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		<title>Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4) Review</title>
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					<description><![CDATA[<p>Guest article by Wing See Li. Another Day, Another Pirate Infestation Figure 1: The title screen is accompanied with its theme and the theme song, “Dance Through The Danger”. There’s nothing like a pirate attack to start the day. That’s a day in the life for the belly-dancing, hair-whipping half-genie, half-human Shantae. One night, Shantae [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.tomb-of-ash.com/shantae-half-genie-hero-ps4-review/">Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4) Review</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.tomb-of-ash.com">Tomb of Ash</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote>
<p>Guest article by Wing See Li.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Another Day, Another Pirate Infestation</h2>
<figure class="tmblr-full"><img decoding="async" src="http://68.media.tumblr.com/06a9c7652e6cc16bdba990af16951d4b/tumblr_inline_oko1kaD1aB1rwngbp_540.jpg" alt="image" /></figure>
<p><i>Figure<br />
1: The title screen is accompanied with its theme and the<br />
theme song, “Dance Through The Danger”. </i></p>
<p>There’s nothing like a pirate attack to start the day.<br />
That’s a day in the life for the belly-dancing, hair-whipping half-genie,<br />
half-human Shantae.</p>
<p>One night, Shantae suddenly wakes up from her deep sleep<br />
by a peculiar, blinding bright light shining through the bedroom window of her<br />
lighthouse. Curious to know where it’s originated from, she climbs out of the<br />
comfort of her bed and exits her home. After running along the long wooden<br />
bridge to her uncle’s home, she discovers Uncle Mimic snoring even as he sits<br />
in an upright position and the same blinding light emitting from an open<br />
trapdoor. She then jumped down, entering a subterranean cavern. While running<br />
through the cavern whilst avoiding the bats that were attempting to assault<br />
her, an odd voice lures her through it until she finally arrives at the source<br />
of the light and the voice. Demanding the voice to reveal itself, it<br />
materialises in a form of a white floating sparkle hovering above the<br />
mysterious, crystal clear water and it reveal itself as the messenger from the<br />
fabled Genie Realm. Before she manages to receive answers from it about her<br />
mum, the genies, the Genie Realm and her origins, everything is abruptly<br />
enveloped in a white colour, transporting Shantae to the real world. She<br />
suddenly sits upright in her bed, taking in everything that happened in her<br />
dream. Is there more to the dream than meets the eye or is it a vision<br />
foreshadowing the events that are yet to come?</p>
<p><!-- more --></p>
<p>The storyline itself isn’t substantial as per se, <i>Shantae<br />
and the Pirate’s Curse</i>, but the gripping, suspenseful, dire and<br />
bone-chilling moments, plot twists, in-game jokes, innuendos, adult undertones<br />
and the outlandish, hilariously humorous script and dialogue make up for the<br />
lack of a deep plot as the story develop. To sum it all up, the game didn’t take<br />
itself too seriously. However, the fourth wall-breaking humour and the game<br />
taking the mickey out of itself, memes, pop culture references and the internet<br />
got in the way of the burning desire to know more about the lore of Shantae’s<br />
mum and dad, the genies and the Genie Realm. The aforesaid story is episodic<br />
where each level (and character) is comprised of their own mini or sub-plots.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to tell whether <i>Shantae: Half-Genie Hero</i><br />
serves as the fourth instalment of the Shantae series or it’s a reboot/soft<br />
reboot. It’s probably both seeing as it’s not a relaunch, a remaster or a<br />
remake. It’s released for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii U, Xbox One, Steam etc,<br />
on both physical and digital versions. Unfortunately, the Risky Beats Edition<br />
is only released in America, which leads to my next nitpick that will be<br />
explained in the review later. Strange enough, this game comes out on the<br />
