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| Dance through the danger. |
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero was the sequel to the much beloved Shantae and the Pirate's Curse and was the fourth game in developer Wayforward's much beloved Shantae series. The game sees Shantae on a brand new adventure with a brand new look in HD. As a recent fan of the series having just played (and loved) Pirate's Curse, I was excited to check out the other games in the series. How does Half-Genie Hero stack up against its predecessors? Let's find out.
Half-Genie Hero sees our kind-loving protagonist Shantae as she once again must save Scuttle Town from danger. This time around, the story lacked the focus of Pirate Curse as it mainly consisted of Shantae just hopping around from one scene to the other running errands for her uncle, without a single threat holding the narrative together. Still, the funny moments between Shantae and her gang of friends were enjoyable and the hilarious writing makes up for the main story's shortcomings. The villains such as Risky Boots and Ammo Baron were also fun to watch and had some cool moments as well.
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| While the story was scattered at times, it still had some fun moments. |
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is your 2D platformer where Shantae beats enemies with her signature hair-whipping and navigates through levels looking for secrets. Returning from Shantae: Risky's Revenge are Shantae's iconic dance moves, which allows her to transform into various animals like a monkey that allows her jump to higher levels, an elephant that allows Shantae to break boulders, and a cute crab that allows her to swim in underwater segments, and more. It was a neat feature that made the gameplay a lot more interesting and less stale the more you explore the levels. Also, making a return is the magic meter, where casting support items such as the fireball and spike shields come at the cost of depleting the meter.
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| The transformations were a nice touch to the gameplay, adding a layer of depth to the levels. |
Levels take the form of "maps" where Shantae must navigate through platforming segments, battling enemies, collecting treasures, and facing a boss fight at the end. I didn't find the levels to be all that interesting and the boss fights tended to drag on, which made them slight boring. Continuing the Metroidvania elements, each map is filled with secrets like heart containers, power-ups, and art gallery keys, which are initially blocked until you get the right dance to obtain them. There are even optional clues scattered throughout the game, which are needed for the true ending and 100% completion rate, adding replay-vale to the game.
Personally, the levels weren't my favorite parts of the game as I didn't find them all that interesting compared to Pirate's Curse and the boss fights weren't all that fun as they can overstay their welcome by having tons of health, which makes the process of beating them more boring than rewarding.
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| Beat some gigantic though slightly less interesting bosses. |
The game took me around 6 hours to beat, that included getting all requirements for the true ending as well as an 88% completion, which is short for $20. I opted for the Ultimate Edition, which included three DLCs to the base game such as the ability to play as Risky Boots in the first one and Shantae's friends in the second one.
The first two DLC were good as you experience the game from different perspectives, but what put me off was that you replayed the same old levels and bosses from the main game in each of them, which got boring quickly. The third DLC pack is just a costume pack for Shantae, with each costume packing a unique ability such as a Ninja and a Police Officer (a reference to the Mighty Switch Force! series). Sure the Ultimate Edition offers more value compared to the base game, but I honestly recommend that you wait for a sale.
Half-Genie Hero was the first game in the series to feature HD visuals and newly drawn 2D sprites, which look fantastic and is fitting with the game's art-style. The backgrounds and character designs were pretty neat and I enjoyed the variety in each level. I kind of wished that the game featured full voice-overs instead of certain lines being voiced only, which I feel was a missed opportunity to flesh out the characters even more. That said, the soundtrack was awesome, packing many great tracks that were fun to listen to and surprisingly, there wasn't a single track that I didn't like-- my favoite track being the ending theme.
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| The art-style and soundtrack are among the game's best aspects. |
Overall, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is a solid entry in the series and a great game if you're starting out with 2D platformers, as it's newcomer-friendly. The story was good, gameplay was fun, and the presentation is top-notch, no surprise coming from Wayforward. While it has its shortcomings, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is a great pick if you're looking for a good 2D platformer with Metroidvania elements, though it's best to wait for a sale.
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