Shantae

Infobox VG
title= Shantae


caption =
developer = WayForward Technologies
publisher = Capcom
designer =
composer = Jake Kaufman
engine =
picture format=
released = vgrelease|NA=June 5, 2002
genre = Platform
modes = Single-player
ratings = vgratings|ESRB=E
platforms = Game Boy Color
media =
requirements =
input =

"Shantae" is a platform video game for the Game Boy Color. It was produced by WayForward Technologies and distributed by Capcom.

Plot

From the official website:

"Have you ever heard of Sequin Land? It was once a magical place, protected from monsters and mishaps by beautiful Guardian Genies. Their heroism won long years of peace, during which many of the genies fell in love with mortal men. The resulting offspring were all girls, seemingly human but with a trace of magical power, often lying dormant or manifesting in unusual ways. Thus half-genies came into the world."

"Sadly, as the ages passed large numbers of Guardian Genies began to disappear from Sequin Land until not one remained. Many folks imagined that they had been captured inside bottles, while others believed that the genies had returned to their own realm. With the guardians gone, Sequin Land began to fall prey to evil."

"In spite of their lack of skills, the daughters of the Genies made a decision to pool their powers and stand against evil as best they could. Few and far between, these half-genies traveled the land, each choosing a kingdom to guard until peace could be won again. As they struggle to keep the peace, new villains emerge and ancient foes return to wreak havoc on Sequin Land. Is this newest generation of Guardian Genies up to the challenge?"

The game's story focuses on a young "half-genie" by the name of Shantae. Having been appointed as the Guardian Genie of a small fishing town, Shantae's life is fairly quiet. That quickly changes when a gang of pirates, led by the sinister (and sexy) Risky Boots, attacks the town and steals a prototype steam engine from the town's resident Relic Hunter, Mimic.

Shantae soon finds herself traveling far and wide across Sequin Land, determined to retrieve the steam engine and foil Risky's wicked plan.

Characters

*Shantae - The titular heroine, a young half-genie charged with protecting the fishing port of Scuttle Town. Young and somewhat naïve, Shantae's strong sense of justice nonetheless propels her into action. Her main form of offense is using her magically endowed ponytail as a crude whip. In addition, she is capable of transforming into various creatures (a monkey, an elephant, a spider and a harpy) via the use of magical dances. Having failed to protect Scuttle Town from Risky Boots, Shantae finds herself obligated to find Risky and get the stolen steam engine back.

*Risky Boots - Captain of the pirates that attacked Scuttle Town, Risky's greed is well-known all throughout Sequin Land. With her focus on the steam engine that she's recently acquired, Risky has a devious plan to upgrade the engine through the means of a series of magical stones, ultimately employing it into her ultimate weapon for conquest. In addition to her large cutlass and cunning mind, Risky has at her disposal a large army of "Tinkerbats", who are said to be highly-skilled mechanics, though they make lousy pirates.

*Mimic - Scuttle Town's resident Relic Hunter and the closest thing to a father Shantae has. Mimic gets his name from his habit of creating replicas of the objects and treasures he finds on his digs. His recent discovery of blueprints for a steam engine led to his creation of a prototype, only for Risky to steal it.

*Bolo - A warrior from nearby Water Town, and one of Shantae's friends. As the name implies, his preferred weapon is a special bolo sling. Despite his skills, he's a bit dull-minded. He's also a notorious flirt, often googling over girls, and especially Risky Boots.

*Sky - Another of Shantae's friends, Sky is well-known as a skilled bird tamer, often raising various birds for sending messages or searching out treasure. Living life as a desert nomad, she and Shantae often meet in the most unexpected of places. Her closest friend is her faithful war bird, Wrench.

*Rottytops - She leads a zombie caravan that travels throughout Sequin Land, using her natural cunning and threats to eat the brains of outsiders to stay on decent terms with the humans. Rotty is surprisingly athletic, and even challenges Shantae to a race at one point in the game. It's mentioned that Rotty has two brothers, and that when all three get together, they really go wild.

