Shantae
Banned
I know this game came out back in September digitally, so it's not exactly a new release, but I didn't get it til recently because I got a physical copy for Christmas. Even when it came out though, I don't really remember seeing much discussion for it. I was never a big fan of the River City (Kunio Kun games in Japan), but I appreciated the concepts within them. Beat em up with RPG elements, long before Castle Crashers and Scott Pilgrim did that stuff. I knew I had to give this game a try though because I've come to be a fan of WayForward's work.
To my delight, this game is another example of super fun gameplay, and 2D sprite work by them. This would probably be more fun as a co-op game, but I still had a lot of fun playing through it by myself. You can cheese it a little by using weapons and items that make it so weapons don't degrade later on, but even with that, there are times where you got to use hand to hand combat, and learning all the moves and know when it's best to use what move against certain enemies makes the combat never seem too repetitive. That's usually been the problem with a lot of brawlers in the past, but this is the first one I've played in a long time that made me enjoy it all the way through without getting bored.
The presentation is also top notch. I love the fully animated parts in it, even though they're short, they look great. The sprite work is some of my favorite in a game recently though, the animation is so fluid and detailed for all the characters and enemies.
One of my favorite parts of the game is the music though. God I'm so bummed that I missed out on getting a vinyl of the soundtrack on limitedrungames. Some of it might be "cheesy", but I still un-ironically love some of the tracks. There are a lot of tracks to within all the different zones. Only bummer is I wish some of the songs with lyrics were longer because I like the sound of them so much. Here's just a couple examples that I really like:
Yeah, I just had to make a thread about this game after finishing it, because it's been the most fun I've had in a while. I might even do a new game+ now. It was one of those games that I kinda avoided playing on days because I didn't want it to end since I was enjoying it so much.
To my delight, this game is another example of super fun gameplay, and 2D sprite work by them. This would probably be more fun as a co-op game, but I still had a lot of fun playing through it by myself. You can cheese it a little by using weapons and items that make it so weapons don't degrade later on, but even with that, there are times where you got to use hand to hand combat, and learning all the moves and know when it's best to use what move against certain enemies makes the combat never seem too repetitive. That's usually been the problem with a lot of brawlers in the past, but this is the first one I've played in a long time that made me enjoy it all the way through without getting bored.
The presentation is also top notch. I love the fully animated parts in it, even though they're short, they look great. The sprite work is some of my favorite in a game recently though, the animation is so fluid and detailed for all the characters and enemies.
One of my favorite parts of the game is the music though. God I'm so bummed that I missed out on getting a vinyl of the soundtrack on limitedrungames. Some of it might be "cheesy", but I still un-ironically love some of the tracks. There are a lot of tracks to within all the different zones. Only bummer is I wish some of the songs with lyrics were longer because I like the sound of them so much. Here's just a couple examples that I really like:
I decided to spoiler this one because it's from the end credits
Yeah, I just had to make a thread about this game after finishing it, because it's been the most fun I've had in a while. I might even do a new game+ now. It was one of those games that I kinda avoided playing on days because I didn't want it to end since I was enjoying it so much.