PlayStation Vita instead of the Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS this time.<br />
Later on after the initial release, a Risky Beats edition launched for these<br />
consoles, which comes with a physical CD soundtrack.  </p>
<figure class="tmblr-full"><img decoding="async" src="http://68.media.tumblr.com/588c904bb23ac9ff4d922e25ea116211/tumblr_inline_oko2qsmghn1rwngbp_540.jpg" alt="image" /></figure>
<p><i>Figure<br />
2: Just like the previous installments, this game does what it<br />
does best: break the fourth wall.</i></p>
<p>Unlike the previous Shantae video games, <i>Shantae:<br />
Half-Genie Hero</i> is the first Shantae game to be crowd-funded. According to<br />
its Kickstarter campaign webpage, $776,084 is pledged to the game and have far<br />
exceeded the $400,000 goal thanks to 18,558 backers. Sadly, only $800k is<br />
reached, in terms of the stretch goals. </p>
<figure class="tmblr-full"><img decoding="async" src="http://68.media.tumblr.com/04c304e878c1ea74080f0c86369a03b4/tumblr_inline_oko2r6PGQz1rwngbp_540.jpg" alt="image" /></figure>
<p><i>Figure<br />
3: Risky Boots, the bodacious buccaneer, returns as the main<br />
antagonist of the Shantae series. </i></p>
<figure class="tmblr-full"><img decoding="async" src="http://68.media.tumblr.com/75a1e6f1b67e39a37f5e9a2e11273775/tumblr_inline_oko2rh2ubH1rwngbp_540.jpg" alt="image" /></figure>
<p><i>Figure<br />
4: Sky and Wrench (the large bird) acts as the transportation<br />
for Shantae. </i></p>
<p>Sequin Land is divided into seven islands or rather…<br />
levels which are known as Scuttle Town Square, Scuttle Town Main Street,<br />
Mermaid Falls, Tassle Town, Cape Crustacean, Hypno Baron’s Castle and last but<br />
not least, Risky’s Hideout. In this game, Wrench (Sky’s massive bird) acts as<br />
an aerial transportation for Shantae and a means for travelling from one island<br />
to another.</p>
<p>Before starting the first level, Scuttle Town Main Street,<br />
Sky hands Shantae a whistle to summon Wrench whenever she needs to. The fact<br />
that the whistle can be used whenever and wherever you want (even in areas for<br />
instance, the Tinkerbat Factory) surpasses the Pirate Flare from <i>Shantae and<br />
the Pirate’s Curse</i> since the aforesaid Pirate Flare can only be utilised<br />
outdoors and it’s not allowed to be used in the dungeons.</p>
<figure class="tmblr-full"><img decoding="async" src="http://68.media.tumblr.com/c1a403e11d93ff6eb72071babd9dc803/tumblr_inline_oko2s0MLzx1rwngbp_540.jpg" alt="image" /></figure>
<p><i>Figure<br />
5: Pressing the Touchpad brings up the Subscreen (as mentioned<br />
by Sky and the other non-playable characters).</i></p>
<p>The gameplay at its core plays like a traditional<br />
old-school platformer: a 2D side-scrolling platformer with precision in terms<br />
of platforming and it’s jam packed with secret collectibles that are hidden<br />
from view, which encourages the player to search for them in every nook and<br />
cranny at your own pace. Hopping from one platform to another without grabbing<br />
on to platform ledges requires accuracy, concentration, eye-coordination and<br />
timing. Failure to do so will result in you falling to your death and you<br />
losing a tiny fragment of one of your hearts, which resembles your health.</p>
<p>Occasionally, the gameplay change depends on where you are<br />
in Sequin Land. The ever-changing gameplay can range from a 2D side-scrolling<br />
shooter before arriving at the Tinkerbat Factory to sliding down the diagonal<br />
slides outside of the factory in Mermaid Falls and escaping Risky’s Hideout.</p>
<p>Here are the game controls:  </p>
<p>·        <br />
Touchpad – Subscreen/Pause Screen</p>
<p>·        <br />
Left control stick – Move, choose options or<br />
decide on a transformation dance from any set included in the dance menu</p>
<p>·        <br />
D-Pad – Move, pick options or select a<br />
transformation dance from any set included in the dance menu</p>
<p>·        <br />
Right control stick – Unused</p>
<p>·        <br />
Square button – Elephant Dash/Charge</p>
<p>·        <br />
X button and Down – Elephant Stomp</p>
<p>·        <br />
X button – jump, press the X button twice to<br />
