WayForward is a developer that has been around for over 34 years and they managed to stick by accepting jobs where they made shovelware licensed tie-ins. Once in a while, they would produce something worthwhile but for the most part, Shantae stood out due to being one of the few original games in their catalog. The first game didn’t do well due to its release timing, but the sequels became cult classics and fans would recognize WayForward as one of the more talented small U.S. developers in the industry.
Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero was a Kickstarter success story in 2013. Compounded with donations, WayForward Technologies netted almost one million dollars and after only three years in development, their game was released on all eighth-gen consoles. One of the parameters of the Kickstarter campaign was a multitude of stretch-goals which included various gameplay modes.
Free additions would roll out gradually for backers and eventually find their way onto an “Ultimate Edition”. Were these additional modes worth the wait? Was the core game good to begin with? Find out in our Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition review!
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition
Developer: WayForward Technologies
Publisher: WayForward Technologies
Platforms: Windows PC, Amazon Luna, Stadia, Nintendo Switch Wii U, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: August 6, 2024
Price: $29.99
Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero is the fourth game in a series. It expects players to have a broad understanding of its basic premise. All there is to know is that Shantae usually goes on adventures and does the dirty work while her friends are layabouts who provide comic relief. It follows a bland villain-of-the-week structure with the story progression, culminating in a climactic battle.
The tone is very lighthearted and rife with lazy puns and is a lot less funny than the writers would hope for. Sadly, the story scenes go on for what feels like tens of minutes where the lame jokes and try-hard humor fail to land. Even when skipping most of the tedious text, it isn’t hard to figure out that the story is about collecting pieces from a machine that will open a portal to the genie dimension.
The story isn’t inherently bad, but it reeks of desperation from the writers trying to make it exciting with witty dialogue. The problem is that the dialogue isn’t funny. It overstays its welcome and would be more effective if it was shorter and fully voice-acted. All of the villains are comic reliefs and never pose a threat at all. This makes the stakes feel non-existent because every foe is a bumbling fool.
The story isn’t the reason why anyone would play Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero. The main event is still stimulating action-platforming and animal transformations. Unlike prior entries, 1/2 Genie Hero isn’t a metroidvania. Levels are picked from a world map and Shantae can freely take on side objectives from the hub town where she can also get hints about hidden collectibles.
Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero has only five levels if you don’t count the final boss stage and the game is designed around having gamers replay them as they get some changes as the story unfolds and as Shanate gains new transformations. This could have worked if there were more than six levels.
There is just not enough game to justify the huge cache of abilities and powers the hero acquires as the adventure unfolds. Replaying the same handful of stages becomes tedious and most people will buy the teleport ability first to quickly leave after they gathered whatever it was some bumpkin in town asked for.
Many of the abilities have no use outside of one or maybe two instances. The spider, mouse, and bat forms are especially impractical since their abilities are used to acquire more useless abilities. Currency is so plentiful that it takes no time at all to max out Shantae’s hair-whipping stats and her magic powers.
Some of her magic is overpowered when maxed out that Shantae effectively becomes an immortal god. There is a hardcore mode where the game can become a challenge, but there should have been something in between. The standard difficulty feels like an easy mode until the final stage and hardcore goes too far. “Standard” should be called “easy”, and a new mode that is more challenging but not brutal as hardcore would be “normal”.
Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition does include a lot of new content. There is an amusing Sophia III tank transformation where Shantae becomes a small tank and has infinite but weak long-range fire. The real meat of this Ultimate Edition is the new modes. Regretfully, they are all barely remixed versions of the core game.
Bikini Mode may put Shantae in a sexy two-piece, but she is still going through the same levels, but now has a lame beach ball power and must collect sun tan lotion to avoid getting burned. Jammies mode puts Shantae in her sleepwear and gives her a pillow attack but she also will take a lot more damage. This mode was very inconsistent and poorly thought out with its balance since it ranged from being a push-over to unfairly random at times.
Police Officer mode has a more dramatic shift in the gameplay since incorporates aspects of WayForward’s Mighty Switch games. Shantae gets a gun and with a tap of a button makes blocks switch in and out of corporeal form. She can’t duck or crawl as a cop and there is no hub to return to. The game also becomes a linear string of stages.
Ninja mode is Shantae’s most different of the costumed adventures and equips her with a sword, sped-up gameplay, teleportation, and wall-jumping abilities. No matter which costume she wears, her hearts are maxed at only three, all the same maps are used, and the overall difficulty is higher than anything in hardcore mode.
The other modules to Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition are the story modes that have a little bit more going on in them than the costume modes. Pirate Queen’s Quest has gamers assume the role of Risky Boots, Shantae’s reoccurring antagonist. This bodacious pirate has unique mechanics from Shantae; she uses a grappling hook, has guns, gliding ability, and can use a cannon to launch herself.
Risky’s story sets players loose to play any of the six levels in any order. There was an effort to give her an original story centered on her retelling the events from her perspective while she exaggerates what happened. This was an amusing addition and was the most enjoyable extra in the package.
Friends to the End is less impressive and feels rushed in comparison to Risky’s quest. In this adventure, Bolo, Sky, and Rottytops become playable, but they are functionally one character who is split into three. The gameplay is somewhat more puzzle-oriented like a Lost Vikings game but more convenient as all three heroes can be swapped out on the fly without having to manage them all individually.
If the developers committed to the idea, this could have been more complex where each of the characters would be persistent in the levels instead of being a single character who can change modes. This was originally going to be separate stories, but funding ran short and all three were made into a single adventure and it can be felt as it unfolds.
All the extra adventures and costume modes reuse the same levels and layouts from the main game and unfortunately, the six levels are not enough to support all these extra modes. They were barely enough to carry the main game which had the player revisit some stages at least three times and many more for anyone who wanted to go for 100% completion.
It is too bad that Shantae’s fourth adventure feels so compromised since it looks and plays exceptionally well. The sprites are big and bold, resembling a fluid cartoon and with tons of unique frames of animation. Stages look great with the 2.5D perspective. Controls are tight and very responsive; it feels as if Shantae could do anything thanks to her vast array of abilities. While most of them are useless, it’s due to the lack of stage variety.
It’s a shame that 1/2 Genie Hero ended up as such a gutted experience because it has some of the best visuals and animation that WayForward has ever done. The girls look cute and sexy and there was great care in emphasizing their desirable characteristics. There are tons of unlockable art and pin-ups of the female cast and you can tell WayForward put their top men in the art department to ensure it would be the hottest summer for Shantae and the girls.
Calling Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition unfinished feels strange since it boasts a lot of content and modes to mess around with. The problem with it is that it’s spread very thinly like the developers had a much bigger and bolder vision but could only make half of the stages they wanted to make.
The trade-off for such a small game is the massive quantities of extras and dazzling production values. Most players will get bored of the same few areas before they will be willing to replay them again in a bikini or as Shantae’s lame friends.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition was reviewed on a PlayStation 5 using a copy purchased by Nichegamer. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition is now available for PC (via Steam), Amazon Luna, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch.
