Shantae

Shantae (シャンティ) is the eponymous protagonist of the Shantae series from WayForward Technologies, who also serves as the company's mascot.

A Mii Fighter Costume modeled after her was made available as DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Character Description[]

Shantae is the Half-Genie guardian of the seaside Scuttle Town, protecting its denizens from rogue pirates. As a Half-Genie, Shantae is capable of using magic that she can cast with specific belly dances; these include teleportation and transformation into various animals such as a monkey or an elephant. These dances can be learned from either a Guardian Genie or from a Magic Fountain in a dungeon. Outside of magic, Shantae is also a capable fighter thanks to her training with Bolo, and is also able to use her long ponytail in combat as a whip.

She was born to a human father and a Guardian Genie mother, both of which she has never met. She maintains a strong relationship with her adoptive uncle Mimic, the town's resident treasure hunter who often aids Shantae in her various adventures. She is also close with her best friends Sky and Bolo, as well as the zombie Rottytops. She is a talented belly dancer and "trouble-prone" but nevertheless has an unwavering sense of justice.

Shantae[]

In her debut, Shantae is called to action after the pirate gang the Tinkerbats, led by the ruthless captain Risky Boots, steals a prototype steam engine being developed by Mimic. He informs Shantae that if Risky were to find the four elemental stones, she could use them to power up the steam engine and create a powerful weapon. Shantae goes to pursue Risky in an effort to retrieve the engine and locate the stones first, thanks to the assistance of Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops. After gaining three of the stones, Risky ambushes Shantae at the dungeon of the fourth stone and steals all four. Still on the chase, Shantae uses the magic Spy Scope to locate the Tinkerbats' hideout and teleports to it; there, she manages to destroy the pirates' ultimate weapon, the Tinker Tank. Shantae also defeats Risky Boots, and escapes as the hideout begins to collapse. However, Shantae is transported to the Genie Realm, where the genies offer her a place in the realm as a reward for saving Sequin Land. She decides to decline, as it would mean never seeing her friends again. Shantae is sent back to Scuttle Town and reunites with Mimic.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge[]

Risky returns to wreck havoc on the annual Relic Hunters Expo to steal Mimic's latest find - a stone-encased lamp. During the scuffle, Shantae is knocked out, allowing Risky to leave with the relic. As a result, Mayor Scuttlebutt fires Shantae as the town's protector, though this does not deter her from going out to stop Risky's new plot, with Mimic telling her to seek out three magic seals that can activate the lamp. With assistance from Rottytops, Shantae eventually discovers that she will need to find the three Barons of Sequin Land to acquire the seals. While on her journey, Mimic is unfortunately kidnapped by Rottytops and her brothers, Poe and Abner Cadaver, after being persuaded by Risky in exchange for a lifetime supply of coffee and the Half-Genie's brains. Shantae, having gained the three seals, arrives and is forced to give them up to the pirate to save Mimic, who also reveals her deception to the zombies which forces them to flee and Rottytops to cry. Risky then drains Shantae of her magical half inside of a lamp, which creates her evil clone, Nega-Shantae. The two fight, which ends with Nega-Shantae exploding, completely destroying Shantae's genie half and leaving her as a full human. She and Mimic escape the collapsing hideout and they reunite with Sky and Bolo; they all promise to help protect Scuttle Town as Shantae adjusts to her new life as a human, while Mayor Scuttlebutt reinstates her as the town's protector.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse[]

Sometime later, the Ammo Baron arrives to Scuttle Town and reveals that he has bought the town and is now legally its mayor, effectively overthrowing Scuttlebutt, and places Shantae under house arrest awaiting punishment. In the midst of her sadness, Shantae is captured by Risky Boots, who has come to investigate the whereabouts of her missing belongings and henchmen. Shantae denies this as Risky takes her to Mimic's lab and witnesses a Tinkerbat in a cage; to their surprise, the Tinkerbat is consumed by a magical dark fog, turning it into a Cacklebat. After defeating it and trapping the magic in a lamp, Risky deduces this to be the work of The Pirate Master - a crazed and ruthless pirate that was so powerful, it took all of the genies in Sequin Land to seal him away in a grave on an isolated land; he was also the former captain to Risky, whose ship and Tinkerbats she inherited after his defeat. Risky believes he is using dark magic to revive himself and spread a curse upon the land through the use of magical dens; determined to stop him at any cost and without her pirate gear, she decides to form an unlikely alliance with Shantae, and the two set off to find the sources of The Pirate Master's dark magic.

