Near the end of the Game Boy Color lifecycle, a neat little game called Shantae was released. It was one part action, one part rhythm, and one part Metroid. This was all topped off with a genie that used her hair like a whip, shook her ass for some gold and transformed into other creatures. This was a game that was packed to the brim with content, especially for a GBC game. The game was compatible with the Game Boy Advance for extra colors. A sequel was planned on the GBA, but was scrapped. But WayForward, the developers of Shantae, brought her back in the DSiWare sequel, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. Since then, WayForward’s been riding high on the success of some of their games, including Mighty Flip Champs, Mighty Switch Force, and are currently creating an Adventure Time game.

WayForward says that they submitted the game to the ESRB to rate it, and will then have to wait for Nintendo to approve it. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem considering that 1) WayForward was smart in maintaining the Shantae IP and not letting DLCapcom hold it (and they said that all they’d have to do is remove Capcom’s logo from the intro), and 2) Nintendo could use a game in the handheld VC that pushed the GBC to its limits at the time. Since Shantae is pretty damn rare, I’ve only had the chance of playing a little bit of it on an emulator. Releasing it on the VC would be a dream come true and I won’t have to dread spending a huge sum of money to play it.

Shantae Coming to 3DS Virtual Console Soon (Hopefully) [Nintendo World Report, via Operation Rainfall