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6. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (3DS)
Current Release Date: December 2013
Everyone has been head over heels for WayFoward’s beautiful new Wii U game, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, but don’t let that overshadow Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse! If previous games in the series are any indication, then this 3DS game will definitely be something to look forward to. I’ve always appreciated the Shantae series for creating an interesting world to explore with gameplay that highly resembles Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, yet also standing out on its own through unique mechanics like transforming into animals.
However, Shantae has lost all of her powers as a genie in Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse and can no longer transform, so she learns a whole new set of moves when she joins forces with the series’ main antagonist, Risky Boots. Shantae can now use a pistol to hit enemies at a distance, glide with a giant pirate, and charge at enemies with a sword when wearing Risky’s boots. This seems like the perfect way to shake up the formula, and should make for another successful game in the series.
Two things. First, if they were further along in development I’d add the Kickstarter projects Hyper Light Drifter and Paradise Lost–and fairly high up–but since they’re really still at the stage of hopeful we can just keep them in mind for a similar list this time next year. Second, if you made a list of the top ten anticipated major studio games, I’d be hard pressed to say which I’d rather play, especially if you excluded games like Zelda U and X, which are similarly not far enough along (so far as we know). I hope that says more about indie gaming than it does the major studios.
Really anticipating Two Brothers, that game has a lot of potential and makes me happy to see a developer showing appreciation for Game Boy’s graphical stylings; GB games are often unceremoniously slammed for their graphics, which is a real shame.
Interested in 5 out the 10 listed… including a couple that I hadn’t heard of before this article. Not bad!
Lots of indie games don’t live up to the hype, but there have been enough really *really* good ones to make up for any disappointment. 3DS eShop has been by far the best part of that console for me, and it looks like Wii U has a lot of great content coming before long too. Awesome!