The Shantae saga has been chugging along for a while now, delivering reliable action-platforming at uneven intervals for over 20 years. But throughout Shantae's adventures on Game Boy Color, DSi, 3DS, WiiU, and a host of other platforms, something was always missing: the lost Shantae title, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution. Planned for release on Game Boy Advance, but cancelled in 2004 because developer WayForward couldn't find a publisher, it never saw an official release — until now. Thanks to WayForward's extreme patience, and Limited Run Games' backing, the game two decades in the making is now available on modern systems. Was it worth the wait?

Canonically, Shantae Advance takes place between the original Shantae and Risky's Revenge. It follows the half-genie Shantae, protector of Scuttle Town, an idyllic seaside village in Sequin Land. Unfortunately for Shantae, the nefarious pirate Risky Boots has devised a plan to conquer the world once and for all. By attaching mysterious mechanical devices to underground rock structures, she will rotate the surface areas of Sequin Land, bringing inland areas to the coast, within plundering range of her fleet.

The game's story isn't especially deep or dramatic, but it's entertaining. Shantae remains a fun, charismatic heroine, and the companions who cross her path are always amusing. There's a comical, lighthearted, irreverent vibe to the adventure that serves it well. At one point early in the campaign, the handyman Bolo, while fixing a giant fan meant to repel invading pirates, remarks, "I'm just here for the fan service."  

You could describe the gameplay in Shantae Advance in the same way: neither deep nor dramatic, but entertaining. Like so many games in the Shantae franchise, this one is a 2D side-scrolling action-platformer with Metroidvania tendencies. You'll run, jump, and fight through several towns, overland zones, and dungeons, and also revisit previously-explored areas with new abilities to obtain power-ups and key items. Those new abilities, more often than not, are tied to the game's signature mechanic, animal transformation.

As the campaign moves forward, Shantae gains the ability to morph into different animals — a crab to travel underwater, a monkey to climb sheer walls, a spider to cling to webs, an elephant to break down stone blocks, etc. These transformations do some heavy lifting. They help extend the game's physical space, both vertically and horizontally; they add complexity to Shantae's rather rudimentary moveset; and they provide some interesting navigational puzzles to solve.  

Aside from transformations, the major mechanical calling card of Shantae Advance is the ability to travel between the background and foreground, in the style of Mutant Mudds. The twist is that Shantae can stomp on switches to reposition the background terrain to reach inaccessible areas (essentially what Risky is doing on a larger, more ecologically disastrous scale). It's an intriguing concept, although more tedious than necessary due to the lack of a map. The missing map also hurts exploration in dungeons, where similar-looking rooms and one-way paths lead to some unnecessary backtracking.

That said, the absence of a map, and the corresponding lack of hand-holding, does serve the game well in terms of rewarding the player for paying close attention and piecing together clues. Shantae Advance is at its best when you must use your wits to find a secret place hiding somewhere in Sequin Land. These moments happen with more frequency toward the end of the game, as you search for extra heart containers, transformation power-ups, and 50 Secret Squids tucked away throughout the lands. Regrettably, just as the game is getting more intricate and rewarding, it ends. The campaign is about seven hours long, which feels insufficient.

Luckily, Shantae Advance arrives with a few things that add value to the investment. From the main menu, you can select the original version of the game (how it would have looked back in 2004), a modern "story" version that retains the core gameplay but adds high-resolution character portraits and menus, and even a Battle Mode. This last mode allows up to four local players to fight it out in several single-screen arenas — a first for the franchise. It's a fun little diversion.

Whether you play the game in original or story mode, you'll be treated to some handsome 32-bit pixel art. The artists at WayForward did an excellent job graphically, particularly with shading. There's an impressive sense of depth and curvature here, despite the hardware limitations of the GBA. The new HD portraits are dynamic and full of life, although they're slightly at odds with the blocky in-game graphics. I could do without the modern dialogue font, though; it looks a bit cheap.

As for the soundtrack, it's quite good, across both modes. Written by Maddie Lim, who previously composed the songs for Vitamin Connection and Shantae and the Seven Sirens, it has that breezy, tropical, vaguely Middle Eastern sound you're looking for in a Shantae title. The standout track has to be "Haunted Grove", an eclectic mix of chilly piano, thumping electronic beats, and hi-hat percussion.

Shantae Advance has finally seen the light of day, 20 years after it was cancelled. Fortunately, all that time spent in moth balls did nothing to impair the game in any significant way. It remains a solid action-platformer with likable characters, irreverent writing, rewarding backtracking gameplay, and lovely art and music. With greater mechanical depth, a mapping system, and more to do and explore, it could be even better. It will be interesting to see how this blast from the past informs the future of the franchise.