double jump in the spider form to stick to underneath the platforms using her<br />
spider web, confirm options or fly in the harpy form</p>
<p>·        <br />
Circle button/R2 – Use weapon/magic/item or<br />
transformation capability and cancel option</p>
<p>·        <br />
L1 or R2 – Cycle through weapons/magic/items</p>
<p>·        <br />
L2 &#8211; Backdash</p>
<p>·        <br />
Square button – Hairwhip, use transformation<br />
ability or speak to non-playable characters</p>
<p>·        <br />
Down D-Pad/direction – Crouch</p>
<p>·        <br />
Down D-Pad and Control stick – Crawl </p>
<p>·        <br />
Options button – Unused</p>
<p>·        <br />
Share button – Upload video, video clip or<br />
screenshot</p>
<p>·        <br />
PlayStation Logo button – Return to home screen</p>
<p>·        <br />
Triangle button – Cycle through transformation<br />
modes or cancel transformation</p>
<p>Aside from Shantae’s monster whipper (her signature<br />
attack), her attacks are utilising magic that are named as Fireball, Triple<br />
Fireball and Flamethrower and weapons which are known as Scimitar (a pirate<br />
sword that first appeared in <i>Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse</i>), Pike Ball,<br />
Super Pike Ball, Storm Puff, Mega Puff and Super Mega Puff. Not to mention, her<br />
dancing in order to transform into an array of animals ranging from a monkey to<br />
a harpy, each with their own abilities, skills, strengths and weaknesses. In<br />
addition to her possessing a large number of animal dance transformations which<br />
she’ll take full advantage of at her disposal, there are other novelty dance<br />
transformations such as the Blobfish Dance, Gemjug Dance, Dryad Dance, Revive<br />
Dance, Super Revive Dance, Obliterate and Warp Dance, some are more useful than<br />
others. The Blobfish Dance, Gemjug Dance, Dryad Dance, Revive Dance, Super<br />
Revive Dance, Obliterate and Warp Dance are available to buy from a female<br />
snake merchant called Tuki who hides in a little purple pot or container.</p>
<p>Speaking of items, if you explore and uncover enough as<br />
the game progresses and the story unfolds, you’ll eventually come across the<br />
game-breaking collectibles such as the Magical Tiara and the Invincibility<br />
bubble. With those combined, practically no one and nothing will touch you (not<br />
even lasers) with the exception of bottomless pits, deadly lava and one-hit<br />
kill spikes and these aforementioned items will render the game to an easy<br />
difficulty.</p>
<p>During the adventure you stumble across relics such as<br />
Shampoo, Super Shampoo, Mega Shampoo, Silky Cream, Super Silky Cream, Mega<br />
Silky Cream, Red Stone, Green Stone, Magic Bracelet, Bikini Armour, Metronome,<br />
Attract, Super Attract, Max Attract, Backdash, Monkey Bullet, Elephant Stomp,<br />
Crab Claw, Mouse Bite, Harpy Talon, Bat Sonar, Waterfall Relic, Spider Venom,<br />
Mermaid Bubble and so on which can either upgrade your hair and moveset, boost<br />
your defence or help you to advance. Thankfully, you can toggle on and off<br />
these relics at your own free will if you presume the game is deprived of a<br />
sense of challenge.</p>
<p>Besides the relics, you also come upon the whistle, Mega<br />
Potion, Roast, Orange, Gator Steak and Monster Egg which make up your<br />
inventory. Nearly all of these items are used to replenish your health and your<br />
adversaries drop them if you char them to a crisp or make use of a different<br />
attack. The quantity of these items you can carry with you is nine at maximum.<br />
If I’m short on oranges, I’m inclined to transform into Dryad form to harvest<br />
them without having to repetitively revisit Mermaid Falls to ride down the<br />
slide.</p>
<p>Along the way you happen upon Heart Holders you can<br />
uncover from treasure chests located in the secret areas, through the portals<br />
and a female, tall, but blonde, non-playable character you encounter in Scuttle<br />
Town Main Square who you have to take on a fetch quest for. Every time you<br />
obtain a Heart Holder, your health will increase by one heart. Think of these<br />
as Heart Containers from <i>The Legend of Zelda</i> series. If you want a real<br />
challenge, refrain yourself from collecting them.</p>
