YMMV / Shantae: Risky's Revenge

• Breather Boss: Risky's Oceanic Tinker Tub is fought twice, and while it is a bit tougher in the second bout it has nothing on how much stronger Shantae is.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The skeletons. They're fast, do more damage than anything else in the game, have plenty of health, and can reanimate after death if you don't switch to elephant form and smash their gravestones. They return in Pirate's Curse, but heavily nerfed as they no longer run and killing them once is enough to put them to rest.
  • The mermaids. They have two attacks: a kiss which shoots hearts that move upwards, and a bubble that moves quickly (so if you're within hair-whipping range, you won't have time to jump over it) and close to the ground (so you can't crouch under it). After each attack, they dive into the ground and become invincible for a few seconds, so it's best to just jump past them then rather than take the time to kill them.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: The main criticism toward the game. The map is quite small and there are only three dungeons, one of which is just a timed enemy gauntlet without even a boss at the end.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Magic jams, extra currency needed to upgrade Shantae's magic abilities, in addition to gems. This has the unfortunate side-effect of not letting players increase her strength if one currency is lacking, lest they do a bit of exploring, and some of the jams are very tricky to find. They don't return in the next installment.
• Underused Game Mechanic: Shantae can jump between layers in areas where wooden tiles with arrows are placed. It's a neat way to give the 2D world depth and the player can see what awaits them in the top layers. For whatever reason, this mechanic is only used in Scuttle Town and Tangle Forest.

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