Shantae: Half Genie Hero - All the Fun with Half the Fat!

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!

Mech Check, Testing, 1, 2, 3!!!

No, that's no typo (it's more of a pun on how often I come up on the Internet blog stage to talk to you all...I'm making sure the "mic" or "mech" in this instance is still working). I'm excited to be talking today to you all about another Kickstarter campaign I've stumbled across on my news feeds. It's called Project Nimbus by KISS Ltd. and it's about mechanized robots which are essentially humaniod machines controlled by human pilots (often for the purpose of warfare or competitive combat).

Project Nimbus

I've always loved the giant robot/mecha genre in both movies and games but the latter of the two is sort of lacking in terms of production.

For me, the last game that I personally owned and played with that dealt specifically with robots in a free-roaming-like environment was Custom Robo Arena (released in North America on March 19, 2007). It was a fun game but Nintendo hasn't published another installment to the franchise and to me, that's a little bit disheartening because I (and many others I'm certain) would really enjoy a new game either on the Nintendo 3DS or Wii U (preferably on both).

Nonetheless, Project Nimbus will be a "high speed mech action game set in a post apocalyptic world. Players control 'BattleFrames' - humanoid battles suits armed with an arsenal of weapons."

When they say "High Speed", they're not kidding around!!!

The game is apparently set in the late 21st century (known as the "Age of Sky"); taking place decades after a massive war broke out which decimated the entire surface of the Earth, causing it to no longer be able to sufficiently sustain human life. Thus, mankind had to take refuge in the heavens.


The world (or perhaps the skies) are divided into three different factions; each possessing its own orbital elevator that generates energy to keep the flying cities stable.

Players fly freely in the sky, dodge and intercept incoming missiles with machine guns and particle blades/beamswords, fighting colossal armies with the power to annihilate nearly anything imaginable, all while engaging with many ace BattleFrame pilots, each with their own unique, individualistic fighting styles and backstories.

The game seems to be reminiscent of Zone of the Enders (Konami, 2001) with its level of control in a three-dimensional environment. However, unlike Z.O.E, you can replay any of the cleared story missions with all of the BattleFrames you have encountered in your campaign. That means that your allies and the various enemy BattleFrames are available to pilot, from the grunts to even the ‘boss’ BattleFrames. Every ace pilot’s personal machine can be yours for the taking.

As of this post, the project will be funded on Saturday Jan 25, 10:03pm EST (it's currently raised £9,939 of its £6,000 goal). However, the development team as some pretty sweet stretch goals that it's trying to reach. (I've got a snapshot of them here for you to take a look at.)

The game is being made in Thailand (which is why GameCrafterTeam noted that the initial goal was so low. The cost of living in Phuket, Thailand (I laughed at that name.) is apparently much lower than in other locations). So their £6,000 goal converts to approximately $9801.60.

The game will be available on STEAM and may have multiplayer functionality later on (I'm REALLY banking on that feature. It seems almost a necessity for this genre). So, if you'd like to contribute, please visit the Project Nimbus Kickstarter Page.

Kickstarter Finale!!!

Hey folks!!! How're you doing? Check this out, although the Mighty No.9 and Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero Kickstarter funding periods have ended, you can STILL donate and get the rewards for doing so!!! You'll have to have a PayPal account (which is relatively simple and easy to sign up for). Mighty No. 9 has surpassed my expectations and managed to meet ALL of its stretch goals. They raised a combined total of $4,031,550!!! Mighty No.9 is expected to be released sometime around April 2015.

Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero on the other hand needs your help. Although it has managed to meet four of its nine stretch goals, the fifth one is inching towards completion.

If successful, the WayForward team would be able to allow players to go through the main story as one of three additional characters, Rottytops, Bolo, and Skye!!!

As of this blog post, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero has earned $816,529. WayForward needs another $83,471 to meet this goal. So, tell your friends and neighbors that are gamers that they can still contribute!!! The game will be available on multiple platforms (Wii U, PS3, PS4, VITA & VITA TV, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Steam (Windows PC)) and will be available sometime in October of 2014. Spread the word any way that you can!!! You can find the link to their main website (with PayPal options) here.

You Go (Genie) Girl!!!

Hey folks!!! How've you been? Busy? Yep, me too (as evident by me not posting in quite some time...sorry, everyone!!! I'll get into a routine...eventually). So, first things first, hats off to the amazing folks at WayForward. Their team has managed to get their current project, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero fully funded!!! Congratulations!!!

This image has been borrowed from Shantae: Half-Genie Hero's Kickstarter campaign. Check it out!!!

For those of you that don't know, a Kickstarter fund was set up for the pint-sized genie girl's new game in the franchise. You can continue to donate to make their stretch goals here. As of this blog post, they have 10,275 backers and $408,741 pledged of their $400,000 goal with 10 days left.

They have a really cool ninja outfit and another one that resembles that which the protagonist of Mighty Switch Force, Patricia Wagon, wears!!!

This is just one of the many stretch goals that the WayForward team is trying to reach. It's add-ons like these that bring a nice polish to a finished title. How about lending them a hand, hmm?

Shantae's current design looks adorable and although I've never had the pleasure of playing ANY of her previous titles, I DO intend to make a contribution to WayForward's efforts however small. I support WayForward particularly due to the heavy influence of Jake Kaufman's musical compositions. Some of his work is available with a "name your own price" tag on www.bandcamp.com (which I HIGHLY recommend you take a look at and contribute towards).