Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition

I liked Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, but this one was a massive disappointment. The visuals are really good, particularly the character designs, and there's quite a bit of variety in the transformations as well, but that's about it. This was a letdown both as a platformer and as a metroidvania. Unlike a regular platformer, this game barely has any levels. It forces you to revisit every level multiple times to progress the story, and most of the levels aren't particularly good to begin with. The game is severely lacking in content, so it pads the playtime by making you replay the same stages over and over. For some reason, the mermaid level in particular is overloaded with secrets compared to the others, so you'll be returning to it almost every time you complete another level. Many of the levels have boring design and are a chore to get through. Unlike a metroidvania, there's no fun in backtracking because you have to replay an entire level just to reach a tiny new thing you couldn't access before. As a result, it feels like you're doing the same thing over and over again. On top of that, several sections instantly send you back to the beginning of the area if you touch spikes or lasers, which is extremely annoying. The story is also one of the most barebones I've ever seen. The whole thing is basically a fetch quest for random items. The music is generic but alright. I did like one vocal track quite a bit, but unfortunately it only plays during your first run through the opening level and never appears in-game again. The bosses are alright, but nothing special. The Giga Mermaid in particular has a nice design but one of the most underwhelming boss fights I've ever seen. It's extremely easy and quick, with attacks that are simple to dodge and very basic platforming. I know it's not exactly the same genre, but compared to the mermaid fight in Cuphead, it's a night and day difference. Also, for some reason, you can't replay any of the bosses. The game will happily make you replay the same boring levels countless times, but not the slightly interesting part at the end. As for the transformations, I appreciate the variety and the designs, but more than half of them are barely used while a few are used all the time. The harpy transformation is also extremely slippery and hard to control, which made a section near the end requiring precise maneuvering particularly frustrating. I tried a couple of the DLCs, but dropped them pretty quickly. As others have mentioned, most of them are very difficult (even harder than Hardcore Mode), and they once again rehash the exact same levels with only minor changes. I have no desire to play the same thing for the millionth time.

Good game. Feels like a introduction to Shantae series. Cool plataforming, doesn't have a complex level design like metroidvania games, but it has some replayability. The other modes are ok and easy going if you complete all of them. Play Shantae.

