Video Game Review: Shantae and the Seven Sirens

Shantae and the Seven Sirens

Wayforward Technologies, Inc.

Metroidvania

Nintendo Switch

Ahhh, Shantae: one of the earliest Metroidvanias that wasn’t actually Metroid or ‘Vania. Despite a somewhat rocky start caused by the original Shantae’s extreme rarity, the series has enjoyed much greater success in recent years, earning it a moderately sized and dedicated fanbase among whom I enthusiastically count myself. For those out-of-the-know, the series follows titular protagonist Shantae, a half-genie in charge of protecting Sequin Town from threats that most frequently take the form of her nemesis, The Pirate Queen Risky Boots. She does this using her extremely long ponytail as a whip, spells, and magical dances that let her transform to access new areas. Additionally, each game includes a colorful cast of new and returning characters to both help and hinder Shantae, from the himbo endearingly bumbling Bolo to Shantae’s Girlfriend lovable nuisance Rottytops.

The newest title, Shantae and the Seven Sirens doesn’t do a whole lot new with the formula and honestly, that’s okay. Shantae and friends take a vacation to a tropical island for a Half-Genie Festival, where Shantae and five other half-genies will give various performances over the course of a week. Naturally, things don’t go as planned, and on the first performance night, every half-genie except Shantae is magically whisked away, leaving it up to the plucky heroine to rescue them in typical Metroidvania fashion.

Where the previous game in the series, Half-Genie Hero, had linear levels, the island setting of Seven Sirens is mostly one big interconnected series of tunnels that open up more and more as the player unlocks more abilities. The exception to this rule is a few Zelda-esque dungeons that function largely the same except for the boss at the end of each one. It’s a solid return to the form of the first three Shantae titles where the controls are tight and it’s a true joy to explore just for exploring’s sake. Basically, it wasn’t broke, so Wayforward didn’t need to fix it, though they did add a neat little collectible system where every enemy has a monster card that can be equipped for a slight boost to Shantae’s abilities.

Other than that, what really needs to be said? The dialogue is just as charming and full of great gags as ever, the character and monster designs are colorful and appealing (if a little risqué at times), the girls are cute and the length is just right. Though I personally still prefer the look of Pirate’s Curse to the newer art direction, it certainly doesn’t look bad, and on a technical level, I think the graphics are even better than Half-Genie Hero’s were.

I was disappointed to learn that longtime series composer Jake Kaufman didn’t return to score Seven Sirens, but the soundtrack was still catchy and memorable even if we didn’t get another new version of Rottytops’ theme. One presentational aspect that did bother me was a few jokes made about the skimpiness of some of the ladies’ outfits, things like poking fun at how armor that’s just a metal bikini isn’t going to offer any protection at all. Though I think the criticisms sometimes levied at the series’ costume designs are fair ones, it’s always a pet peeve of mine for creators to make jokes about impractically skimpy clothing without actually fixing the issue – either give the ladies more clothes or just own it, but you can’t have your cheesecake and eat it too.

If there were any glaring flaws in Shantae and the Seven Sirens I don’t remember them, and even if I did it’s hard to speak ill of a game when you didn’t stop smiling the whole time you were playing it. Though this was at least partially because of just how immense my fondness for the series is, I have no doubt that someone playing Seven Sirens as their introduction to the series could still find plenty of enjoyment in it. Maybe some of the references to prior events or running series gags might be lost on them, but it’s still loads of fun. If you need a nice cartoony game full of friendly characters and pure fun to give you a break from the grimdark apocalypses and space wars, look no further than this; it’s guaranteed to enshant you.