Hey everybody.
It has been a long while since I last posted here , if here is the right term to use. It looks like you folks got yourself a new universal resource locator since the last time I visited. It looks like we lost some members too sadly, so I offer my condolences for that.
I hate for my unremarkable return to simply be for the purpose of essentially publicize a product, especially since it is not like I was a very active member of this community and I might not be sticking around for too long, but I hope as fellow enthusiasts of the Touhou Franchise that you understand I do so for the most sympathetic of reasons, and I shall try to explain why I feel this is so important, so this does not seem
too random. I lack any affiliation with the creative team or marketing staff, so this should be within
the letter of the law in that regard and if things seem a little too commercial, well that is just the nature of being excited for a game release, and especially as a collector. Sorry if it comes off the wrong way.
However, before I do explain, first a question: So who is the most adorable purple haired female featured in a game released in 2002?
A. No, not Remiia: Her hair is blue in the shooters, even if it does have shades of purple in the subsequently fighters! I mean Patchouli Knowledge, obviously!
However, Shantae is a close rival for that oddly specific distinction, and she is the subject of this thread, or at least her games are. Hope I didn't get your hopes too high up, but this is Akyuu's Arcade and not the Touhou Addict Recovery Center after-all, and there *are* other games besides touhou, y'know? ;-)
Nevertheless, I wanted to make the people here aware that the original Shantae game is having a reproduction run that is being licensed from Wayforward Software to Limited Run Games. A physical Nintendo Switch release of both Shantae and Risky's Revenge, and more importantly a Gameboy Color cartridge of Shantae are all available. The fact that there is a physical rerelease at all makes me happy, but the Gameboy Color Production cart makes me especially interested.
Regarding that explanation i promised, I think many of us can sympathize with how it feels to have missed out on the opportunity to have purchased especially rare games, since Zun and/or Amusement Makers are highly unlikely to ever release those first five P.C. 98 games to the public for whatever reason, and the few legitimate copies of those games which exist are insanely expensive. Shantae for the Gameboy Color is in a similar situation: Poor initial sales meant its publisher, Capcom never ran a second printing of the game, making it one of the rarer gameboy color games, and due to renewed interest prices soared to the point where the price for an authentic copy of the game seems to be worth $650 on ebay according to the most recently completed buy it now listiings:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shantae-Gameboy-Color-Authentic-Beautiful-Condition-Game-Boy/203074165461?epid=8856&hash=item2f4829dad5:g:VBAAAOSwYKhfMsfthttps://www.ebay.com/itm/Authentic-Shantae-Gameboy-Color-GBC/264807659802?hash=item3da7c4391a:g:-Q0AAOSwW8RfEfQmhttps://www.ebay.com/itm/Shantae-Gameboy-Color-Authentic-US-Seller-Wayforward-Original/174419828164?hash=item289c3b5dc4:g:LUsAAOSweohfUFsEThe most recent auction however, closed at just $520 plus shipping, so maybe the value is a little lower, but still quite unreasonable.
(Keep in mind that there are many bootlegs on ebay too. If you browse ebay further, keep in mind that authentic copies come in the transluscent shell with the bulbous top like most other gameboy color exclusive games. All of the convcave and opaque shelled products are counterfeits.)
Aside from its relative rarity, some people consider Shantae an indie game character which would also put it in our field of interest. Personally, I do not since her first game was produced by a team that gained commercial publishing ties to both Capcom and Nintendo in a time where those companies would not give indie developers the time of day the time of day, and sad team even had prior game making experience on the Gameboy Color, but hey, we can respectfully have a difference of opinion, right?
Given that the Windows compatible Touhou games started being around the same time, and many of us Touhou enthusiasts have been playing games for at least that long, if not longer, I felt like some of you might have been interested in playing the game but subsequently regretted missing the opportunity to purchase it for a reasonable price. Those of you who have also gone through the trouble of getting an NEC-PC98 to play the games may also value the authenticity of playing a game on the original system. This might be the last chance to purchase a legitimate copy of Shantae for the Gameboy Color, since gameboy color collecting is a niche market and Limited Run Games focuses on licensing limited edition runs of games, as their name implies.
For those of you who want to know what the game is like before you make a final decision, Limited Run Games published a [Trailer Video](
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR97uuDaQn0) on Youtube and you can read relatively contemporeous reviews from [I.G.N](
https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/06/11/shantae) and [Gamespot](
https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/shantae-review/1900-2871650/), though keep in mind when they complain about the graphics, that this was a Gameboy Color game which was first published a year after the Gameboy Advance was released. It should also be noted that the game is one of the few Gameboy Advance enhanced games though; some of the game's shading is somewhat enchanced when playing it on a Gameboy Advanced, albeit not to the extent where it looks like a Gameboy Advance game while doing so.
Preorders close on the 11th: The standard edition of the gameboy color version is $45, and the limited edition with the soundtrack, a poster, a stand and some standees is $75 which are much more reasonable prices for a game (the original was priced at just $30 on release, but after adjustment for inflation, that equates to $45 in today's money), and there are some other things they are selling too.
You can see the games and all other Shantae products Limited Run Games has available for order on a special section of their website.. Preorders close on the 11th, so there are only a few days left if you want it. I would simply be remiss if anybody like me missed out on the last opportunity to get a legitimate copy of the game, and especially so for its original system.
I should probably add that there is also [an eshop version for the 3DS available for only $5 if all you want to do is play the game](
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/shantae-3ds/) and do not care about owning a physical copy or playing it on the original system, but keep in mind that the 3DS line has recently been discontinued, so its eshop is living on borrowed time. There is also a switch cartridge available on Limited Run Games' website if you think you would get more utility out of that. There might also be a digital switch version available soon, but I am not sure about that, and it took about 11 years for the first eshop version to be released.
I have been hoping for legitimate game reproductions of especially rare games for a very long time now, but did not anticipate it actually happening. There are a number of other games that have been reproduced too, but I feel like this is the most imporant one so far.
Now if we could only get a certain shrinemaiden, youkai racoon and Lunar Princess... I'm talking about Pocky and Rocky 2, not Reimu, Mami and Kaguya
Houraisan, geeze guys, did you not read the subforum description or
read any of Setz's comics? :-P That game is another subject altogether though.
Oh here's an image of the box art for the standard edition by the way:
