Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: WayForward
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $24.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
It’s a bit hard to imagine that one of the first times that Shantae was released was nearly enough to put the entire franchise to bed. In fact, it did for eight years before reviving with Risky’s Revenge, leaving the actual second game in the series Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution to sit unfinished somewhere on a hard-drive collecting dust for over two decades after being seen as too “high risk” due to the status of the GBA and market at the time. Now here in 2025, twenty three years after it was initially started to be developed first the title arrived as a proper GBA game partnered through Limited Run Games and now on consoles with an enhanced version, bringing Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution to anyone who wants to sample this game nearly lost to time. But the question is, does this half-genie have it in her to bring this decidedly retro platformer to life for modern audiences?
Story
One day Shantae wakes up and realizes she is incredibly late to the showing of Scuttle Town’s new defense system and rushes out to meet her friends Sky and Bolo who are working on a large fan that could deflect the nefarious pirate Risky Boots’ consistent attacks on the town. After a brief back-and-forth about how late Shantae is and how her new friend Rottytops can certainly help with the fan service, none other than Risky Boots herself shows up to taunt the half-genie into pursuing her into a battle that eventually leads to a mysterious cavern that snakes its way through the entirety of Sequin Land alongside massive pillars holding the land up. Unfortunately for them, Risky Boots has already learned of this strange phenomenon and crafted a disastrous tool to take advantage of it.
Dubbing it the Tremor Engine, Risky can use it whenever she wishes to alter the very surface of Sequin Land to rotate towns that were previously protected into defenseless targets for her crew. Shantae turns to her uncle Mimic to devise a way to stop Risky’s creation and ensuing rampage and that is where she learns of her major goal throughout the game, finding and locating the long separated Relic Hunter’s guild members who, together with Mimic, can devise a solution. Unfortunately for Shantae, Risky has already employed three powerful demons known as the Muck Lords to capture and hold these brilliant minds prisoner, leaving it up to Shantae to save each of them through increasingly different and difficult ways.
Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution may not have the most complicated storyline, as it is as straightforward as they come, it is also incredibly funny. Where some other right might pull off some type of dramatic twist of a character reveal, Shantae Advance pulls off a comedic reveal instead, flipping expectations entirely when it comes to how characters are introduced and how Shantae handles things, usually with her own sense of upbeat charm or occasionally letting out a burst of anger when pushed too far.
Whether it is the system itself guilt-tripping her for taking a ball from a baby, the fact that the shop keeper was probably eaten by Rottytops and has taken over shop duties instead, or the constant fourth-wall breaking and referential humor there are plenty of jokes to be had throughout the game. While we won’t spoil some of the best jokes here, this may be some of the wittiest writing the series has had, perhaps thanks to its wealth of backlog to pull from, or simply because of its straightforward and hilarious nature, some of which can even be a little dark despite their colorful telling.
Gameplay
For the most part Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution plays similar to how fans of the game might expect from the series’ history Scuttle Town serves as the game’s main hub where Shantae will often return to gain her new mission after rescuing a Relic Hunter as well as the primary shop location, save room, and even hot spring to restore health and magic. Players will use any maps they acquire and give them to Sky who will then fly them to the location, with each map also saying how many “Secret Squids” are within a location. Some of these maps are simple towns with NPCs that Shantae can interact with and give items to in some cases, especially the various rare game seeking wolves, but the largest maps are full scale locations featuring side-dungeons and tombs where players not only must track down the missing Relic Hunters but obtain new powers and transformations for Shantae as well.
The platforming and combat remain as tight feeling as ever, with Shantae able to use her pony-tail to whip enemies with increased damage and speed the more shampoo players buy or utilize spells to dish out damage in a variety of other ways while depleting her magic gauge. Enemies themselves generally drop gems (currency), healing hearts, or magic pots allowing for players to zip through areas once they’ve got the hang of enemy attack types, especially once more of Shantae’s transformation abilities are unlocked. As players defeat tombs and solve puzzles within grander dungeons, Shantae will be rewarded with a wish charm that, when dropped into a usually nearby fountain, will unlock a new transformation.
