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Shantae, WayForward Technologies' Game Boy Color-era side-scroller staring the titular belly dancing heroine, will be released on the Virtual Console June 20, the developer announced recently on its official blog.
Originally released in North America in 2002, the game puts players in the role of Shantae as she battles a pirate invasion led by her nemesis, Risky Boots. The Nintendo 3DS version will be available in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The game is also notable having been released for Game Boy Color about a year after Game Boy Advance. Recent eBay auctions for the original GBA game have garnered over $130. As of this writing, an ongoing auction for a sealed version of Shantae stands at $821 from 10 bidders.
Last November, Nintendo Power reported that WayForward is developing Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, a sequel headed directly to the eShop in 2013. The second game in the series, Shantae: Risky's Revenge, was released in 2010 as DSiWare.
