Game Review: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

One of the problems with this review is that I'd like to open with a concise summary, and phrasing it in a way that doesn't leave an overly negative impression is going to be difficult. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was fun to play, and I think it was worth what I paid for it, but it did benefit a bit from some low expectations on my part.

The game's main character (Shantae, of course) is a dancer (okay) who is also a half-genie (?) whose primary weapon is whipping enemies with her hair (!?)... and that's not even in the top five most ridiculous things this game comes up with. There are a lot of comedies that would lose me very quickly by being this ridiculously stupid, but this game managed to consistently land on the right side of the line between hilariously stupid and just being stupid. Probably by virtue of sheer audacity; it's pretty much impossible to expect anything serious out of this one. 

As a platforming game, it's acceptable. Certainly it's not much of a challenge given that I've been playing games like Celeste recently, but it had enough tricky boss fights and platforming to keep me from getting too bored and managed to avoid being difficult for the wrong reasons (e.g. control issues). The exploration aspects probably would have been a bit more interesting if I hadn't already known where everything was (my introduction to the series was watching other people play it), but there's not much I can do about that at this point, nor is it an actual problem with the game.

In the end, as I mentioned at the beginning - I enjoyed the time I spent playing, and I think I got my money's worth. But there's also nothing here that makes this game exceptional, at least as far as I'm concerned. If you're looking for a quick, not too challenging, and amusingly stupid 2D platformer, it'll do. But if you're looking for something more engaging, this game probably isn't what you're looking for.