Developed and published by WayForward, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition represents one of the most successful evolutions of a long-running platforming franchise. As the first fully high-definition installment in the Shantae series, it manages to preserve the charm, humor, and exploration-focused gameplay that fans loved while introducing a more polished visual presentation and an enormous collection of additional content. The Ultimate Edition packages the complete experience together, including all major expansions, alternate character campaigns, bonus modes, and exclusive features, creating what is arguably the most content-rich version of the game available. The adventure once again follows Shantae, the energetic half-genie guardian responsible for protecting Sequin Land from a variety of bizarre threats. When a mysterious wave of criminal activity begins disrupting the peace, Shantae is drawn into another colorful journey involving pirates, monsters, magical relics, and ancient dangers. The narrative never takes itself too seriously, instead embracing the lighthearted humor that has become one of the franchise's defining characteristics. The story serves primarily as a framework for exploration and adventure, but the entertaining cast and witty dialogue ensure that the journey remains enjoyable from beginning to end. One of the game's most immediately impressive qualities is its visual transformation. Previous entries relied heavily on pixel art, but Half-Genie Hero introduces beautifully animated hand-drawn character models and vibrant HD environments. Every movement feels smooth and expressive, giving the game the appearance of an interactive animated series. Character personalities are reflected through their animations, and the colorful world design helps create a cheerful atmosphere that remains appealing throughout the entire adventure. Gameplay combines traditional platforming with light exploration mechanics. Players guide Shantae through a variety of environments filled with enemies, hazards, collectibles, and hidden secrets. Her signature hair-whip attack serves as the primary combat tool, offering satisfying and responsive offensive capabilities. The controls feel precise, making both combat and platforming enjoyable. Whether battling enemies or navigating complex environments, movement remains consistently fluid and accessible. The transformation system continues to be the centerpiece of the gameplay experience. Through magical dances, Shantae can transform into various creatures, each possessing unique abilities that open new paths and reveal previously inaccessible secrets. Monkey transformations allow players to climb walls, mermaid forms provide underwater mobility, and other forms introduce additional traversal options. These abilities gradually expand exploration opportunities and create a rewarding sense of progression as new areas become accessible. Unlike fully interconnected Metroidvania games, Half-Genie Hero uses a stage-based structure. However, exploration remains important because newly unlocked transformations encourage revisiting previous locations. Hidden items, upgrades, and collectibles are scattered throughout the world, rewarding players who return to earlier stages with new abilities. This approach successfully combines the accessibility of traditional platformers with the rewarding exploration mechanics often associated with larger adventure games. Character progression is enhanced through a variety of upgrades and magical enhancements. Players can discover relics that improve Shantae's abilities, strengthen attacks, increase mobility, or provide defensive advantages. These upgrades help make exploration feel meaningful and allow players to customize certain aspects of the gameplay experience according to their preferences. The boss encounters deserve particular praise. Each major battle introduces imaginative enemy designs and unique mechanics that test the player's mastery of recently acquired abilities. These confrontations often serve as highlights of the adventure, combining creative visual presentation with engaging gameplay. The bosses not only challenge the player but also contribute to the game's memorable personality through their distinctive designs and entertaining animations. The soundtrack is another standout feature. The music perfectly complements the game's colorful aesthetic and adventurous tone, delivering energetic themes that remain memorable long after the adventure concludes. Every area benefits from strong musical accompaniment, helping reinforce the atmosphere and making exploration even more enjoyable. Combined with excellent sound effects and voice performances, the audio presentation contributes significantly to the overall quality of the experience. What truly separates the Ultimate Edition from the standard release is the extraordinary amount of additional content included. Players gain access to multiple alternate campaigns featuring different characters and gameplay styles. Risky Boots, Sky, Bolo, Rottytops, Ninja Shantae, Beach Shantae, and Officer Shantae all offer unique perspectives and abilities. These additional modes substantially increase replay value and allow players to experience familiar environments in entirely different ways. However, the game's structure is not without weaknesses. One of the most common criticisms involves the amount of backtracking required during progression. While revisiting earlier stages encourages exploration, some players may find the repeated trips through familiar environments somewhat excessive. Certain objectives require multiple returns to the same locations, which can occasionally interrupt the pacing of the adventure. The additional campaigns, while generous in quantity, also reveal some limitations. Many of them reuse existing levels and environments rather than introducing entirely new locations. The alternate characters and abilities help maintain variety, but players expecting completely original campaigns may notice the repeated content. Fortunately, the distinct playstyles of the different characters help prevent the bonus modes from feeling entirely repetitive. Difficulty is generally well-balanced, though occasional spikes can catch players off guard. Some platforming sequences demand greater precision than the rest of the game, while certain boss encounters require careful pattern recognition. Thankfully, the forgiving checkpoint system minimizes frustration and keeps the overall experience accessible. Another strength worth highlighting is the game's personality. Every aspect of Half-Genie Hero feels crafted with enthusiasm and affection. The writing is charming, the characters are memorable, and the world is filled with playful details that make exploration enjoyable even during quieter moments. The game consistently succeeds at creating a sense of fun that helps distinguish it from many other platformers. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition stands as one of WayForward's finest achievements and one of the strongest entries in the franchise. Its gorgeous HD visuals, enjoyable transformation mechanics, memorable soundtrack, entertaining cast, and impressive amount of included content create a platforming adventure that remains consistently fun throughout. While backtracking and reused environments occasionally hold it back from true perfection, the game's charm, creativity, and polished design make it an easy recommendation for fans of action-platformers and exploration-driven adventures. Rating: 8/10

Mediocre platformer, just like the rest of the franchise. The only thing that sustains it is the eye catching character designs (and the way Shantae wiggles her butt while crouching). The rest? Bad stage design, terrible humor (the franchise has never been funny no matter how they try) and barely there character personalities. The best thing I can say? They at least made the final dungeon in this one not as trash and punishing as the one in Pirate's Curse. But then the very final section after all the bosses exists. It's horrible. Will the DLC save it? I'll find out, but I don't have high hopes. Edit 1; I'd like to thank the DLCs for etching into my brain the fact that stage 3-2, the Tassel Town tower, is the worst thing in the entire game. The very fact that they have Wilbur chasing you in every single one is proof that there is no such thing as a loving God. Edit 2; Officer Mode: In full spite of 3-2, officer mode is actually fun. It's a shame it's stuck in this game, but it makes the best of a poor setting. If this were the main game, I wouldn't complain (much). Jammies Mode: 3-2 is a massive wall. If you've played it, you know exactly where the absolute horrible level design makes it a rage quitting moment. Beach Mode: As somebody who has dealt with it, I can attest; the sunscreen gimmick is actual, literal cancer. Of the anus.

