Thanks to Wayforward for the review code
Title: Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution!
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $24.99 (Kinda…)
Release Date: 08/19/2025
Story
In this GBA game brought back to life, you take control of Shantae, setting out on her second quest to stop Risky Boots from spinning around the world with her Tremor Engine and causing all sorts of chaos!
Originally planned for the mid 2000s, this would have theoretically launched right in my peak GBA gaming era. Alas, it got canceled despite being almost turned into a plug and play game at one point, and a lot of elements from it got repurposed for Risky’s Revenge.
But then Limited Run Games decided to just fund a full blown GBA cartridge release for this game and give Wayforward the means to finish the game for its original platform, which is a a rather cool concept. Plus in terms of Shantae story, this means the elements not used for Risky’s Revenge could be revealed and fleshed out in this lost chapter of the story!
…Well, this game’s story and really the whole nature of it ends up being rather awkward. See, Risky’s Revenge feels like a game that came out at the time that game was made, even when playing it nowadays. The art is a bit rougher than modern Wayforward art, Shantae still looks older than she does in newer games, and a lot of the characters have designs that slightly progressed from how they looked on the GBC. The original prototype version of this game was shown off before, and in that example the character art was a slight evolution from the original Shantae’s key art, so it is fairly safe to assume had the game been completed in 2005, the character art would look in line with something like Sigma Star Saga rather than modern Wayforward art.
Alas, the game is filled with modern Wayforward character designs, which feel incredibly awkward in a game meant to have come out 20 years ago. You have aspects that were not in Risky’s Revenge but in later games get referenced or alluded to here, which would have absolutely not been the case 20 years ago. Seeing modern Shantae art compressed on the GBA, better than that of Risky’s Revenge just comes off as very strange while playing this, and the plot likewise is very thin with not much to it. It does connect to the next game and answers some questions about stuff between Shantae and Risky’s Revenge, so this at least didn’t cause a bunch of plot holes to open up, but nevertheless, this doesn’t exactly feel like a 2004 Wayforward game.
It should also be noted that despite Risky Revolution finally being “completed” after all this time, the original vision for the game planned to have more chapters and locations than even this release ended up with; meaning there’s likely stuff here that was not present in the 2004 vision, and stuff present there we’ll never get to know about. (and perhaps that’s all just content which became the actual Risky’s Revenge video game) Very weird all around.
Presentation
Shantae Advance has two distinct modes to display the game with, each containing their own unique save files. There’s a Classic mode, which presents the game as it would be straight from the GBA, crusty visuals and all, while also allowing you to scale up the screen size from various different options.
Classic was how I stuck with the game while playing it for review, since the Modern mode is just a weird hybrid trying to do what the HD versions of Pirates Curse did, (HD character art combined with pixels, along with revised menus/HUD) only it feels much worse than that effort was. Yes, the HD art is no longer crunchy looking when those scenes pop up, but that still doesn’t really do anything about the fact Risky Revolution has a presentational identity crisis going on, and if anything exacerbates the problem even more.
See, as I noted above, the evolution of the Shantae artstyle has gone through a lot since the original GBC game came out, as the old prototypes shown off demonstrate. Obviously resuming a 2004 GBA game in the 2020s would mean you wouldn’t have the skills from 2004 anymore, which is perfectly fine, and thankfully the sprites by and large look just like they would naturally for the GBA era, even the new stuff not present in any prototypes look good from a sprite standpoint, although I wouldn’t say the animations match the fluidity or system-pushing that other Wayforward GBA games were known for.
An American Dragon Jake Long game had no reason to look as good as it did, but that’s what Wayforward pulled off back in the day, and Risky’s Revolution’s sprites don’t quite match the wow factor of some of their in-the-moment GBA games like that one, even if they’re very nicely done along with the stage and world backgrounds. All of these visual aspects fit with the original Shantae/Risky’s Revenge vibe just fine.
It’s those aforementioned character portraits and key art scenes, along with the entire sound design where Risky’s Revolution feels like it’s not quite genuine. Character designs and art present here match what you’d see in say, Seven Sirens compared to Risky’s Revenge or the original Shantae, meaning everyone here looks very anime. That isn’t a bad vibe for the series as a whole, but trying to have this game take place in between two games with very different artstyles from the one Pirate’s Curse would kickstart makes the art shift incredibly jarring; even some of the scenes that were redrawn in the newer look from prototype sketches just feel rather out of place compared to what was in Risky’s Revenge and doesn’t hold up the 2004 vibe well at all. The “Modern” game mode just makes these stick out in an even worse fashion, and at least seeing the newer scenes crunched up to GBA resolution is funnier.
The sound design is also visibly different than Shantae or Risky’s Revenge, and that’s an easy answer to explain why: no Virt. Virt/Jake Kaufman made the original OSTs for Shantae I-III, and he would have absolutely 100% without a doubt composed Shantae GBA if it had launched in 2004. Obviously with him not being at Wayforward anymore, it makes sense the OST in Revolution wouldn’t live up to those soundtracks, but even despite those lowered expectations the best word I can use to describe the Risky’s Revolution OST is generic. Not as much as Seven Sirens, and it does bring back some musical elements from that original Shantae, but compared to the absolute smashing OST both GBC and DSi Shantaes got, Risky Revolution’s OST is really dull.
Gameplay
In Risky Revolution, Shantae must go around beating up enemies and chasing Risky Boots in a zigzagged fashion all over the world, since her Tremor Engine likes to completely shift things around. Luckily her friend Sky and her big bird are there to help, along with a bunch of other people. This follows the metroidvania style in a similar fashion to Risky’s Revenge or Pirate’s Curse, in that you have different areas to pick from and travel to, and they are not all interconnected ala Shantae GBC or Seven Sirens.
