Wayforward Technologies has a fairly solid track record for game development. Whether they’re working on licensed games like Ducktales Remastered or original works like Mighty Switch Force, there’s a certain level of quality to be expected of their team. Some of their works as so well made that they surpass the original property, such as the recently released The Mummy Demastered. However, their true claim to fame is Shantae, a series of critically acclaimed 2D platformers starring the titular half-genie, Shantae, who uses her hair and magical dances to protect Scuttle Town. The latest game in the series, Shantae: Half Genie Hero, is no exception to their standard of quality, and now that all its DLC is released, the complete experience can be discussed.
Similarly to the other Shantae games, Half Genie Hero is a 2D Metroidvania- in layman’s terms, Metroidvania is a genre that focuses on exploring areas with sections blocked off until certain abilities are unlocked. The genre is named for two of the most famous Metroidvania series, Metroid and Castlevania, but the genre expands to other games such as Cave Story.
While Shantae starts her quest with only her powerful hair-whipping attack, the player eventually unlocks transformation dances, which allow Shantae to shapeshift into animals with different abilities. Some of the transformations, such as the Mouse, have very few areas they’re helpful in. Other transformations are too similar to one another and would make more sense as one combined transformation. However, most of the transformations, such as the Monkey, are fun to use and give wider access on the map. Some transformations also receive upgrades later in the game, which gives them more versatility.
Roadblocks are visible across each stage, such as large rocks that can be crushed by strong transformations or crevices the player can only reach with small transformations. This invokes curiosity to explore old areas. While the story goes from level to level in a specific order, the player can revisit any completed level at any time, and completed levels take out a major obstacle so that finding secret areas is easier.. While not all secret areas must be found to beat the game, some areas must be revisited to progress, and these areas are hinted at in dialogue so the player isn’t completely lost. The remaining areas hold Heart Containers to raise Shantae’s health bar, Gallery Keys that unlock concept art and fan art, and upgrades that aren’t mandatory, but help the player complete different challenges. In addition, gems are scattered across stages, used as currency for a Scuttle Town shop with minor upgrades that don’t affect exploration.
The controls are tight, which makes exploring levels and fighting bosses a blast, but while most of the levels and bosses are entertaining, the game does suffer from difficulty spikes. It could be argued that some of the difficulty early on comes from not having the upgrades used later in the game, but some of the early areas would feel unfair even with those upgrades. Particularly, one of the earliest bosses and one of the earliest levels are the hardest segments of the game, and would feel like a fitting challenge if placed at the end of the game. The final boss has a similar issue, though it comes from confusing design rather than ramping up the difficulty.
Undoubtedly, the Shantae series excels in presentation, and in this area, Half Genie Hero truly shines. The sprites used for previous Shantae games are incredibly detailed and hold up to this day, but Half Genie Hero has a new hand-drawn art style that uses vibrant colors and cartoonish animation to bring Shantae’s world to life. Despite having a fairly standard plot, Half Genie Hero has the series’s beloved sense of humor. Character interaction and dialogue is incredibly entertaining, filled with meta jokes and good voice acting. Of course, the best part is the soundtrack done by Jake Kaufman, one of the best composers in the game industry. Though he’s also known for his fantastic work on games like Ducktales Remastered and Shovel Knight, Kaufman has composed for the entire Shantae series.
Since its launch, Half Genie Hero has received two DLC campaigns, both of which were stretch goals when the game was funded on Kickstarter. Though the main game is enjoyable as is, both campaigns add new playable characters with different abilities and a new side of the story not seen while playing as Shantae.
The first DLC campaign, Pirate Queen’s Quest, focuses on Shantae’s longtime enemy, Risky Boots, as she searches for components to build a magic-converting machine called the Dynamo. The story is presented as Risky’s perspective on the plot, but it’s meant to be taken with a grain of salt, since some dialogue differing from Shantae’s campaign implies she isn’t telling the whole truth. While there aren’t as many character interactions, since Risky isn’t allowed in Scuttle Town for her villainous acts, the writing stays enjoyable.
While Shantae visits levels in a set order and can revisit them at any time after completing them, Risky can visit any level, bar the final level, in any order. Each level is close to how they play when Shantae revisits it, with one of the major obstacles taken out to make exploration easier. In addition, a specific upgrade is unlocked after finishing each level, so upgrades can be found in different orders. These changes allow the player to bypass the difficulty spikes of Shantae’s campaign, making the campaign a bit shorter, but giving a more fair challenge.
Risky’s play style takes elements from Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, the previous installment in the series. In Pirate’s Curse, Shantae teamed up with Risky Boots to stop the nefarious Pirate Master. Since she lost her magical abilities, Shantae used Risky’s gear, which the Pirate Master was using to lure Risky into a trap. Some of the items from Pirate’s Curse return, such as the cannon jump and pirate hat, which give the player more aerial distance, and the pistol, which can be used to hit enemies and switches from a distance. The pistol now has limited use specialty ammo, namely a spread shot and homing rocket, but they’re outclassed by almost anything else combat-wise, and since the weak-damage pistol has infinite ammo, it’s mainly useful for puzzle solving. New items also give Risky options for travel, such as the grappling hook, which allows Risky to cling to ceilings.
