style of game. But Risky's Revenge is especially commendable for the sheer quality of its 2D artwork; it's a gorgeous and gorgeously animated piece of work. Equally admirable, though, is its use of parallax scrolling as a game mechanic. In time-honored 2D tradition, visual depth is simulated by sandwiching layers of art on top of one another and scrolling them at different speeds... but unlike any other game I've played, Risky's Revenge actually turns those background planes into active play space. You can leap into the background or foreground at specific points, and Shantae hops into what formerly appeared to be mere scenery in order to wreck bad guys and advance to the next area. And then you start to realize that you can see monsters and foes wandering around back there that you hadn't noticed before. It's a simple idea for a game mechanic, but it's brilliant.

The one drawback is that Risky's Revenge definitely feels like a classic game in terms of length; you can easily finish the game your first time through in half a dozen hours. Originally WayForward announced it as an episodic title, but later backpedaled... but while the game is a complete, self-contained work in terms of content, its story ends on a cliffhanger. And then there's the matter of the bits of art the company has shown from areas that weren't actually included in this chapter....

So, with luck, Shantae's sequel is the first of many to come. In a perfect world, WayForward would be holding onto the next chapter to reveal it as a 3DS title -- that parallax effect is begging to be seen in 3D, after all. Me, I'd rather not take my chances. Please pick it up! I know DSiWare is a bust and no one actually buys it, but Shantae is worth making an exception. Any fan of classic platformers will love it, and I will love you if you help make Risky's Revenge profitable enough for a sequel.

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