Recently, I was exploring Xbox’s Game Pass. If you do not have a subscription to it, you need to get on. It is completely worth your $10 a month to have access to download and play hundreds of games for free. That is not the reason I have called you all here today, though. Within the last week, I was searching for something to play. I noticed the new games of the month added to Game Pass included a game called Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Having never played the series before, I ventured and found the previous game in the series, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse.
After researching the series, I saw that Pirates Curse is the third game in the four-game series. Story-wise it was a little confusing having no idea of the previous games. What I found from the gameplay completely made up for that confusion. In my six hours of game time, I witnessed a wide variety of environments, filled with colorful characters. The six islands of the game go from a zombie-infested island to a winter area populated with wolves. This is not a long game. Each island (besides when coming back) takes about a little more than an hour to beat.
The boss battles at the end of each dungeon are great fun and never become too frustrating. Most of them were pretty easy, each having the main item of that dungeon be the tool to open weak spots for Shantae’s hair whip.
If you have not played any of the Shantae games yet, I recommend giving them a try. If you love 2D platforming games, Shantae and the Pirates Curse is a game you need to try out. It is not a long game and is good for a refreshing take on current video games. The game knows what it is, with the characters referencing different aspects of throughout the dialogue. I hope it fills you with the same memories of playing the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis that it did for me.
Got any great games like this to take people back? Let us know in the comments!
