Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is a title that has been looked forward to with much anticipation, and on first glance it has many similar components in terms of difficulty and puzzling. It looks great, has creepy villains, and is overall a visual delight compared to the older games (which, understandably, need to be judged by their own era, but let’s face it… this stuff looks so much better now).
In the demo for this title, they didn’t pull punches on making sure you know what you’re getting into. It’s easy to get stuck and frustrated, so if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like taking 5-10 minutes to solve every puzzle, you’re going to want to walk away from this one quickly.
However, Shantae fans will be thrilled to know that at its core, the game seems to have retained plenty of what gave the series its appeal in the first place—humor, light-hearted banter, and an overall happy feelings.
As for gameplay, the split screen works well here, allowing you to access your healing items from the bottom screen—quick, easy, no real interruption. I should mention that there were two components to this demo, a platforming area and a boss battle, to give you a general feel for the game’s various aspects.
Shantae’s movement is improved in this game, giving her a dash ability and the ability to use a variety of weapons. She can zoom through areas and break blocks with a scimitar, and of course… of course… you get to use Shantae’s hair as a weapon. In fact, in the boss battle, that’s all you get.
The boss battle is challenging because you only have hair as a weapon, and the mechanics of the battle are similar to what you’ve seen in other side-scrollers and standard boss battles. Deflect attacks, knock out the baddie, and beat on him until he recovers to challenge you again.
There’s not a whole lot of innovation overall, but it’s a huge improvement on a game series that has a loyal following. Presently, there’s no specific release date for the game on the 3DS, but it will be coming soon (according to the booth monitor).
