WayForward has confirmed a new Shantae game for a 2027 release window after an Anime Expo teaser reveal, but platforms, title, price, and gameplay details remain unannounced.
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WayForward’s Anime Expo tease confirms Shantae is coming back in 2027
WayForward has confirmed that a new Shantae game is in development, with Video Games Chronicle reporting that the studio revealed the project during an Anime Expo panel in Los Angeles and attached a 2027 release window to the unnamed title. The reveal came with teaser artwork showing a redesigned Shantae, but VGC says no further details were shared at the panel.
That makes the announcement concrete, but narrow. There is a new Shantae game. It is currently in development. WayForward showed new art at Anime Expo. VGC reports a 2027 release window. Everything else that players usually want to know, including the title, platforms, price, format, gameplay structure, and whether this is a numbered sequel or a different kind of entry, remains unannounced.
WayForward’s own public post, quoted by multiple outlets, kept the wording simple: “Enjoy this brand-new teaser image revealed at Anime Expo for the next Shantae game, currently in development!” Twisted Voxel noted that the studio did not reveal a title, release window, target platforms, or gameplay details in that Bluesky post. That creates a small but important sourcing split. The studio’s social post confirms development and the Anime Expo artwork. VGC’s report adds the 2027 date from the panel. My Nintendo News also says the game is scheduled for 2027, while reporting that it is planned for multiple platforms.
The platform question is the story after the teaser
For players searching for “Shantae Switch 2,” the honest answer is still: no platform has been formally announced in the provided material. VGC says no further details were revealed after the Anime Expo announcement. ComicBook.com likewise reports that WayForward has not said what platforms the next Shantae game will release on. Twisted Voxel says target platforms were not shared alongside the teaser artwork.
My Nintendo News is the one source in the provided material that says WayForward has been working on a new Shantae game scheduled for “multiple platforms” in 2027. It does not list those platforms in the article body. Its tags include Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X, but tags are weaker evidence than an explicit platform announcement. They are useful as a signal of the audience and likely discussion around the game, not as confirmation of release targets.
The 2027 window still changes the platform conversation. By then, a new Shantae would be landing well into the current hardware cycle, and a Switch 2 version would make business and audience sense if WayForward chooses to pursue it. That is interpretation, not confirmation. Shantae has deep Nintendo handheld roots, and WayForward recently worked on Nintendo’s Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp for Switch, a remake VGC connected to the studio’s broader 30-year history. But until WayForward names platforms, the only safe guidance is to wait before assuming Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X, PC, or legacy Switch support.
A new Shantae matters differently after Risky Revolution
The next Shantae carries extra weight because the series’ most recent release was unusual. VGC describes last year’s Risky Revolution as not technically a totally new game, because it was a revival of a Game Boy Advance project from 2004 that had been canceled before release. Wikipedia lists Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution as the latest release in the series, dated April 21, 2025.
That history frames the new 2027 project as a possible fresh step rather than another act of preservation. Risky Revolution had the fascination of a recovered missing chapter, especially for a franchise that began on Game Boy Color in 2002. A newly developed Shantae has a different job. It has to show where WayForward thinks its half-genie platformer belongs now, after years of remasters, revivals, ports, and cross-platform audience growth.
The strongest recent fully modern reference point remains Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, released in 2016 for consoles and PC after a successful crowdfunding campaign, according to VGC. VGC also points to the 2019 Apple Arcade entry, later ported to consoles, as part of the series’ recent path. ComicBook.com identifies that entry as Shantae and the Seven Sirens. Across those releases, the series has moved from cult handheld curio to widely available indie platformer, while still leaning on a recognizable toolkit: side-scrolling action, exploration gates, hair-whip attacks, and magical transformations.
The teaser artwork hints at direction, but does not confirm mechanics
The Anime Expo image is the only creative asset WayForward has shared publicly in the provided sources. VGC says it features a redesigned Shantae. ComicBook.com notes that fans have focused on the new hair design, including pike balls, and speculates that this could tie into combat like previous games. That last part remains speculation. There is no confirmed move list, transformation system, camera style, world structure, or difficulty curve.
Still, Shantae’s mechanical identity gives the reveal some texture. VGC summarizes the series as a platformer where players control the half-genie Shantae, who can transform into different forms with their own abilities. Twisted Voxel describes the franchise as known for side-scrolling platforming, Metroidvania-inspired exploration, colorful hand-crafted visuals, hair-whip attacks, and magical transformation abilities. Wikipedia classifies the series as platform, action-adventure, and Metroidvania.
That matters for expectations because Shantae games live or die by how cleanly those ideas interlock. The best moments in the series are usually small, readable bursts of design: a new form that recontextualizes an old room, a screen built around one movement trick, a boss that asks players to use a familiar attack at a sharper rhythm. A redesigned character model or new hair motif may be cosmetic, mechanical, or both. WayForward has not said. For now, the teaser is a tone-setter, not a feature sheet.
A 2027 window gives WayForward room, and raises the bar
A distant release window can be frustrating, but for a platformer studio it can also be useful. A Shantae game depends less on scale and more on feel: acceleration, hitboxes, animation readability, enemy spacing, backtracking friction, and the pace at which new powers widen the map. Those are craft problems that benefit from iteration. If the next game is targeting 2027, WayForward has time to define the new look, decide how far to push the formula, and choose platforms without immediately locking the audience into assumptions.
That window also avoids placing the reveal in the shadow of a near-term marketing cycle. Anime Expo gave WayForward a place to show the character and tell fans the series is moving again, without immediately needing to sell a collector’s edition, explain an upgrade path, or compare frame rates across hardware. The tradeoff is uncertainty. Players cannot preorder intelligently. They cannot plan around a platform. They cannot judge whether this is a compact digital release, a larger sequel, or a game with physical editions.
For Switch 2 in particular, 2027 is an open lane rather than a promise. If WayForward wants the next Shantae to feel at home on newer Nintendo hardware, the timing gives the studio room to do it. If the plan is broad cross-platform support, as My Nintendo News reports in general terms, the window also leaves space to balance portability, performance, and visual polish across systems. Until WayForward names the hardware, any platform-specific expectation should be treated as educated guesswork.
The series is small, but its comeback stakes are specific
Shantae has always occupied a different space from the biggest platformer brands. Wikipedia describes the first game as positively reviewed but a financial disappointment, commonly attributed to its late release on Game Boy Color after the Game Boy Advance had arrived. The series resurfaced with Risky’s Revenge in 2010 and later grew in popularity, with Wikipedia calling Shantae WayForward’s flagship series and stating that the franchise had sold more than three million copies by 2020.
That long arc explains why a new entry can feel meaningful even before the title is known. Shantae is a platformer series built on persistence: late hardware timing, long gaps, revived projects, digital-first expansion, and a fanbase that follows the character across formats. A 2027 release window puts the next game in position to be the first clean forward-looking Shantae in years, rather than a recovered historical artifact or a port of an existing entry.
For now, the practical advice is simple. Fans should treat the WayForward Shantae Anime Expo reveal as a confirmed development announcement with a reported 2027 window, not as a full unveiling. If you are waiting specifically for Shantae Switch 2, wait for WayForward to say the words. If you mainly want to know whether the series is alive and getting a new game, that part is no longer in doubt.