Shantae

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About

Shantae is a series of platformer metroidvania video games created by Matt and Erin Bozon; and developed by WayForward Technologies. In it, you play as Shantae, a half-genie who tries to protect her hometown Scuttle Town and the surrounding Sequin Land from evil.^[1]^[2]

History

The character "Shantae" was created in 1994 by Erin Bozon after coming back from a camping trip. Erin named her after one of the campers there. Matt Bozon then took the character and worked on the world and other characters to go in it.^[3] After multiple delays, the game was developed by WayForward Technologies and published by Capcom for the Game Boy Color in 2002.^[4]

Shantae: Risky's Revenge

In 2008, WayForward sent out a newsletter in which they announced they were working on a Shantae game for Nintendo DS.^[5] It was later announced, with the title, as part of Nintendo of America's 2009 holiday lineup, with a Q4 release date.^[6] It was delayed, and eventually released on October 4th, 2010.^[7]

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was announced in the November 6th, 2012 edition of Nintendo Power, as coming to the Nintendo 3DS eShop.^[21] On June 9th, 2014, an exclusive interview by Nintendo Life with Matt Bozon revealed that it was also coming to the Wii U eShop.^[22] It was released roughly two years later, on October 23rd, 2014.^[23]

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Funded by a Kickstarter launched September 4th, 2013,^[24] Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (sometimes stylized as Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero) is a sequel to Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, and continuation of the Shantae games. It was fully funded on September 23rd, 2013,^[25] and continued to reach stretch goals until it closed on December 17th, 2014.^[26] It was released on December 20, 2016, but those who backed the game on Kickstarter obtain an early access download code on December 13, 2016.^[34]^[35]^[36]

Reception

The Shantae series has generally be critically acclaimed all around. Shantae has made it onto multiple top-lists for the best Game Boy games, such as one by Game Informer,^[30] and another by GamesRadar.^[31] In 2010, Shantae: Risky's Revenge was chosen for Best Visuals and Best DS Game by IGN.^[32]^[29] Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was nominated for IGN's Best 3DS game and Best Platformer in 2015.^[27]^[28]

Game	Platform	Metascore
Shantae	GBC	(N/A)
Shantae: Risky's Revenge	DSi, iPhone/iPad	85^[8]/75^[9]
Shantae: Risky's Revenge – Director's Cut	PC, PS4, Wii U	(N/A)/74^[10]/77^[11]
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse	3DS, PC, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One	82^[12]/(N/A)/75^[13]/85^[14]/79^[15]

Online Relevance

On August 23rd, 2015, YouTube user MowtenDoo uploaded a mashup video (re-upload shown below, right) of the Shantae and the Pirate's Curse section "Run Run Rottytops" and Terry Crews Old Spice commercials titled "Run Run Bodywash". It obtained over 1,250,000 views in less than a year. On January 1st, 2016, YouTube user JelloApocalypse uploaded a comic dub by him and user LittleM Mistress, titled "Shantae Fandom". It obtained over 300,000 views about half a year.

The Shantae series has gathered a notable following. On DeviantArt, searching "Shantae" garners over 10,000 results.^[16] On YouTube, the same search brings about 119,000 results.^[17] On September 15th, 2013, the /r/Shantae subreddit was created. In two and a half years, it gained nearly 400 subscribers.^[18] Fandom presence can be also found on sites such as Tumblr^[19] and Twitter,^[20] with fanart and discussion.

Shantae For Smash

Shantae For Smash (also known as Shantae 4 Smash, Vote For Shantae, and other names) refers to a campaign to help Shantae win the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot. As it was taking votes, Shantae emerged as one of the most popular characters. WayForward showed support for the idea, encouraging fans to vote for Shantae.^[33]