During their travels, Shantae reunites with Rottytops and her brothers, and they all reconcile. Risky also reveals that the dark magic being spread is actually a result of Shantae defeating Nega-Shantae, meaning that in actuality it is a corrupted form of her genie half. Eventually, after destroying the magical dens, the two arrive at The Pirate Master's grave and attempt to destroy it; however, The Pirate Master returns and kidnaps Risky, with Shantae chasing after them back to Scuttle Town and confronting him in the Sequin Land palace. It is here where the story deviates; if the duo have only destroyed some dens, Shantae is not able to defeat The Pirate Master completely, allowing him to escape and forcing Risky to go and confront him alone, believing that the curse will overtake her anyway; if the girls have destroyed all of the dens, the dark magic will revert back to light magic, allowing Shantae to become a Half-Genie again and successfully defeat The Pirate Master with Risky's help. The two part ways and return to their normal roles, but with a newfound respect and understanding for each other, while Shantae drives the Ammo Baron out of town.

Shantae: ½ Genie Hero[]

One night, Shantae is awoken and lured to a mysterious secret cave by a mysterious voice, which is revealed to be someone from the Genie Realm warning her of an evil that only she can defeat. Before the voice can elaborate, Shantae wakes up from her sleep, revealing the scenario to be a dream. Risky Boots then returns and launches an ambush on Scuttle Town and steals Mimic's blueprints for a new invention he calls the Dynamo. Though Shantae is able to recover the plans and defeat the pirates, Mayor Scuttlebutt fires her from being the town guardian again due to the destruction and chaos. Mimic then informs her that the Dynamo is a device that can keep the town protected and powered, but she must find several components scattered around Sequin Land to complete its construction. With help from Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops, Shantae retrieves the necessary items and completes the Dynamo; however, it goes haywire and blasts her with dark magic, marking the return of Nega-Shantae. Risky then returns and reveals that she swapped Mimic's blueprints with her own, planning to use the Dynamo to spread dark magic across the Genie Realm and turn the genies evil.

While Risky escapes again, Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops successfully repel Nega-Shantae and turn her back to normal. Mimic quickly creates a new device, the Magical Polarizer, to counter the effects of the Dynamo. Shantae heads off to battle Risky and the Dynamo-powered Tinkerbats; during the fight, the mysterious voice from her dream from the beginning of the game returns to inform her that the magic in the Genie Realm has already been corrupted. To ensure the safety of the genies, Shantae is forced to destroy the realm. She then defeats the Tinkerbats and escapes. Back at Scuttle Town, Mayor Scuttlebutt reinstates Shantae as the town guardian. The voice also returns to tell Shantae that the Genie Realm is in fact still intact and that the Magical Polarizer worked as intended; it also reveals that Shantae's mother is alive and well in the Realm, having given her child up for its own safety as she works to protect the world from larger threats. Understanding what her mother did, Shantae goes to celebrate her success with her friends.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens[]

Shantae is invited to Paradise Island to attend the Half-Genie Festival, where other Half-Genies from distant lands come over to celebrate. There, she meets and befriends Plink, Vera, Zapple, Harmony, and Fillin; however, during a performance, the five girls are suddenly kidnapped. Shantae, who was spared, begins to investigate, leading her to the Sunken City below. There, she encounters Risky Boots, who to her surprise had nothing to do with the kidnappings, but instead being the work of the Seven Sirens - the rulers of Paradise Island. Shantae continues to explore the Sunken City, defeating the Sirens and freeing four of the captive Half-Genies along the way (one of which turns out to be Rottytops in disguise, who snuck into Shantae's luggage to go on the trip with her). On her way to rescue Harmony, Shantae accidentally discovers that the Sunken City is actually a giant airship and is what Risky is searching for. As Shantae defeats another Siren, the pirate, revealed to be the mayor that invited the Half-Genies, takes control of the ship with the intention of using its weapons to destroy Paradise Island.