<p>On the subject of dance transformations, these can be<br />
acquired after defeating a boss, uncovering them in hidden locations via<br />
portals or searching for them in secret areas. Sometimes, animal abilities are<br />
found in these locations and just like the transformations, they are locked in<br />
treasure chests. Every animal have only one ability and these skills will help<br />
Shantae enter areas she couldn’t gain access to previously because she didn’t<br />
have the right transformation.  </p>
<p>Another shortcoming this game had is there are certain<br />
transformation dances that I don’t use frequently. WayForward should’ve gone<br />
for the “less is more” approach given that the Crab Dance, Spider Dance, Mouse<br />
Dance, Bat Dance, Blobfish Dance, Gemjug Dance and Dryad Dance are redundant.<br />
They are either pointless, useless, I almost never bring them into play, a<br />
complete waste of my time or they’re cluttering up my dance menu. I appreciate<br />
the game developing company for introducing new things or being a tad bit<br />
ambitious but I just wish it didn’t bother, otherwise these aforementioned new<br />
aptitudes end up unused.   </p>
<p>If you’re not exploring, most of the time you’re fighting.<br />
The combat is simple and not complicated for novices and veterans alike, in<br />
addition to tight and responsive controls. If you mess up, it’s not the game’s<br />
fault but it’s rather your fault.</p>
<p>Although, this is not the case when the game throws a few<br />
curve balls at me, in terms of the difficulty. There are times when the<br />
difficulty catches me off guard and bite me in the rear like for example, when<br />
I’m scaling up the Tassle Tower while running for my life from the<br />
screen-filling, memory-consuming worm, Wilbur. I ran like my life depended on<br />
it! Good gravy… who knows how many times I kept dying which results in me<br />
resorting to using profanity. Luckily for me, there are no lives to lose.</p>
<p>Animation and presentation wise, for the first time<br />
Shantae, her friends, her enemies and the other non-playable characters are in<br />
HD, hand-drawn art. It took me a while to get used to the new art style since<br />
I’m used to seeing them in pixels which WayForward is known for but the new art<br />
style instantly grew on me. The animation is fluid, streamlined and smooth and<br />
how well detailed the animations and the artwork were such as the way Shantae<br />
swayed her body and arms on the spot in rhythm to the music if she’s left idle<br />
for a while to her feeling exhausted when she’s low on health. It’s the<br />
littlest of things such as this makes me appreciate the animation more. It felt<br />
like watching a Flash animation, a Saturday morning cartoon or an anime. The<br />
old style marries with the modern style incredibly well as both the 2D<br />
background and 3D foreground blends beautifully with each other. But if I have<br />
to be honest with myself, I actually miss the pixelated art style.</p>
<p>In light of character development, it’s somewhat lacking<br />
on account of how some of the characters are portrayed. For instance, Risky<br />
Boots is depicted as a stereotypical villain who is heartless, ruthless and<br />
selfish as well as completely void of any emotions, remorse and regret and she<br />
doesn’t care who she hurts as long as she gets what she wants, even if it means<br />
causing mass destruction and ruining people’s lives in the process. Not to<br />
mention, she didn’t acknowledge the events that ensued in <i>Shantae and the<br />
Pirate’s Curse</i>. It’s like as if she isn’t human. In the third Shantae game,<br />
at first she’s unwilling to cooperate with Shantae but as you progress through<br />
the game, she begins to open herself up to the former half-genie and enlightens<br />
her with her account of her past and spoilers alert! She, Twitch and Vinegar<br />
assists Shantae in dealing out the final blows to the Pirate Master during the<br />
final showdown.</p>
<p>One of the minor issues I’ve come across is while I’m<br />
playing the game, the framerate takes a dive or it stutters sometimes.<br />
Normally, it’s not noticeable because I’m so immersed in the game but it<br />
occasionally dips whenever lots of things are going on at the same time, all on<br />
