Shantae

Shantae is an action platformer with metroidvania elements, created for the Game Boy Advance by WayForward Technologies, which despite its limited release earned a reputation as one of the most beautiful titles on the platform. The player takes on the role of Shantae, a half-genie girl and guardian of the port town of Scuttle Town, who can transform into various animals through dance and use their abilities to explore a branching world of interconnected locations full of pirates, mines, and ancient temples.

The gameplay combines platforming jumps and combat with a hair whip with the gradual unlocking of new transformations, such as a monkey that climbs walls or an elephant that smashes obstacles, which opens up previously inaccessible areas and rewards careful returns to earlier levels for hidden items and shortcuts. The world map is interconnected and non-linear, so the player chooses the order in which to complete tasks for the residents of Scuttle Town, giving the game a structure close to the metroidvania genre and setting it apart from most straightforward platformers on the system. The game stands out for its elaborate character animation and detailed environments, among the technically most advanced on the Game Boy Advance, making use of the hardware's advanced graphical effects. It's accompanied by atmospheric music that underscores the story's pirate-Caribbean tone and completes the feeling of exploring a living, interconnected world.

Although Shantae was released in a limited print run and only a portion of players noticed it at launch, over the years it built a strong fan base and became the foundation for a successful series of sequels on other platforms. Today it's regarded as a hidden gem of the GBA library and a must-play for anyone interested in a quality hybrid of platformer and metroidvania on a handheld, thanks in part to its timeless art style, which doesn't feel dated even with the passage of years.

Why play: Thanks to its timeless art style and successful blend of platforming and metroidvania, it's a hidden gem of the GBA library that no genre fan should miss.