Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse was a weird discovery for me. Granted, the character has existed for a while now, and this was the third game in the series, but up until a few years ago it was mainly a Gameboy and Nintendo DS series. It didn’t make its way to standard platforms until 2014 or so. In any case, it was a game that I kept hearing about but actually had very little interest in.
Chalk another one up to Xbox’s Game Pass, because without it I would have never given it a try. I’ve seen the Shantae series, namely Pirate’s Curse, mentioned many times on many different gaming sites, but it just did not seem to be up my alley. For lack of a better explanation; It looked girly. Girly characters, a cutesy art style, and bubbly animations. In short, I didn’t feel like I was their target demographic. It turned out I was wrong about this, because the game is definitely targeted toward males. The artists made sure each female character got their own time to shine in a bikini, harem outfit, or some other cleavage-exposing outerwear. The portrait art is cheeky and fun, and innocent enough for the kids to overlook. But I, being a guy in my late 30’s, noticed it right away. I smell what you’re shovelin’, Wayforward.
It’s been a while since I played a platformer with some tight controls and classic Metroidvania level design. Are we still calling it that? Metroidvania? There hasn’t been a decent Castlevania in years. I seem to remember someone suggesting a different term like “pathfinding” or something. Eh, who knows.
Anyways, while I would say a good 90% of the game was enjoyable, some of the hidden Cacklebats (which you need to find and destroy to get the good ending) were just impossible to find without help. Some of them would require running and jumping and float-shoot-float your way across a wide area that no one would ever think to jump across just to find some random Cacklebat. Add to that the fact that nothing is marked on your map, and you have to commit some random room or ledge in some part of some island to your memory for later traversal once you get the required skill. I know I’m old, but even in my youth I don’t think my memory was ever that sharp. Thank God for Youtube.
I found about 12 of the Cacklebats on my own and needed to consult a video to show me where the remaining eight were. It was a good thing too, because I never would’ve tried the things I needed in order to find them.
In all, the game was fun, and not really very difficult, though I did die plenty of times due to my own impatience or carelessness… except for one part of the game, the final tower.
Fuck, with a capital F, the person that designed that final tower. Nothing, I repeat, nothing in the game will prepare you for the level of controller-throwing frustration you will encounter while trying to get through those individual rooms. It was a culmination of all the skills I had acquired to that point, but it was a spike in difficulty and skill not seen anywhere else in the game. At no point did the game ever make you combine your skills and moves to a level that it did here. It was very jarring that all of a sudden I needed timing, precision and quick reflexes to get through. I’ve never been the guy with the sharpest reflexes or the most accurate movements, and I’ve always had a little bit of trouble with pattern memorization, but eventually I can get there. And maybe this is my age kicking in, but holy shit did I have a hard time with these rooms. If I would’ve encountered something like that early in the game, it would’ve been enough to get me to quit.
I know, there are some of you reading this saying, “I didn’t have any problem getting through there, it was easy.” Well good for you. Pat yourself on the back and high-five your buddy. There are always going to be those people out there that can do this shit with one hand and blindfolded. But they’re not me. I eventually completed it, and defeated the final Pirate Master. And though I enjoyed the game, that last bit left a pretty sour taste in my mouth. I hope that with the newer Half-Genie Hero game that’s out, Wayforward at least balanced out the difficulty and work up to something like that gradually, instead of slapping you in the face with it at the absolute last minute.
Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse made a fan out of me though. I liked the characters and the sense of humor, and I’m actually looking forward to eventually checking out Half-Genie Hero.
