Review - SHANTAE: HALF-GENIE HERO - Ultimate Edition - Enchantment over the sea!
Well, if you have never played Shantae: Half-Genie Hero before, here's your best opportunity to discover the game's greatness in this all-inclusive ultimate edition!
It contains all of the previously released DLCs, and a few new unexciting goodies like a blue bathing suit for Shantae, among other things! I wouldn't have minded a fetish cosplay DLC, but anyway...😋
| Store | Platform | OVERALL RATING: 93% |
| Buy it on GOG | PC |
+ THE POSITIVE
- Anime-like graphics and animation- First class entertainment - Varied gameplay (transformations) - Good replayability (lots of playable characters) - Many secret places!
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THE NEGATIVE
- A few bosses are unfairly difficult |
| Buy it on Amazon | PS4 | |
| Buy it on Amazon | PSVITA | |
| Buy it on Amazon | Switch | |
| Buy it on Amazon | Wii U | |
| Buy it on Microsoft | Xbox One |
THE FEMALE VERSION OF LUFFY!
First, for those who already know the story and had the previous versions, I'll just list the few new things in this "Ultimate Edition":
- Three save slots for every game mode.
- Different Title Screen & Mode Select screen.
- Tinkerbat Transformation
- Classic Risky Boots costume
- Blue Shantae costume
- Blue bathing suit
ALL Shantae games have the same basis:
The story takes place in the oriental-inspired Sequin land, in which we play Shantae, a charismatic "half-genie", known for her playful and dynamic spirit, belly dancing and long purple hair!
She will never cease to defend her hometown "Scuttle Town" from the endless attacks of her nemesis, the lady pirate "Risky Boots"!(did I ever tell you that one of my nicknames is "Risky Boobs"?)
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| Risky Boots, bathing casually with three black guys in her cabin. I have watched enough porn to know where this is going to...😂 |
EXTREMELY shortened version of the plot introduction:
*SPOILERS*
While Shantae's uncle, Mimic, works on a powerful weapon which will defend the city permanently, Risky Boots attacks Scuttle Town but Shantae manages to beat her again!Mimic decides to send Shantae travel across Sequin Land to search for the remaining parts for his ultimate weapon, the "Dynamo".
*END OF SPOILERS*
lol sorry! I won't reveal any more, especially as the story gets much more interesting when Shantae gets the components, which is far from being the end of the game!!
Nothing will turn out the way it was supposed to be!😋
As for the genre itself, the developers stated that they were inspired by old-school classics like Mega Man, Castlevania or The Legend of Zelda to build a mix of action, platforms, adventure and exploration.
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| The Mermaid form, allowing you to swim freely(much better than the crab!) and firing bubble projectiles that can destroy rocks! This part really reminded me of the famous "Coral Capers" level in Donkey Kong Country! |
Using a varied gameplay in an exotic world, the overall atmosphere is largely inspired by the Arabic cultures as was Aladdin, although I prefer to compare it myself to One Piece! Maybe it's the wacky character design, and the color palette! lol
Note!
The game has many DLCs, which consist in fact of playable characters, and they're all selectable RIGHT AWAY. No need to beat the game first!Some DLCs have a mix of reworked levels and a few brand-new levels.
- "Pirate Queen's Quest": you conquer Sequin Land as Risky Boots herself!
- "Friends to the End", in which you can play as Sky, Bolo, or Rottytops(or Rottycrotch)! It's also called "Half-Baked Hero" because it's considered mediocre. lol
- Also "Ninja Shantae", "Beach Shantae", and "Officer Shantae"!
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| I just wanted to add that fantastic painting of the Giga Mermaid here! I haven't found who did this, so please comment or contact us if you want to be credited!😘 |
Some people will be disappointed, but Shantae is no more a pure Metroidvania game(although I'll nuance this later), now we're dealing with old-school platforming!
Although we do still have access to the town, in which we can buy upgrades and talk to people, and also, there's some back and forth in the game as well.
But overall, the game is more linear than previous iterations.
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| One of the playable characters in "Friends to the End" DLC, Sky, uses seagulls as her main attack! |
The levels oscillate between horizontal and vertical scrolling, and as usual with Wayforward, the enemies are perfectly positioned to annoy you and prevent you from progressing without being hit. lol (which reminds me of their most recent game, "The Mummy Demastered"... God, I suffered in that game, sometimes...)
Everything feels "fluid" and despite the absence of double-jumps, controls are very simple and I never had to look for help online, for once. lol
In a few cases, being able to hit with my hair "vertically" would have been appreciated though, especially against enemies on platforms. It's actually surprising developers didn't add this.
Then again, maybe they intended us to use the magical attacks instead, to reach such enemies?
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| The Ninja costume is my favorite, giving Shantae additional speed, agility, and magic at the cost of defense. |
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| The slightly underwhelming Spider transformation! |
As you can imagine, each "animal" will totally change the way you play, and more exciting, open up way more possibilities and new paths you couldn't access before!
The crab can walk to the bottom of the water, the spider can run to the ceiling and the elephant can break down walls, for example!
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| The elephant transformation makes me think SO much of "Rolo to the rescue" on Megadrive!😄 |
And as you can imagine, most of these areas are hiding nice "treasures" to improve your character!
