Hey everyone! I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season! I'm back to drop a quick post regarding the release of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. The game came out officially on December 20, 2016 for PlayStation 4. The Wii U version will also be available on December 27, 2016.
I was fortunate to have gotten my backer code about a week earlier, so I made sure to hit it hardcore and I have to say that I truly enjoyed every moment of it, even the parts where I got slightly frustrated trying to figure out how to progress. (A platformer actually challenged me! Gasp!) Utilizing Shantae's transformations in tandem is absolutely crucial and from time to time, you may forget that she has a specialty for certain situations. (At one point in the final level, I kept trying to do a "Flappy Bird" subtle tap through a spike death trap using the harpy dance, failing spectacularly, each time I might add, for several minutes...forgetting I could've used another transformation entirely specific for that EXACT scenario saving a boatload of time...).
The music composed by Jake Kauffman is absolutely brilliant, catchy, and upbeat. I started humming the theme as I went along. There is a fair bit of backtracking throughout the levels, but the warp dance makes it far less cumbersome to explore the new areas you could not reach before and there were some really clever level design mechanics. There were plenty of comedic moments and times where I wished the game had been a wee bit longer. Overall, it's a fantastic adventure.
The only thing I could think of that I would have liked to have seen would have been Shantae doing an aerial somersault. I think that should be a move in her repertoire *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* (I wanted SO badly to do one...).
In all seriousness though, I felt that a mild in-game tutorial of sorts would've benefited newcomers to the series. (It took me about an hour or so to realize that Shantae had a menu option using the PS4's touchpad...and the game completely floored me when there were options to deselect power-ups and that there were consumable items). Also, I wish that if there was only one thing only to take away from the Mighty Number 9 project, it would have been the search-and-highlight option for backer's names. Other than that, this was an excellent game and I heartily encourage everyone to give it a try!
Review Score: 9.0/10.0 A-
Definite Buy!
Please take a moment today (and perhaps a few throughout the week, if you can manage it) to post or retweet videos, fan art, reviews...or make use of the Fan Kit available here. Anything you can do to help promote the game that WayForward has worked so hard on, would be greatly appreciated!
Review Score: 9.0/10.0 A-
Definite Buy!
Please take a moment today (and perhaps a few throughout the week, if you can manage it) to post or retweet videos, fan art, reviews...or make use of the Fan Kit available here. Anything you can do to help promote the game that WayForward has worked so hard on, would be greatly appreciated!