Thus, typical metroidvania Shantae action follows. Find location, go to it, see what’s going on, and work your way to the next dungeon in order to gain a new transformation, and it’s just as typical and fun as you’d expect, although nothing here really wowed me and largely felt paint by numbers for Shantae. A lot of the transformations are returning from previous games and do what you’d expect them to, but you also have fun new ones like the Crab to mess around with.
The biggest gimmick of Risky Revolution has to do with the Tremor Engine, where Risky will set up a powerful pillar that will spin around and swap the world in certain places; this can completely change the scenery or pathways in an area, and either make some paths open up while others close completely. It’s a cute little gimmick and seeing how this was indeed the original GBA plan, it also makes sense as to how it would lead to Risky’s Revenge layer jumping gimmick (which sorta exists here, but not as distinctly, since you just go through doors)
Your usual system of collecting gems is back, meaning you can get Shantae all kinds of upgrades, such as the usual hair power/speed ones, or various temporary items like the always useful Pike Balls. This does mean if you want to get the best gear you might need to do a short grind, but I never found it that aggravating to go and beat up some bulkier enemies to get the gems I needed, which made things way easier than in the GBC Shantae where that gem grind could be absolutely brutal. Likewise there are also a few sidequests to complete, plenty of which are amusing or have funny scenarios attached to them. I’m fairly sure the one that focuses on a lost media piece wasn’t written in the year 2004, though.
There is one aspect of Risky Revolution that does pale compared to contemporary GBA metroidvanias, though, and that’s the complete absence of an in-game map. The areas aren’t that big or mazelike, and the GBC Shantae didn’t have one either so it wasn’t the worst for me to deal with, especially having grown up with lots of map-less games as a GBA kid, but considering how other Metroidvanias from the time like Zero Mission and Scurge Hive had useful in-game maps, it is a bit of a bummer to see none here. At least finding the collectibles and keeping track of the ones you don’t have is easy enough, which makes 100%ing not nearly as annoying as it could have been.
Lastly, there’s the local multiplayer battle mode. This is an absolute win for the home port to include, since most GBA/GB ports never include/replicate the multiplayer support at all. In fact, it’s beyond astounding this game of all things had a 4P mode planned and finished to begin with, and the little bit I dabbled with my friend was pretty decent fun, giving me a Mighty Flip Champs vibe. (It appears that game was indeed inspired by the scrapped version of this mode from the original GBA pitch) Sadly, there’s no way to play this solo or online, so it’s either couch VS or nothing at all. Still, this was a surprisingly fun, well-done addition that’s way more practical to get use of than getting 4 GBA Shantae copies and linking them all together.
Unfortunately, there’s a (Shantae) elephant in the room that I normally wouldn’t mention since I tend to review games without their DLC in mind unless I state otherwise, but I happened to get the digital deluxe edition of this game for review purposes. Here in the modern mode only, you have three exclusive costumes that power up different kinds of items, sorta akin to the Magic Mode from older Shantae games, meaning that if you really want to, you can replay the entire game stuck in a costume for added challenge/very minor variety.
This sort of thing would be unlockable in a true 2004 GBA game, but these additions aren’t even available in the GBA mode at all, so I guess these are meant to be additions for the home port. There’s just one problem, if you buy the base game you have no way of upgrading to get these costumes. Normally you can do that sort of thing and I seriously assumed this was an error and just waited, and waited, and waited on publishing this review specifically to see if these costumes would be available as normal standalone upgrades for the base digital game I’m covering here. (I don’t have much to say about the costumes, they’re rather uninteresting and moreso added fluff not worth the extra $10) Sadly, they are not, meaning if you buy the base game, enjoy it a lot and go “gee, I want extra replay value and really want to use Pike Balls more often”, you’ll have to pay $35 for the entire game and DLC all over again. That is quite bluntly inexcusable, let alone for a game that’s basically a chimera’d GBA game from 2004. I don’t mind the existence of DLC for it, but I do mind the whole “you gotta buy the game again if you made a mistake with a cheaper version and wanted the extra stuff”. Pretty damn scummy.
Conclusion
Despite being a GBA kid and thus one who really should have loved this game a lot more than I actually did, I couldn’t help but feel a tad disappointed by Risky Revolution. The game is still pretty decent Shantae fun, and I found it to be a bit more fun than Risky’s Revenge. Yet when it comes to being a technical showcase like the GBC Shantae was, Revolution doesn’t come close to that at all.
Likewise, it doesn’t really feel like a game meant for 2004 anymore, since this has elements from the original GBA ver glued together with modern art from newer Shantae games and an OST that absolutely would not have been anything Jake Kaufman would have made back in the day, so not having him as composer really hurts the illusion of this being a “lost game”. Add in the modern art looking pretty outta place in this game (especially the UI in modern mode), the level design being a bit boring, and some parts of the game feeling rather paint by numbers, and you have yourselves a pretty decent metroidvania that’s still a fun time, but far from being the lost GBA game it should have felt like, and one that pales compared to other GBA metroidvanias.
It just seems weird to act like this was the actual true sequel to Shantae plot wise, when Risky’s Revenge essentially repurposed the original ideas from this game scrapped back in the day. Only now you’re going back in time, bringing back those old ideas again, but fleshing them out with a team that isn’t the same as that original crew, leaving to a case of identity crisis, albeit a fun one at that. Unfortunately, the digital deluxe headache makes this whole identity crisis even worse, since having to rebuy the entire game at a higher price just to get access to modes that would have likely been post-game content in 2004, is just flat-out unacceptable, and I cannot believe there still isn’t a way to just buy the extra modes as individual DLC. All in all, Risky Revolution is still a decently fun time for Shantae fans, but as a GBA kid I felt the overall experience could have been so, so much more than the weird chimera I played.
I give Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution! a 6 out of 10.