Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut Reviews

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut is ranked in the 60th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
7 / 10
Jul 4, 2015

Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a solid game. Inoffensive gameplay and a light challenge paired with pleasing retro art and music blend to create a thoroughly pleasing experience. The game isn't particularly innovative or surprising, but at the end of the day, it's good fun. Given that this is a slow period for new releases, you could do much worse than shaking your booty to this.

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Ken McKown
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
Jul 8, 2015

Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a classic that deserves more attention, and only makes me that much more excited to finally see the new title come to PS4. It is great for players who enjoy a solid character-action game, and of course the Metroid-style so many games have adopted over the year.-Combine that with likable characters and a colorful, gorgeously pixelated visual style, and this game is a must own.

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9 / 10
Mar 30, 2016

All told, Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut is a solid update to the DSiWare classic. While there may not necessarily be enough here to justify a double dip for those of you that picked it up the first time around, there's never been a better way to experience this game. For those of you that have never played it, we'd give this game a strong recommendation; it's creative, clever, and colourful. This is a retro action game you won't want to miss out on.

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7 / 10
Apr 11, 2016

Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut does not stand out as much as its predecessor did, which is no shame as this is a game that features a good balance between exploration of locations and backtracking and Shantae's magic spells and transforming skills are delightful. It could go further on the boss fights and in terms of content but that doesn't stand on its way of being a very enjoyable game for those who like exploring and backtracking in a metroidvania style.

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Jul 6, 2015

While there's definitely not enough here to justify a second purchase for existing fans, Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut contains more than enough positive factors to interest new ones.

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8.5 / 10.0
Nov 6, 2020

Shantae Risky's Revenge is a fun, challenging adventure. Filled with difficult boss battles, tons of tricky puzzles, and all kinds of magic spells to learn. While it may be a little outdated, Risky's Revenge will always be fun to play.

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Ian Howarth
Top Critic
5 / 10
Aug 8, 2015

Overall, Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a nice throwback, even if it's not really that old, with a single glaring problem – being 'Metroidvania' style comes with some responsibilities that this title just couldn't hold up its end of the bargain for.

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4 / 5.0
Jul 7, 2015

Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Director's Cut could have used some help with its map system, but literally everything else is spot-on. Much like Shovel Knight and Mighty No.

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7 / 10.0
Apr 16, 2016

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut is a good action game, but it looks and feels a bit primitive next to Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. It's still worth playing if you're a fan of action titles, and that especially applies if you're a fan of Shantae who missed out on the first release of Pirate's Curse.

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Cubed3
Athanasios
Top Critic
6 / 10
Nov 16, 2020

Part culmination of old-school classics, part a simplistic form of them all, Shantae: Risky's Revenge is not exactly the best title in WayForward's, otherwise charming, line of platformers. If a fan of Shantae do check it out, but you won't miss much by skipping it, and simply trying any other instalment - 2002 original included.

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7 / 10.0
Oct 12, 2020

Risky's Revenge is very much the Australopithecus of the Shantae series-something of a transitional form between the GBC game and Pirate's Curse. It's fun to play if you're a fan of the series, but I'll say that the next three games easily eclipse it.

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8.5 / 10.0
Apr 7, 2016

I had a lot of fun playing through Risky's Revenge. And while it was ultimately a shorter experience than I'd have liked, it most definitely didn't wear out its welcome. A clever, charming Metroidvania with some intense platforming bits, Shantae: Risky's Revenge – Director's Cut is a must play for fans of the genre.

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Az Elias
Top Critic
7 / 10
Aug 2, 2014

[T]he fact that this delightful game is now readily available to even more players through Steam means they can be glossed over by the majority that haven't had the pleasure of playing Risky's Revenge before. If this is a taster of what to expect in Shantae's next two adventures, platform fans are in for a treat.

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Jul 4, 2015

While this title may not take full advantage of the PlayStation 4 hardware, 'Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut' is an enjoyable platformer adventure that's worth the time for most anyone that enjoys the genre. It is not a perfect title, and it's also not a particularly long game, but anyone who considers themselves a fan of Metriodvanias, platformers, or wishes there was a sequel to 'Monster World IV,Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut PS4 review' should not hesitate to pick this up.

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7 / 10.0
Dec 23, 2015

Shantae: Risky's Revenge – Director's Cut is an overall solid game with charming gameplay and wonderful presentation values. It's hindered by its somewhat repetitive design, cumbersome map system and lack of innovation or surprises, but it still manages to offer a good time for anyone looking to delve into the newest Metroidvania release.

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Digitally Downloaded
Matt S.
Top Critic
Jul 1, 2015

These are minor complaints, though. The platforming is rock solid, and as I noted, I love the theme with a passion. I would like to see WayForward do something more narrative-heavy with Shantae, as I think she would be a spectacular lead in a RPG or similar, but as it stands this is my favourite 2D platformer series of all, and I'm glad to see that it's now on PlayStation too.

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7.8 / 10.0
Jun 29, 2015

Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a modern classic and this Director's Cut version is a great way to play it on a contemporary console.

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7.1 / 10.0
Oct 15, 2020

Having been introduced to the Shantae series on the Switch and enjoyed the hell out of each entry thus far a throwback title sounded interesting...

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9 / 10.0
Oct 25, 2020

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge still holds up well, and despite the fact that we have seen it ported before, its inclusion on the Switch was executed with love and finesse.

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7.5 / 10.0
Oct 24, 2021

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge clearly isn’t as featured-filled, polished, or exciting as its more modern counterparts, but it’s still well worth your time if you’re curious about the wonderful history of the Shantae franchise, or if you’re just a fan of 2D platformers in general. Why did this specific version need to have a brand new PlayStation 5 build is beyond me, as there is very little in here that justifies it being a “next-gen” game, but that doesn’t affect its overall quality.

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