Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Genre: Action-Platformer / Metroidvania

Players: 1

.

Review:

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is a family-friendly Action-Platformer with Metroidvania elements that originally released for multiple platforms in late 2016, with a port to Switch coming a half a year later in 2017. This is the fourth game in WayForward’s Shantae series, about a half-human, half-genie girl who attacks enemies by whipping her hair at them.

Since the series first started on the Game Boy Color, one of its hallmarks has been absolutely stellar pixel art animation, but Half-Genie Hero goes a step beyond that, delivering some really beautiful hand-drawn characters that retain the same high quality of animation the pixel art visuals of past games had, as well as the same expressive character designs and colorful world. This is a gorgeous game, and the level of polish here goes beyond what we saw in earlier games in a lot of ways. These visuals are joined by an upbeat Middle East-inspired soundtrack that suits the game’s cartoonish presentation perfectly.

The gameplay that goes along with it here is pretty strong too, with good controls and an increasingly varied move set the farther you venture into the game, with this game bringing back Shantae’s shapeshifting abilities, which tend to be one of the bigger factors in exploring the game’s levels.

That said, where previously the Metroidvania elements of Shantae were already somewhat segmented by the game being split up into separate islands, this game takes the series even further away from Metroidvanias. There’s now no longer a map for the different areas, and while players will have plenty reason to backtrack and uncover secrets they couldn’t access before, the focused level design of these levels makes this feel less like exploration and more like replaying the same level with a different move set.

I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, I love a good Metroidvania, and it’s a bit disappointing for me to see this series increasingly backing away from the genre. On the other hand, if the Shantae games are going to continue presenting their world split up into islands, this more focused level design may simply be more efficient.

In any case, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is an excellent addition to the series, and a superb Action-Platformer, even if it isn’t necessarily the best Metroidvania. Gamers on the Switch looking for some good 2D Platforming action with some non-linear gameplay and RPG elements would do well to give this game a try.

tl;dr – Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is an Action-Platformer with Metroidvania elements that takes the series’ already-amazing presentation to new levels with gorgeous, exquisitely-animated hand-drawn visuals. And while some players may not be thrilled with this game dialing back the series’ Metroidvania elements, the gameplay here is still plenty of fun and well worth playing for fans of 2D Platforming action.

Grade: A-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}