Which also means that the game hasn't completely abandoned its old Metroidvania roots!
he he Not complaining!
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| In your inventory, you can enable/disable any relics anytime you want! |
TIP!
Always
talk to EVERYBODY every time you go back to town, as the dialogues will
be different, giving you hints, or giving you quests!The game encourages you to return to already completed levels for another reason:
COMPLETING QUESTS!
The town which serves as a so-called "hub" has lots of characters, and many of them will give you MANDATORY QUESTS, which will help the story progress further, like an adventure game.
So, help the inhabitants, and especially your inventor of an uncle, Mimic, who will give you the most important quests!
Of course, the usual characters in the series are back, including the bad guys that we face regularly in fun boss fights.(speaking of which, some of them are HUGE!😱)
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| Don't you think the Giga Mermaid is super cute? Too bad she never talks! I wish we cooperated a bit!🤗 |
The varied gameplay makes Shantae: Half-Genie Hero a very enjoyable adventure, mixing sequences of pure action and platforming.
Some people might complain that the game is too short (some claim to finish the game in no more than 4 hours! Eeer... It took me 10 hours... Did I do something wrong? lol)
On the other hand, replayability is very good thanks to its numerous DLCs!
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| To regenerate her health, Rottytops eats a brain! Yummy!😅 |
GRAPHICS - IT'S LIKE WATCHING ANIME!😍
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is a GORGEOUS HD 2D game. The backgrounds, sprites, the harmony of colors... everything looks freaking amazing.
It's one of these games in which I actually want to ENTER the game and just run alongside the main character! lol
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| As usual, I leave one screenshot without a caption! Well, it's 2am here, so I'll let you caption it for me! Yaaaawn!😴 |
The animation smoothness of the movements and the beautiful colorful backgrounds are impressive, very close to actual cartoons/anime.
You can feel the specific Wayforward "touch" in every level, from the dreamy underwater and cave levels to deserts and forests, including the whole bestiary and Shantae herself.
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| The map, from which you'll select which level you want to play! |
MUSIC - SHAKE THAT BELLY!🎶👯
One of the few games in which not only I don't mute the music, I actually RAISE the volume! It just sounds so great in general.
What I admire the most about what the composer did is how the genres are very diverse.
The first level sounds like high-energy Arabic Eurobeat(Sung by Cristina Vee, check out her channel!), while the town track sounds like a funky piece mixed with Lawrence of Arabia.
Finally, many of these tracks make good lovemaking material. Or am I weird?😅
Although, if you really insist on using a different OST in the background, I found that the two most fitting osts for Shantae games are Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, and One Piece!(Seriously, play while listening to this, it feels so much like being in an alternative One Piece universe, with Shantae instead of Luffy! lol)
I regret I didn't hear the SFX that well because I turned up the music too much. lol
Then again, the few sounds I heard here and there were pretty simple and eventually, I didn't pay attention to them anymore.
I kinda wished there was some constant natural atmospheric sfx in the background though, but I assume it would be weird for a "simple" platformer.
As for the dialogues, they seemed unnecessary. They're not bad, but although the game can be enjoyed as an adult, the way the lines are delivered kinda made me feel like I was 5 years old. Nyu! 👧
RATING BOX
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VERSION TESTED: Ultimate Edition
Publisher:
Developer:
Release Date:
8 May, 2018
Genre: Platformer
Single-player
Difficulty: Normal
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| GRAPHICS: 96% | |||||||||||||||
| A very high score because I don't see how it could be better. Animations are top-notch, and the new very fine anime-like drawing style fits the Shantae universe even better than the old pixel art! (and I say this as a pixel art enthusiast!) | |||||||||||||||
| MUSIC: 94% | |||||||||||||||
| One of the best OSTs ever made for a platformer. A few tracks even have lyrics and remind me of the good old mid-90s, when the Sega Saturn had megahits games with sung tracks, like Daytona USA or Burning Rangers. An incredibly diverse soundtrack with multiple genres, which will transport you to the exotic Sequin Land! | |||||||||||||||
| SOUNDS: 70% | |||||||||||||||
| The game really doesn't have many sound effects, and most of them are so "shy" that they kinda merge with the OST, so you barely notice them anymore after a while. Also, only a few dialogues are spoken, and the delivered lines sound a bit too childish too me. Meh. | |||||||||||||||
| GAMEPLAY: 92% | |||||||||||||||
| Besides a few difficult and annoying bosses, everything feels satisfying thanks to perfect controls and balanced platforming areas. The rich old-school platformer also still have very pleasing Metroidvania elements, and between the various transformations and numerous quests served by humorous dialogues, the game will entertain you until the ending! |
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| OVERALL RATING: 93% | |||||||||||||||
| Shantae: Half-Genie Hero condenses all the know-how of WayForward Technologies in terms of platforming. It offers a pleasant and varied gameplay that mixes genres with success, without turning into an improbable jack-of-all-trades. The cherry on the cake is the design, served by bluffing animations and a style that seems straight out of a Japanese anime. Some people might find the story short, but the replayability potential is huge, thanks to the DLCs which offer you to replay the game with many different characters! |
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