one screen. Take the side-scrolling shooting section prior to infiltrating the<br />
Tinkerbat Factory for instance, while I’m repeatedly launching my Mermaid<br />
bubbles at the underwater enemies, sending them to their graves, shooting at<br />
the breakable blocks which are obstructing my pathway and temporarily<br />
recruiting more starfish creatures to my “swim team”, wave after wave of foes<br />
kept entering my line of vision and this is when things start to become<br />
frantically crazy. As a result, the framerate decreases as the game couldn’t<br />
take any more.</p>
<p>But in between levels, you’re constantly backtracking<br />
which is to be expected in a Shantae or a platforming game and you’re embarking<br />
on countless fetch quests more than you can shake your belly and bum at.<br />
They’re mandatory since you need these items to progress. For example, you come<br />
across Twitch and Vinegar (the two girls who work for the Ammo Baron and first<br />
appeared in <i>Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse</i>) at Scuttle Town Square and<br />
they ask you to revisit the factory in Mermaid Falls to reduce the gators to<br />
smouldering ashes before you give the gator steaks to them. In return, they<br />
hand you a red-coloured race ticket. It’s kind of like doing a chore unless you<br />
don’t mind retracing your steps to the same levels over and over. It’s tricky<br />
to estimate the amount of fetch quests you have to undertake but the total<br />
might be roughly the same as the total of fetch quests there are in <i>Jak 2:<br />
Renegade</i> and <i>Jak 3</i>.</p>
<p>Throughout the game, I’ve noticed this game ditches the<br />
dungeons to make way for a linear structure that I find jarring. Thereby,<br />
eliminating the Metroidvania genre this game is supposed to be attached to. In<br />
nearly every level, you’re going from point A to point B that I’ve seen a lot<br />
in modern, bog-standard Mario games. To be honest, it can get very old quickly<br />
and this is coming from a person who hates change with a burning passion. At<br />
least, Scuttle Town Square serves as the main hub area. At the end of each<br />
level there is a boss, which put your platforming and manoeuvring skills to the<br />
test in contrast to the repetitive modern Mario games. Each boss have their own<br />
weaknesses and weak spots and every battle can be just like puzzles as you<br />
figure out how to inflict damage to them.</p>
<p>Similar to the past instalments of the series, Scuttle<br />
Town function as the main hub place which contains Uncle Mimic’s workshop,<br />
Sky’s Hatchery, a shop, a Bath House, the Art Gallery etc along with the<br />
green-hued save guy who this time around doesn’t have his own room or building.<br />
Instead, he is spotted at the far left side of the town near the workshop. The<br />
workshop is where Mimic lives and work on his groundbreaking inventions and<br />
technological devices, Sky’s Hatchery is where Shantae can hitch a ride on<br />
Sky’s bird, Wrench, to distant locales, the shop is where the half-genie<br />
protagonist can purchase important essentials for her escapade, a Bath House is<br />
where she can relax to recover her health and ask the bath house lady for hints<br />
and advice, an Art Gallery is where the main heroine can observe a lot of the<br />
artwork and concept art that goes into creating the game as well as fanart from<br />
the loyal fanbase and the backers of the aforementioned game’s Kickstarter<br />
campaign. Conversely, some of the fanart aren’t professionally done and are up<br />
to an amateur standard at best but most of them are the cream of the crop. In<br />
my opinion, the art gallery reminds me of the Insomniac Museum from the <i>Ratchet<br />
&amp; Clank</i> series.  </p>
<p>The other differences I’ve spotted are there are slide<br />
segments that kind of remind me of the slides from <i>Super Mario 64</i> (sans<br />
the enemies, hazards and obstacles), the options menu is bare-bones in terms of<br />
how much content there are to toggle with and the save system is different. The<br />
save guy who seems to be fatter than usual tends to appear whenever I enter a<br />
new level, after I finish the level, before I confront a boss and after I emerged<br />