This is a recommend with a few cautions, I was actually seriously bouncing between giving this a positive or negative review. Being a Shantae game it's still a good game and one of the better platformer/metroidvanias, but I personally feel this is the weakest Shantae game (I haven't played Seven Sirens yet, so that opinion could change.) There's a ton of stuff in this game that I just did not enjoy, so I'll start off with the negatives. - Tassel Town. ALL of Tassel Town sucked. I hated this level so much! The tower with the worm chase, horrible - This was a "pixel perfect" chase up a tower where even the smallest mistake would mean that the worm caught you. You have to be fast, and you have to make sure you go the proper route. I admit, I'm really not one who enjoy's "time attack" style games, so this really just stressed me out so much and annoyed the ever-loving hell out of me... The platforming segment afterward, horrible - So easy to fall in this segment with the constantly shifting platforms, especially with everything on screen, from the eagles, to the harpies and their barrage of arrows, everything is designed to make you fall... A lot. The final boss of the map, horrible - One of the most insanely obnoxiously designed twitch-reflex bosses I've ever had the displeasure. You have to, again, be pixel-perfect with his eye attack. If you're playing on, say, a steam link or something, don't expect to beat this guy without a handful of potions. Only positive is it does get more tolerable after you revisit it upon beating the boss thanks to no more tower chases as well as later transformations that allow you to cheese all the obnoxious stuff. - The sliding segments with the barrels. So frustrating... One of these is more than enough, so two in the game is complete torture. - The [spoiler]harpy[/spoiler] segment in Risky's dungeon. Flappy Bird from hell. One of the most frustrating stages ever created. I thought the final tower in Pirate's Curse tested my patience, but at least that felt fair even when you messed up multiple times. This does not feel fair. - The final boss of the whole game was disappointing as all. Nothing really fun or standout about it. It just wasn't fun or satisfying. The [spoiler]Risky[/spoiler] fight should have been the finale. - It's not as free-form or open as previous Shantae games. So instead of exploring a seamless, connected world, you go to different stages and pretty much just "run right". You can't even go back to a previous area in the current world by going back through the transition, you have to either exit and reenter the level or use the Warp Dance. So with all those negatives, how the heck is this still a recommend? In my honest opinion, it is still worth it because + It's a Shantae game, so it still oozes charm, has insanely cute characters, beautiful environments, and a fun, lighthearted story. + All the levels I did not mention in the negatives are still extremely fun and very well-made + The soundtrack is incredible!! It's probably my favorite in the Shantae franchise so far. I especially love the song for the factory segment of the mermaid level, and I love this rendition of the town's music. + The exploration is still fun and rewarding, it's still cool to go back and grab something you saw but didn't have the right transformation for + All the transformations are really well designed and cute, even if some of them feel useless after getting another. + It's just the right length, not overstaying its welcome + You don't have to worry about getting lost. While it doesn't exactly hold your hand, the townspeople give you enough "rumors" to help point you in the right direction if you need (although you can absolutely go and find the items to progress the story yourself without their help) and if you still have a little trouble after talking to them, the bathhouse lady can offer extra hints. So while I personally found a lot of issues with this game, at the end of the day I still enjoyed my time with it. Just know that it can absolutely get frustrating or feel badly designed, and while this is heavily opinionated, I do feel it's weaker compared to the others. That said, it's still worth a play, especially if you like Shantae. I'd also say wait for a sale for this one.

