Shantae: Half Genie Hero Review

Since I am not a professional reviewer, I always have to wait until I finish a game to review it which can take anywhere from a week to months after the game has been released. But thankfully, due to being a games backer on Kickstarter, I was able to receive and beat a game early so that I can review it when it's still relevant! So while I'm still waiting for my amazingly shabby blog to take off, I'm going to be reviewing Shantae: The 1/2 Genie Hero!

I haven't been a fan of Shantae for a long time. I originally found Shantae: Risky's Revenge and Shantae: The Pirate's Curse on the 3DS eShop a few years ago. The games were on sale and described as Metroidvanias which I thought would scratch my Metroid itch. Though both games were relatively easy, I enjoyed the gameplay immensely. Once I found out about Half Genie Hero on Kickstarter, I immediately backed it. Then waited...and waited...until finally this past week when I got the steam code for early access.

Screenshot taken from Google Image Search (From Shantae: Risky's Revenge)

A couple things about Shantae for the uninformed before we go into this review:

1. Shantae is a half-Genie who can use your Genie powers to shape-shift into different creatures. The creatures allow you to access different areas of the game map which hide power ups as well as other shape-shifting powers.

2. The plot in the series has always been upbeat and even the bosses that you fight are all "friends." I don't think anyone ever dies. Sometimes the dialogue can be really humorous, but I find that it can usually be forgotten.

THE GOOD:

Graphics and Animation

The first time you start up Shantae: The Half Genie Hero (StHGH for short now), you're going to notice how lovingly crafted the game is. The art style is a bit different than the other, older Shantae games, but it doesn't detract from how gorgeous the game looks.. The game, on my end, ran butter smooth as well, however, I never checked what frame rate I experienced. It never dipped or stall or stuttered which is now an unexpected "nice to have" these days. (But I may have had problems with the gif converter...)

The environments are all typical tropes of most platformers like the ocean level and the desert level, but they are all drawn so well that it's a joy to experience each area. There aren't many characters in this game either, but that doesn't mean they weren't drawn with great detail. Each character, even the NPCs have different body types and faces. It makes it easy to see when new characters pop up in the main town. The colors in thus game also seem to pop out each character, giving them distinct characteristics which make them memorable throughout the game.

Gameplay

Besides Bayonetta, there are few superheroes that fight with their hair. Shantae is the only other hero I know of who does that. It's an interesting mechanic but it works. Contrary to the unique choice of weapon, the gameplay is simple and straightforward: Kill enemies, solve puzzles by turning into different creatures, and get to the end of the level. Each level has a boss that must be defeated to progress the story. Simple as that. There are magic spells you can obtain from the shop, but I'll get into that later.

Even if the gameplay is simple and not very deep, the game can be fast and exciting. When obtaining new transformations, the player really has to think about past levels and what places you couldn't reach before. You can buy upgrades in the game to help tank more hits or do more damage, too. I appreciate how WayForward really tries to find a sweet spot for all sorts of players and it does so very well.

StHGH also switches up the mechanics fairly often to keep things fresh. The game does some on-rails segments and the bosses require some interesting tactics to beat. For the short seven hour game, it sure packs in a lot of content. Which leads into...

Replay-ability 

The game isn't any longer or shorter than it should be. It does what it needs to do and does it well. Even one hundred percent-ing the game doesn't take too long. But the game begs you to replay the game at least two more times based on the player select screen. So if one does think the game is too short or wants to get more of their Shantae fix, the game obliges.

THE BAD:

User Interface for Transformations

This isn't a huge problem, but transforming takes too much time and is kinda annoying. There are twelve total dances in the game. Shantae will dance while the dance selection cycles four dances at a time. The problem is that if you're not quick enough you can select the wrong dance and transform into the incorrect creature for the task at hand. This annoyed the crap out of me when trying to backtrack through levels. It just made things tedious.

Game Design Oversight

My last and worst complaint is that the game can be broken pretty easily and pretty early on in the game. Here are a couple of examples I found when playing the game:


1. Early on, you can find a snake-girl in a pot who will allow you to obtain a dance that transforms you into a money pot that converts magic into a tiny sum of money. Magic is finite and can be depleted, but there is a bathhouse in the main town that allows Shantae to recover her magic. Transforming into the money pot while in the pool allows the player to obtain maximum money in only about twenty or so minutes. Doing this twice gives Shantae all upgrades and spells in the game before you reach the halfway point. The game isn't too hard, but this makes the game ridiculously easy...and of course I did it. I have no shame...

2. You'll eventually get a bat transformation in the game which allows Shantae to fly horizontally for however long she wishes. If you can find a high point in a level, you can bypass all platforming and enemies in the area. Once again this trivializes the game. Thankfully there is a harder difficulty setting after you beat the game to give some sort of challenge on boss battles.

Spells:

Not much to say here. Spells are a nice to have and can help you in the late game, but most of them are pretty useless. Shante's hair does just fine and spells don't really need to be used except for the one that gives invincibility.

CONCLUSION:

I don't remember what I paid for backing this game but I'm not sure if the game is a thirty dollar experience. But if you do get it on a sale for fifteen bucks I would definitely tell you to get it. You won't be disappointed.

Despite the fire, this is still one happy monkey!