Okay, it’s probably about time I stop gushing and just say it: Shantae is flawless — in pure game design terms at least. If only I could report the same of its user interface! As much as I wanted to get on with the perfect score this one so richly deserves for the sheer amount of fun I had with it, Shantae’s virtual joystick mercilessly held me back. Its horizontal axis seems more sensitive than its vertical axis on the iPod Touch. Hence, you can kind of rock your thumb slightly and get Shantae to run just fine, but the player has to be more deliberate with upward and downward motions; walking through narrow doorways and wall climbing feel demanding when the action gets hot and heavy, while side-to-side movements fare much better. I held out hope that my difficulties with the interface would wear away after a few hours of play time, but alas, that wasn’t the case. Along with some joystick sensitivity adjustment in updates, I’d love to see the attack and jump buttons expanded a bit for good measure. The only way to pause the game currently is to dip into inventory, and there’s no way to return to the game’s main menu or access setup options from there.
Shantae’s got a stellar map system, with save points, key destinations, and environmental layering clearly marked. Area maps don’t appear to be available for the game’s boss dungeons, however, and they would come quite in handy for these mammoth caverns! The manual save point system seems downright archaic in the mobile age, but the save points are distributed generously enough for my liking, and I could thankfully depend on multi-tasking when backgrounding the game to check on my email.
Shantae’s environments are consistently gorgeous, its sprites wonderfully vibrant and expressive. About the only thing I could hold against its visual presentation is the fact that every character with the exception of Shantae’s old uncle appears to be locked in some kind of eternal belly dance, but this all highlights the eccentric nature of the game’s world after all. The game could use a few more music tracks over its six hour length but the dungeon tunes currently on offer are compelling enough. iOS gamers have been treated to increasingly brilliant work on the audio engineering side lately, and Shantae is no exception! You can really tell the poor half-genie’s getting a serious workout, and probably some bruises, with all the jumping around, whiplash, and water dunking the player subjects her to.
iFanzine Verdict: Shantae’s iOS port came out less than perfect on the user interface side, but if you’re a fan of Action Adventure games, its flaws in this area are completely worth wrestling with. Perfection is well within Shantae’s reach given an interface update or two in the future; for now, what’s most important is that it raises the bar for gameplay depth among side-scrollers and platformers on iOS. You certainly can’t go wrong by trying it out for free!