victorious from a boss fight. Basically, I’ve been prompted every five minutes<br />
if I want to save my progress or not which can get annoying and bothersome.<br />
It’s like as if the aforesaid save guy is holding my hand. I prefer the old<br />
save system from <i>Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse</i> and <i>Shantae: Risky’s<br />
Revenge</i> where I can find him in the numerous save rooms in Scuttle Town,<br />
the levels and the dungeons. In this day and age, I still find it strange none<br />
of the Shantae games feature an auto-save system.</p>
<p>Aside from the savepoints are checkpoints that are<br />
littered all over the place in each level in random spots. You’ll know if a<br />
spot is a checkpoint if you accidentally freefall into bottomless pits or if<br />
you touched one hit-kill spikes and you’ll instantly respawn at the previous<br />
checkpoint you went past.    </p>
<p>Another nitpick I’d point out is the lack of a map.<br />
Without a map, there is little to no direction of where to go or what to do<br />
next. When I’m not exploring the levels, the majority of the time I find myself<br />
wondering what to do and figuring out where to travel to next which caused me<br />
to read the guides on the GameFAQs website, which is something I normally<br />
wouldn’t do when I’m playing a Shantae game or a platformer. If you end up<br />
reading a guide, then there’s something wrong.</p>
<p>On the subject of the map, whenever you’re at the level<br />
selection screen, said map shows which collectibles and animal transformation<br />
abilities are in your possession or what you’re missing underneath the name of<br />
the chosen area. This is extremely helpful for backtracking to previous levels,<br />
fetch quests and completing the game 100%.</p>
<p>It’s hard to believe this video game originated from the<br />
Kickstarter website and how far WayForward have come, from the cartoon tie-in<br />
games such as <i>American Dragon: Jake Long – Rise of the Huntsclan</i> which<br />
is released on Game Boy Advance and <i>American Dragon: Jake Long – Attack of<br />
the Dark Dragon</i> which have come out on Nintendo DS to recent video games<br />
such as <i>Ducktales Remastered</i> and <i>Shantae: Half-Genie Hero</i>, to<br />
name a few. This is definitely a Kickstarter game done right. The game may be<br />
successfully funded but it’s a shame not all of the stretch goals were<br />
met.  </p>
<p>Just like the <i>Ratchet &amp; Clank (2016)</i> and <i>Ratchet<br />
&amp; Clank Movie</i> soundtracks, I have mixed feelings with the <i>Shantae:<br />
Half-Genie Hero</i> soundtrack. Once again, Jake Kaufman reprises his role as<br />
the composer and he really knocked it out of the park! With a soundtrack like<br />
this, he could do no wrong! This time around he gives the aforementioned soundtrack<br />
a modernized touch in terms of the heart-pounding bass of the beats and how the<br />
music sounds overall which keeps me pumped up and motivated to complete the<br />
levels or handing the bosses humiliating defeats. Don’t get me wrong, I love<br />
listening to the soundtrack but most of it is unmemorable, the majority of the<br />
music tracks are nothing to write home about and it falls short compared to the<br />
previous Shantae soundtracks such as <i>Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse</i> and <i>Shantae:<br />
Risky’s Revenge</i> to be honest. At the end of the day, will you remember the<br />
soundtrack of <i>Shantae: Half-Genie Hero</i> in many years to come? Will you<br />
be able to hum all or most of the music tracks? In my opinion, I feel this is<br />
the game’s lowest point. The reason why I feel this is the weakest soundtrack<br />
is most likely Jake have set the bar so high. But that doesn’t mean I don’t<br />
have favourite music tracks. Some of my favourites from said soundtrack are, “<i>Dance<br />
Through The Danger</i>”, “<i>A Mysterious Fountain</i>”, “<i>Scuttle Town</i>”,<br />
“<i>Neo Burning Town</i>”, “<i>Mermaid Falls</i>”, “<i>Tassle Town</i>”, “<i>The<br />
Sky Bridge</i>”, “<i>Cape Crustacean</i>” and “<i>Tinkerbat Factory</i>” in no<br />
particular order. On the other hand, I still reckon some or most of the music<br />