It's gets really boring escpecially towards the end

lo recomiendo si es tu primer shantae eso si compra esta y no la otra no seas como yo que al final termine comprando las dos versiones del mismo juego xd

they did it. THEY FINALLY DID IT. IM PLAYABLE!!!!!!!! i can finally send that no good purple haired menace to davy jones locker WERE SHE BELONGS HOOOOOHOHOHOHOHO. this review was written by risky boots

I'm writing this as I am finishing up the more annoying achievements in the game (like getting all win screens from the extra modes) Ok so, HGH, I'd consider it the black sheep of the series, it's still great fun as a standalone game, but if you're more familiar with the other Shantae games, that's where I think this game does a few things worse than Risky's Revenge or Pirate's Curse, and if you are planning on doing the extra modes (like I am), you'll probably start noticing a few issues. First, I wanna start with the positives: - Artstyle works great, if you like a cheerful and colorful world, you'll definitely enjoy it - The cast is fun - Music, like usual, is phenomenal work, I'd say it's somewhat on par with Pirate's Curse - Gameplay for normal Shantae, Risky, Ninja Shantae are pretty fun, Risky plays somewhat the same as Shantae in Pirate's Curse (minus the dash and down thrust) and Shantae's transformations are fun to mess around with - Levels are for the most part, well made, they reward exploring with the transformations you find across them - Bosses are decent - It's speedrunner-friendly and the game motivates you to play fast like with other Metroidvanias - Decent challenge, though it can get pretty easy in the main campaign (Hard Core mode does offer a better challenge, and imo a better way to play if you enjoy harder experiences) For mixed points: - This game leans into a linear stage level design (sort of like Mega Man X4-X6), meaning that the levels aren't connected like in a regular metroidvania, not even Pirate's Curse where they had the islands separate, this can lead to moments where you either have to use the warp dance or use the whistle to replay the level if you missed something or just gotten a new item, and it can get really annoying at first playthrough. -- During so many moments I felt like the level structure could've worked better had it functioned like a regular Metroidvania, especially with how much you backtrack and use the transformations - The regular jump is kinda hard to get used to at first especially when last game it felt just right Now for the negatives: - Plot feels pretty disconnected, the execution makes things pretty awkward, things just happen to keep the plot going - Final boss sucks, it's piss easy and pretty underwhelming - Some transformations feel a bit redundant once you get another one later on (like Spider and Crab), I think some of them could've been condensed to other forms (like Harpy and Mermaid) - The extra modes (Friends to the End, Ninja, Officer, Beach and Jammies) while a fun novelty casually, aren't as fun to go through because they follow essentially the same flow, just with a different gimmick, you go through the same stages, with a gem-dependent level system dictating your attack, speed and specials, and you lose a level if you get hit enough times, while it's not egregious to the point of rage-quitting, it is extremely annoying also since you don't get access to heath upgrades, defense, items or different magic (like with Risky's campaign), and for each of these, you can collect 3 dream squids in the stage for completion, which do nothing at all. Because of this shared structure, it gets really repetitive. for the extra modes themselves, I'll do some mini-reviews -- Pirate Queen's Quest has you play as Risky, and like I said, she plays similarly to how Shantae did in Pirate's Curse, she's pretty fun to play as and the farther you go you get permanent upgrades which does have you go through the same levels again but the backtracking isn't as bad as with the main game, her ammo switching is fun. 8/10 -- Friends to the End has you play as Bolo, Rottytops and Sky, and you switch between them to get through the levels, but it gets really clunky once it requires you to switch between characters abilities (needing to use Sky's wrench platform, then switch to rottytops to land on the platform then switch to bolo to grab onto rings), it just doesn't feel good to switch constantly. 6/10 -- Ninja Mode while fun, suffers the same issues as the other modes thanks to the shared structure, faster movement, wall jumping and teleporting are cool, but the gem levels are a hit or miss. 7/10 -- Officer mode is a bit slower since you can't crawl or swim or use magic, it's based on Mighty Switch Force, and while I haven't played those games, this mode offers the most overhaul in the levels, and for that reason I'd say this one feels the most polished especially since the levels already sort of work in favor of the block switching mechanic, at first I didn't like it that much, but it works better than the other modes. 8/10 -- Jammies is basically an easy mode for the game, just more linear and no transformations. 6/10 -- Beach mode especially was awful to go through because you're constantly worrying over the sun meter which drains your health when full, and with some enemies going all over the place and you needing to rush through levels (especially second to last boss), it's just bad. 2/10 I would say this is the biggest game so far, for that reason I would say it is a decent start to the series IF you don't mind going to metroidvanias later on, but man you're gonna need a break after this if you go for true 100% completion

Fix the game!