Shantae: Risky's Revenge Review

2012-07-15T23:14:02-07:00

Shantae is a half-genie who lives on the outskirts of a place called Scuttle Town. Her first appearance was in the GameBoy Color cult hit Shantae. I'll be honest: I don't know why Shantae got the attention that it has, even on the DSi. Between the unclear game progression, a shop that's hardly labeled, and controls that aren't as responsive as they should be, Shantae: Risky's Revenge leaves much to be desired.

Before I begin, keep in mind that this game comes with a 1200 DSi Point price. That's $12 USD. I don't consider this game worth the $12 I paid for it. Its graphics are nice, and the music's decent, but everything else is lacking. It's a shame, because if this game had focused more on replayability or something to make the gameplay more varied and interesting, you'd have a winner.

Graphics

I cover graphics first because it's the first thing you see. The graphics in Shantae: Risky's Revenge are very well drawn; some of which by people I've spoken to on a forum named Pixelation. There's no doubt in my mind that the graphics were produced professionally by people that know what they're doing. Each of the game's locales have detailed, expressive backgrounds that show a strong understanding of light and shape. Scuttle Town looks like an old-styled Middle Eastern town, the plains look open and vast, caves look dank and cramped, and so on.

Animation is equally good, though the design of enemies is a bit lacking. The only enemies that really stick out to me are the archers and mermaids, the latter of which were the only overworld enemy that took a strategy beyond "duck and keep hitting."

Music

Each track in Shantae: Risky's Revenge reflects the locale pretty well. Dungeon music is somewhat repetitive, but everything else fits together. My favorite track is the desert theme, which keeps a peppy tone while you're navigating the various pits and moving platforms. I'm a sucker for those instruments, too.

Sound effects don't stand out (which is a good thing); no complaints there either. You'll hear the "fwip" of Shantae's hair quite a bit, though, so get used to it.

Difficulty

This depends on whether or not you find the shop, where you can purchase spells and upgrades for gems. I didn't discover it until the game was almost over, so the only spell I had available to me for most of the game was the starting Fireball. Even with the unintentional handicap, the game's difficulty was manageable. With the upgrades, it's cake. You'll only have difficulty with bosses.

Gameplay

I'll be frank; this game does not stand up to $12 of value. If it were $5, I wouldn't be so harsh on it. But considering it's the most expensive DSiWare game, it should live up to its price. Cave Story, which is cheaper, is the better game. And that was made by one person in his spare time! It's also an adventure-oriented platformer, just like Shantae.

The gist of Shantae: Risky's Revenge's gameplay is "hit hit hit, jump, dodge, hit hit hit". Enemies have little in the way of AI and are easily predicted. Any difficulty in regular enemies comes in the number of hits needed to kill them. The max being somewhere around 10 (without upgrades). In similar fashion, that's how bosses are difficult, too. The patterns are extremely predictable, yet they have tons of HP. So it's a gauntlet to see how long you can maintain the pattern, not a matter of how well you can predict and punish the pattern. WayForward could learn a thing or two from the Mega Man series. Their bosses have more HP, but not insanely so. They also have multiple behaviors that they can bust out at any time.

There are the spells and belly-dancing forms, but neither of them do enough to break up the gameplay style. If Shantae's alternate forms could be used in combat more often and came with their own set of spells, I could see the game being a lot more fun. Ultimately, the game just needs more of what made it nominally interesting in the first place: more forms, more spells, better AI, and a reason to play again. That last one's the most important. There's a reason I play through Super Mario Bros. (the long way) every month: it has replay value!

Story

It's really not worth mentioning. It's a platformer, not a deep adventure or RPG. The gist of it is "Risky, the evil pirate, has come back for the lamp! You need to stop her, Shantae!" Cue random artifact fetch quest.

Final Verdict

At the end of the day, this game's been done before. It's just another pretty, empty platformer. If you're looking for something casual, pretty, and expensive, Shantae: Risky's Revenge will suit you well. If you're a die hard platformer or a gaming veteran like me, steer clear and get Cave Story instead. It has a much more interesting plot, deeper gameplay, and is also available on the DSi Shop.

Metadata

Platform: DSiWare
US Release Date: 2010-10-04
Genres: Action, Adventure, Platformer, Sidescrolling
Developer: WayForward Technologies
ESRB Rating: E-10+ (Comic Mischief, Mild Cartoon Violence, Suggestive Themes)

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance Review

2010-04-18T09:14:29-07:00

Castlevania is a long-running and well-respected franchise from Konami. Throughout its lifetime, it's encountered some difficulties maintaining freshness. When they make a breakthrough, we get games like Symphony of the Night and the Sorrow games. When they're recycling, you get Harmony of Dissonance, better known as "SotN's bastard child on your GBA". Given the success of Symphony of the Night, one would assume Harmony would inherit its strong points. Unfortunately, this is not the case and I would not recommend this game to anyone but the hardcore CV fans.

Graphics

Harmony of Dissonance tries to go in a direction similar to Symphony of the Night, after the backlash Konami received about Circle of the Moon's graphics being "too dark". The result is a hodge-podge of bright, but low contrast graphics. They probably look great on the regular GBA, but on anything that produces its own light, it looks awful. Conversely, Circle actually looks better on a front or backlit screen.

The graphic quality itself is so-so. It feels like less effort was put into the readability of the graphics, so oftentimes things seem to blend together. A lot of the enemy graphics are ripped from Symphony and rescaled to fit the GBA's screen. Overall, it seems like the game tries to be Symphony's little brother, right down to the character design. It's hard to deny the resemblance that Juste and Maxim bear to Alucard and Richter. Among the three Castlevania games available on the GBA, this one has the worst graphics.

Music

Castlevania games are normally known for their music; at least 3 songs stand out in practically every game in the series. Harmony let me down in that respect: the only track I enjoyed was the Entrance theme. The rest of the music was rather boring. It seems that the developers had to cut back on audio quality in order to do what they did with the graphics. At any rate, the music isn't awful; just don't expect music on par with the rest of the series.

Difficulty

Don't expect to have trouble with more than 2 bosses. This lack of difficulty is very strange for a Castlevania game. Gamers of all kinds will have no issues playing or even beating this game.

Gameplay

Harmony of Dissonance plays like a strange mix between old school and new school Castlevania. You will be using a whip through the entire game, but you also get to equip various pieces of equipment. Subweapons are scattered throughout the castle, but you also collect spellbooks that you can use to unleash powerful attacks. It's not a bad mix, but the gameplay can get a little repetitive, with very little variation in how you engage enemies. Aside from that, it's standard Castlevania: action coupled with mild platforming. Sad to say, Harmony is the worst of the modern "Metroidvania" style Castlevania games.

Final Verdict

I was able to complete this game start-to-finish 100% with no guide in under 5½ hours. That's inexcusable in my eyes, since there's very little motivation to play through again. There is Maxim mode, which allows you to play through again with a slightly different character... but I would not want to plod through that castle again. Rent or borrow from a friend, but only if you're a die hard Castlevania fan. You'll be torturing yourself otherwise.

Metadata

Platform: Nintendo GameBoy Advance
Release date (US): 2002-09-16
Genre: Action, Adventure, RPG
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment, Tokyo
Publisher: Konami
ESRB Rating: T for Teen

Z Space Blog - Metroidvania

Shantae: Risky's Revenge Review

Graphics

Music

Difficulty

Gameplay

Story

Final Verdict

Metadata

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance Review

Graphics

Music

Difficulty

Gameplay

Final Verdict

Metadata