Further altering how Risky handles upgrades, new collectibles and items are available. Risky’s goal is to collect Genie Crystals, which will power the Dynamo, and all 15 are needed to complete the game. However, the other collectible item, Dark Magic, is used for upgrading everything from ammo capacity to health. All items and abilities can be upgraded three times, but it’s best to use Dark Magic on health or items like the grappling hook and pirate hat. It’s also a useful strategy to save Dark Magic until better items are unlocked later in the game so they aren’t wasted on less useful items like special ammo.
The second campaign, Friends to the End, focuses on three side characters- Sky, Rottytops, and Bolo- during a pivotal moment in the story where they have to save Shantae from being corrupted by Dark Magic. The trio must work together and use each of their abilities to rescue their friend from a nightmare realm. Though the three bicker during most of the story, they eventually learn not just the value of teamwork, but more interestingly, how Shantae views each of them, which unites the three by how they care for Shantae. The character interactions are once again spot-on, and the new voice actors brought on for the new protagonists give good performances.
All three characters have a different basic attack, a movement ability, and a special move that takes up energy. All characters, despite having their own energy bar, share a very small health bar that never upgrades, and by collecting gems, they receive minor buffs to their attacks, which can be taken away by just a few enemy attacks. Given this is the closest the characters have to upgrades, it doesn’t hold a candle to the other campaigns, and only serves to add to difficulty spikes, some of which become more severe in this campaign. The player can switch between the three characters at any time, with the exception of three later levels that separate the three to test their own abilities. Each character is useful in different situations, but their usefulness isn’t equal.
Sky, the de facto leader of the team, is a hatchery owner that brought Shantae across the world map while riding her pet bird, Wrench. Her birds can be used for a weak but far-range basic attack, as well as her special move, a rotating shield of birds not unlike the many shield weapons from the Mega Man series. In addition to a glide jump similar to Risky’s pirate hat, Sky can throw eggs that become temporary platforms, giving the team higher ground. However, the process of creating a platform is rather tedious, and certain enclosed areas give little room to throw eggs.
Rottytops is a zombie, and while her powerful melee attack is slow, her special move is her best attribute, as it allows her to heal at the cost of half her energy meter. Her movement ability is to throw her head and reappear wherever it lands, which sounds like a fun concept, but it’s handled somewhat poorly. While it allows Rottytops to go through damaging beams of energy unharmed, with the exception of a very late level, this ability never has any interesting challenges like bouncing off multiple objects. Her aim is finicky, and landing physics are a bit too precise for most platforming segments. Furthermore, it’s inconsistent as to when Rottytops takes damage by her head landing on spikes and bottomless pits, yet it reappears without damage when it goes too far offscreen, which raises questions for new players about what damages her head. This is somewhat disappointing, since Rottytops is one of the more fun characters of Shantae’s universe and could’ve been better designed for an entertaining experience.
Ironically, although the fledgeling warrior Bolo is described as useless and incompetent in the game’s writing, his abilities are the most useful, and the most fun to use as well. Bolo’s pike ball is a attack with balanced attack and range, and his special attack of a bouncing pike ball, while a bit situational, is very useful against bosses. The best part about Bolo is his spring grapple, which allows him to hook onto aerial rings and swing back and forth to gain momentum before letting go. This ability was one of the most fun parts of Friends to the End, and combined with his other good abilities, Bolo is the most fun character of the three. Hopefully he returns as a playable character in future installments, or at least his abilities could return as upgrades.
There’s two minor elements that turn out disappointing- the soundtrack and the collectibles. With the exception of the final level, which has a new theme, every level in Friends to the End reuses music from Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse. There’s nothing wrong with that soundtrack; in fact, Pirate’s Curse had one of the best soundtracks in the series. However, it would’ve been more interesting to hear new remixes of these level themes to give fans a surprise. As for collectibles, the trio can find Dream Squids, three of which are in each level. However, being the first kid on the block to collect all 48 Dream Squids does nothing to give the characters new abilities or change the story, which makes the Dream Squids feel like a pointless addition. For a series that usually includes various secret items and rewards, Friends to the End takes a step down in this regard.
By no means is Half Genie Hero completely perfect. There’s difficulty spikes very early on, and some of the abilities and upgrades aren’t as interesting or useful as others. However, this isn’t enough to detract from the many fantastic aspects of the game. Most of the abilities are fun to use, and most of the bosses and levels are fun to play through. The entertaining dialogue, amazing soundtrack, and vibrant visuals bring Shantae’s world to life. Though the main campaign is fun on its own, the DLC campaigns are debatably worth the purchase for those looking to continue the adventure, despite a few issues. Shantae: Half Genie Hero is somewhat flawed, but thankfully, the developers at Wayforward have kept to their standard of high quality.
Shantae: Half Genie Hero is available for PC, XBox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, and Switch for $19.99. The Pirate’s Queen Quest DLC is available for $9.99, and Friends to the End is available for $7.99. This review was made using the Nintendo Switch version.
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