Reception

IGN gave the game a 9 out of 10, calling it a "wonderful platform adventure". [ [http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/361/361919p1.html IGN: Shantae Review] ] GameSpot scored it a 7.7 out of 10, claiming it to be a "fine example" of a portable platformer. [ [http://gamespot.com/gbc/puzzle/shantae/review.html GameSpot Shantae review] ]

equel

A "Shantae" sequel was planned for the Game Boy Advance, and proposed screens resemble a port with updated graphics. It is assumed to have been cancelled. As with the original game, "Shantae Advance" was developed by Matt Bozon on his own time.

Bozon discussed further IP releases with IGN on May 7 2007. [ [http://wii.ign.com/mail/2007-05-07.html Wii Mailbag - May 7, 2007 ] ]

quote
When Shantae GBC was completed, it went to manufacturing, but then sat in the cue for 8 months while GBA took over the planet. Upon its release, it didn't sell huge numbers but the reviews were stellar. While many publishers are willing to push the game, the lowly sales of the original make it a tough sell to the folks who crunch numbers, and the retailers. The way it ends up, in order to "break in" Shantae will require a launch on multiple platforms, or a TV show. Ultimately, that is very expensive, and beyond our ability to self finance at this point. We've tried to do the backburner approach, but since WayForward is a work-for-hire shop, our handsomest programmers are usually booked.

So, we take the seasonal opportunity to bring her back to life. Each time we build tech on a new platform, we'll demonstrate our abilities with a Shantae effort of some sort. We've had one on Gamecube, GBA, DS and Wii, and a few other dabblings in mobile and Plug and Play, and web, and somewhat of a false start on PSP. She's existed in 2D and 3D, sometimes leaning towards magical hair whipping, other times more towards belly dancing. On DS, there is a fantastic little 3D free roaming version, a spline based 3D version, and the traditional GBA-PLUS sidescroller version. To answer your question, we've started to update her design in anticipation of something on Wii, maybe Risky Waters or something similar.

Other random thoughts…The Shantae Advance game, also pedaled as Risky Revolution (no prior knowledge of the "Nintendo Revolution" by the way) was based on Mike (Boogerman!) Stragey's game engine, which powered all of WF's GBA titles. The demo is roughly 1-2 hours long, and features an overworld, labyrinth, and some town-like areas. It's a shame that GBA dried up…the overall effort was about 50% done. If we find that an opportunity exists, we could still release that in some form down the line. For now, it sits on my hard drive.

The GCN demo didn't go very far beyond documents and preliminary engine work. But, somehow a typo got on Nintendo's website listing Shantae GBC as Shantae "GCN", and we started getting lots of questions. Later, a version of the Risky Waters doc was leaked from someone. When we got our Wii kits, re-imagining Risky Waters was one of our first steps. Risky Revolution is a sort of adventure/theme park ride hybrid. Imagine Small World with a melee weapon, and people keep getting out of the boat to belly dance.

So, what was a simple question has a very complicated answer. We're still making Shantae "things", like animations, models, engine work…but there is no collected effort to make a retail game. Wii and 360 downloads are a great way to escape the retail channels, and I'm hoping that will help bring some originality back to the more accessible systems like DS. I'd like to see Shantae DS distributed through the Wii Shop channel, straight to your DS. For now, the fans are keeping this thing alive.

Spencer of Siliconera further speculated on the future of the franchise during coverage of GDC 2008 [ [http://www.siliconera.com/2008/02/21/shantae-wandering-to-wiiware/ Siliconera » Shantae wandering to WiiWare? ] ]

quote
On my way out of this morning's GDC keynote I bumped into Voldi Way, the "tyrannical overlord" of WayForward. You may recall the company name from their work on Contra 4, but before meddling with an alien war they had an original character named Shantae. Capcom published a single game starring the half-genie from Sequin Land on the Game Boy Color. A sequel has yet to matriculate.
Fans hoping for one might get their wish granted. Way explained they are looking at the Wii as the home for a new Shantae game. Afterwards I asked if they were considering WiiWare. Way replied, "that's the plan."

The WiiWare version, described as being "an ongoing experiment in 2D on the Wii", as well as work on a Nintendo DS version and the scrapped Gameboy Advance sequel was revealed in a May 2008 WayForward newsletter. [ [http://gonintendo.com/?p=44809 WayForward talks Shantae DS, WiiWare, GBA, and a lot more] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.shantae.com Official Website]
*moby game|id=/shantae|name="Shantae"