tracks don’t match well with their respective locations. Take the “<i>Tassle<br />
Town</i>” music for example, it doesn’t complement well with Tassle Town itself<br />
due to the jazziness and funkiness of the music, which are music I normally<br />
don’t associate with video game desert locales.</p>
<p>Once again, Cristina Vee made a comeback to provide her voice<br />
for Shantae and Risky Boots for the fourth time. Originally, the game would<br />
have full English voice acting but alas, it isn’t meant to be when the stretch<br />
goal isn’t reached. In spite of this, the game containing some voice work is<br />
better than nothing.</p>
<p>I can’t stress this enough (constantly in my mind) but the<br />
<i>Shantae</i> series have many things such as a colourful cast of characters<br />
and personalities, exciting, exotic locales and rich environments to explore<br />
which are exploding with various cultures and well-written, laugh-out-loud<br />
dialogues and scripts that the modern <i>Paper Mario</i> games (<i>Paper Mario:<br />
Sticker Star</i> and <i>Paper Mario: Colour Splash</i>) clearly lacked these<br />
days. Therefore, I jumped ship. In other words, for the first time ever I<br />
bought a PlayStation console first before any other video game console. In the<br />
past, naturally I buy a Nintendo console first before any other video game<br />
console. As sad as it is to say, Nintendo isn’t “wowing” me last year due to<br />
the lack of variety when it comes to 2D and 3D platforming games. It’s all well<br />
and good to play as Mario or Kirby but what I really want is to play as other<br />
platforming mascots. The <i>Shantae</i> series might as well replace the <i>Paper<br />
Mario</i> series the way things are going.</p>
<p>Similar to the previous three Shantae games, there are<br />
good and bad endings. Your actions determine which kind of ending you’ll<br />
unlock. If you strived for 100% completion, you’re most likely obtain the good<br />
ending. For example, spoilers alert! If you go out of your way to embark on fetch<br />
quests for the previous bosses (Techno Baron, Ammo Baron, Squid Baron and Hypno<br />
Baron) you engaged in battle, they’ll each hand over a piece of Risky’s<br />
belongings (there are four altogether) in return for the items they requested.<br />
When you give Uncle Mimic all of the clues when you return to his workshop, he<br />
hands over the Magical Polarizer to you.  </p>
<p>By the time I knew about the <i>Shantae</i> series, I’m<br />
too late to back the game on Kickstarter. If only I knew about the series<br />
earlier, I would’ve backed the abovementioned game in a heartbeat! I still<br />
regret not backing this game to this day.</p>
<p>Along with the main storyline mode/campaign is the Shantae<br />
Hero Mode where you start the game at the beginning from scratch but your dance<br />
transformations remains intact and the level designs, structures and layouts<br />
are varied. It’s also usually reserved for speedruns. There isn’t much known<br />
about the Risky Boots mode and the other character modes other than Rottytops,<br />
Bolo, Sky etc have their own stories, abilities and endings and these aforesaid<br />
modes might be paid downloadable content. However, the Risky Boots mode will or<br />
might coincide with the main storyline mode and Shantae Hero Mode. Sure, I<br />
loathe speedruns but this aforementioned mode and the character modes provide<br />
the game with replayability and replay value.</p>
<p>Most arguably my biggest issue or gripe with this game is<br />
the fact the physical version of the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U,<br />
Xbox One etc ports are released only in America is inexcusable, unforgivable<br />
and a sin. I can’t justify myself importing the game at an expensive price;<br />
despite it comes with the soundtrack. There’s more to the world than bloomin’<br />
America, you know. Although the digital version of the PlayStation 4 and<br />
PlayStation Vita ports cost £15.99 in the PlayStation Store but that’s nothing<br />
compared to how much it costs on the Amazon and Ebay websites. The Risky Beats<br />
edition costs £39.95 on the UK Amazon website and £25.90 (and £14.64 postage)<br />
on the UK Ebay website for instance. It depends on which price you’re looking<br />