These transformations are performed by dancing (which can also pull in enemy drops) and either pressing a face button or directional input depending on the form needed such as monkey that has higher jumping and the ability to climb walls, a crab that can sink and navigate into the deeper water, an elephant that can smash through certain blocks, and eventually more advanced forms such as a spider that can climb webbing, a mermaid that almost entirely negates the point of the crab form (which becomes quite useless minus one puzzle mechanic) and finally an end-game level harpy transformation that makes navigating levels a breeze.
The major gimmick this time around for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution happens to be the fact that there are various devices placed in most towns and, most importantly, in the major levels themselves. These devices trigger Risky’s Tremor Engine and in towns they happen to be plot based but in the exploration areas they happen to play into actually navigating the world and solving puzzles here and there as they rotate the entire background of the level, making previously unreachable platforms or locations now reachable. Players will also find various locations where they can transfer from the foreground to the background areas, with these also shifting locations, and enemies will spawn on both areas, though only a few have the ability to swap between the front and back.
Exploration and puzzle solving are fairly straightforward but very satisfying. While there is no map system the game’s locations and dungeons aren’t overly large to the point that players will get easily lost and even tracking down an old dungeon or area that they couldn’t previously access because they were lacking Shantae’s Harpy form or even the ability to attack while in her Mermaid form, is fairly simple though makes for a nice challenge for those looking to complete the game with every secret squid available. The bosses themselves are also fairly unique, though the tomb boss being only slightly modified is a bit lacking. Otherwise the actual main bosses players battle against all have a unique gimmick of their own that players will need to figure out to best defeat them, keeping them on their toes even with as fully upgraded Shantae players can have to that point. It is nice to note that those who want to ease the game up a bit can always purchase extra healing items and MP refilling items from Rottytops in a dungeon, making the title still accessible even if the usual “save room run” to retry a boss fight is generally only a room or two.
Outside of the main story mode there is also a multiplayer option available for those who want to try it out called Battle Mode. This mode is rather basic and is unfortunately only available on couch co-op, meaning that players must play with an extra controller and there is surprisingly no option to add bots as opponents. The Battle Mode allows players to fight one another in a strange little box that auto-rotates with spikes and boxes as environmental damage while they can also attack one another until there is only one player standing. This mode is incredibly basic and feels like a rather strange addition, especially with no bot option available.
Audio & Visuals
Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution actually offers two modes of play, depending on how “authentic” fans may want it to feel. There is either the “Classic” mode that will keep the game matching the same GBA aesthetics all around that was released earlier this year with some rough but still adequate looking sprites and character portraits with some rough edges but the main draw here happens to be the Story Mode. The Story Mode features the HD character portraits and CG scenes that appear from time to time and look absolutely stunning and brightly colored. It is worth noting that the game still retains its pixel-art aesthetic even in Story Mode, only the pixels are presented as crisply as possible. Enemy variety is also nicely spaced out depending on location minus a few re-colored foes. It is also worth noting that it is great to see Shantae leaning into the fan-service elements where it can, especially to make a joke. One of these even happens during a boss fight where players have a chance of making Rottytops pop out of a cake wearing a bunnygirl outfit and toss a healing heart to Shantae and give her a boost. That and the variety of “deluxe edition” costumes should players buy the fancier version of the game providing various boons as well as an unlockable bikini should players find all of the lost squids.
There is minimal voice work throughout the game minus a few little chirps here and there but that doesn’t mean that this game fails to impress. The soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal with there being a great number of tracks available and mixed throughout the game depending on which location layers are traveling through, if they are fighting a boss, or even simply exploring a town. These songs are quite impressive and are a real standout when exploring the game, especially when cleaning up collectables that can finally be reached in previous locations with Shantae’s final few transformations.
Overall
Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution is the best type of revival that fans could hope for. While its story may not be the most serious, it features all of the same charming and incredibly humorous cast and writing that the series is known for alongside bright and colorful visuals that are present both in the retro styling of the GBA, if players choose, and gorgeous character portraits. Featuring impressive platforming, enjoyable puzzles, and light metroidvania aspects there might be some transformations that may not feel the most useful after a while but this is one that fans will have a blast with.
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