A friendly sixth Siren, the Lobster Siren, takes Shantae into the airship, but is captured by Risky. The elder Siren, Empress Siren, then appears and explains to Shantae that she was cursed by Harmony's mother to only feed on the lifeforce of genies instead of mortals, causing her to starve; she had struck a deal with Risky to bring her five half-genies to break the curse in exchange for the airship. However, the Empress double-crosses Risky and takes her life force, restoring her to her youth and heads off to drain mortals. Shantae heads off to battle the Empress, realizing that her restoration is incomplete due to Rottytops not being a half-genie. With the help of the other half-genies and their restored magic, Shantae manages to destroy the Empress Siren. She also goes to rescue Risky from the crashing airship, who admits that she purposely had the Sirens not kidnap Shantae by telling them that her magic is corrupt, predicting that the Empress would betray her. As Risky leaves, the Half-Genies continue the festival with the Lobster Siren promising to restore the island. Harmony also gives Shantae a parting gift - a scrapbook full of messages from the Genie Realm for their Half-Genie daughters, one of which being from Shantae's mother.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[]

Mii Fighter Costume[]

A costume for the Mii Brawler modeled after Shantae was made available as a part of the Round 10 batch of DLC costumes. Bundled with the costume is a direct rip of the track "Burning Town" from Shantae: ½ Genie Hero.

Spirit[]

A Spirit of Shantae is available in the base game. It is a Primary Grab Spirit under the Ace class. Her Spirit Battle uses Zero Suit Samus in her orange palette swap, due to its similarity with Shantae's clothing, and is equipped with a Killing Edge. Transformation-type items such as a Bunny Hood or a Super Leaf will spawn during the battle, referencing her transformation ability. The stage is Pirate Ship, which is meant to be a stand-in for Risky Boots' ship, the Steam Powered Oceanic Tinker Tub Mark 2 (as the battle itself makes callbacks to Shantae and the Pirate's Curse). The song that plays is "Mob Smash".

No.	Spirit	Artwork Origin	Type	Rating	Effect	Slots
1296		Shantae: ½ Genie Hero		★★★	Magic Attack ↑	3

Trivia[]

• Shantae is the oldest indie character represented in Smash, as she debuted in 2002.
• Shantae is the third Mii Fighter costume character to hail from an indie game, following Sans and Cuphead.
  • Much like them, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate marks the first time Shantae has been officially modeled in 3D, as well as also having a song come packaged with the costume.
  • Of the three, Shantae is the only one to represent a series, as opposed to a single game entry.
• Shantae's Spirit Battle being a reference to Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is due to the fact that it is the first Shantae game to be released in Japan. It is also only one of two games in the series to get a Japanese release, the other being Risky's Revenge.
• Shantae's segment of the "Mii Fighter Costumes - Round 10" trailer make several references to her series:
  • The first scene shows the costume battling King K. Rool and an army of Mr. Game & Watches; K. Rool is meant to represent Risky Boots and the Mr. Game & Watch team being analogous to the Tinkerbats.
  • The next scene is a cheeky demonstration of Shantae's transformation powers, as it has the costume getting covered by a Smoke Ball, which then changes it to the Monkey suit.
• Following the release of the costume, Shantae's creators, Matt and Erin Bozon, shared a Mii Fighter available for players to download; its moveset consists of Exploding Side Kick, Burning Dropkick, Soaring Axe Kick, and Feint Jump. An alternate Mii with a smile and a voice was later shared the next day with the ID code CWHBFNNX.

Navigation[]

Miscellaneous third-party universes
Characters	Boss	Rathalos
	Assist Trophies	Akira Yuki  · Bomberman  · Rathalos  · Shovel Knight
	Mii Fighter Costumes	Akira Yuki  · Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad  · Arthur  · Bomberman  · Cuphead  · Dante  · Doom Slayer  · Dragonborn  · Felyne  · Gil  · Goemon  · Iori Yagami  · Jacky Bryant  · Lloyd Irving  · Monster Hunter  · Nakoruru  · Rabbids  · Ryo Sakazaki  · Sans  · Shantae  · Travis Touchdown  · Vault Boy
	Background characters	Athena Asamiya  · Chang Koehan & Choi Bounge  · Goro Daimon  · Iori Yagami  · King  · Kyo Kusanagi  · Ralf Jones & Clark Still  · Ryo Sakazaki  · Yuri Sakazaki
	Enemies	Pooka  · Bacura
Items	Boss Galaga  · Special Flag
Music	Lists	List of Music (Namco games)  · List of Music (SNK games)  · List of Music (Monster Hunter / Undertale / Cuphead / Shantae)
	Songs	"MEGALOVANIA"  · "Psycho Soldier Theme"
Collectibles	Trophies	3DS Trophies  · Wii U Trophies
	Spirits	List of spirits (Others)
Universe	List of minor universes