at. To make matters worse, if there are downloadable content, I have no choice<br />
but to set up another PlayStation Store account on the US PlayStation Store if<br />
I imported the Risky Beats edition of the abovementioned game. I hope there<br />
will be a UK physical version of the console ports in the future. I still find<br />
it exasperatingly irritating I have to resort to importing games from other<br />
countries outside of the UK.  </p>
<p>As much as I enjoyed playing the game immensely, it didn’t<br />
have what it takes to win the coveted “Game of 2016” title or trophy. In fact,<br />
my pessimistic criticisms prevented it from topping <i>Ratchet &amp; Clank<br />
(2016)</i> as “My Game of 2016”.</p>
<p>As it stands, <i>Shantae: Half-Genie Hero</i> is inferior<br />
to <i>Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse</i> (which is deemed to be the best of the<br />
series) due to the criticisms I outlined earlier. Regarding the series as a<br />
whole, I’d reckon <i>Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse</i> tops the list, followed<br />
by <i>Shantae: Half-Genie Hero</i> in second place. As for third place, it’s<br />
either <i>Shantae: Risky’s Revenge</i> or <i>Shantae</i>. Concerning the<br />
soundtracks, it’s <i>Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse</i>, <i>Shantae: Half-Genie<br />
Hero</i>, <i>Shantae: Risky’s Revenge</i> and finally, <i>Shantae</i>, in<br />
ascending order.</p>
<p><i>Shantae: Half-Genie Hero</i> is a retro-inspired<br />
platforming wish come true and a hidden gem among the ever-increasing line-up<br />
of platforming video games filled to the brim with nearly everything a<br />
platforming game fan ever wanted and it’s a breath of fresh air from the samey<br />
Mario and Kirby platforming antics. It introduced newcomers and a new<br />
generation of Shantae fans to the series while at the same time it stayed true<br />
to its nearly perfected gameplay and formula of what made the Shantae games<br />
insanely addictive, bundles and oodles of fun and extremely entertaining in the<br />
first place whilst the characters returned to form only to be let down by the<br />
slightly underwhelming, forgettable soundtrack, the short length of the game,<br />
fairly easy difficulty, the small dips in framerate whenever things become<br />
frantic and a ton of action takes up a lot of the screen, the absence of<br />
physical PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One and Wii U copies and the<br />
physical Risky Beats edition soundtrack being released in my country and<br />
Europe, the price of the game which is £15.99 in the PlayStation Store, the<br />
incorrect localisation (British English should’ve been used instead of American<br />
English), typos and spelling and grammar mistakes, the lack of a map that<br />
result in little to no direction of where to go and what to do next, the<br />
non-existence of dungeons, the game-breaking items and the list goes on.<br />
Despite the negative criticisms, this game is worth every penny and I never<br />
regretted purchasing it from the PlayStation store. Unlike Intelligent Systems,<br />
Nintendo, Activision and Toys For Bob, WayForward didn’t stray away from the<br />
phrase, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. To end this review on a positive<br />
note, I’m delighted to say <i>Shantae: Half-Genie Hero</i> is one of the few<br />
reboots that’s not abysmal and doesn’t deter both sides of the Shantae fanbase.<br />
Intelligent Systems, Nintendo, Activision, Toys For Bob etc should take notes<br />
from WayForward of how not to screw up a winning formula and to stick to the<br />
status quo.</p>
<p><b>By Wing See Li for Tomb of Ash</b></p>
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Media:</p>
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<li><a href="https://wayforward.com/" target="_blank">Website</a> </li>
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<p>The post <a href="https://www.tomb-of-ash.com/shantae-half-genie-hero-ps4-review/">Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4) Review</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.tomb-of-ash.com">Tomb of Ash</a>.</p>
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