BREAKING 2 DAYS AGO: New Shantae game headed to 3DS

The penultimate issue of Nintendo Power arrived in subscriber hands this week, and with it came the announcement (starting with the subscriber version of the cover art) of Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse. Following the original Game Boy Color game and 2010’s Risky’s Revenge on DSiWare, Shantae the dancing genie is back for a third outing of Metroid-lite world exploring- though without her transforming genie powers since Aladdin decided to set her free at the end of the previous game. This time she picks up pirate weapons like a cannon, sword, and throwing knives to aid in her quest to put Iago back in the lamp so no one has to hear him sing ever again.

Okay, the actual story has Shantae teaming up with her archnemesis, the pirate captain Risky Boots, in order to take down a greater emerging threat. Remember when Bowser joined your party in Super Mario RPG to take down Smithy? That was pretty boss. There’s a fifty-percent chance of doublecross at the end in these plots, possibly more given that the team-up is with a pirate.

Like Risky’s Revenge, Pirate’s Curse will be a downloadable title, though this time it’s strictly a 3DS affair available on the eShop, which should lead to some awesome Virtual Boy Wario Land-style parallax backgrounds, but in glorious color. Series developer WayForward has also been working to get the original Shantae on the 3DS Virtual Console and have said they are very close to finalizing the deal, which is great news as tracking down a copy of the GBC cartridge is… challenging, to say the least. They’ve also submitted Risky’s Revenge to Steam Greenlight in another move to expand the audience, and it’s currently in the top 100.

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is expected to come out next year. For more details on the upcoming game, check out issue 284 of Nintendo Power.