Game:

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (2016)

Duration: 7:52:44

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I really do love the Shantae series. It's pretty freaking fantastic. For starters the music in every game continually improves and this one is no exception. Just about every track is a bopper and that is a great accomplishment. The graphics are also a pleasure to look at and the environments are gorgeous to look at and crazy detailed and colorful. There are tons of things happening in the background that do end up affecting you like a pirate ship shooting canon balls at you. The level design is great, gone is the metroidvania style of game with dungeons and an overworld and is replaced by just standard levels. Though the exploration is still ever present. There are lots of areas that are inaccessible until you find the proper power up, which means you will need to come back to every level and explore, which I love. The levels are fairly short, though so it makes for some quick returns. I loved the bosses but 2 were not my favorite. The second levels boss has 2 phases and the first phase I found to be a real pain. Though, to be fair, I wasn't using healing items to give myself a bit more of a challenge. The real final boss is also a bit of a letdown especially after all of the build up of all the other large and epic boss fights. It felt very unsatisfying to end with such a whimper. The only really big downside to 100%-ing a Shantae game is that there are power-ups that count towards that total and you will have to grind for the gems to purchase them. There is a ton of DLC for the game as well. I think this was crowdfunded and so I'm guessing that a lot it was backer goals. Most of the DLC is lackluster and is just replaying the same 6 levels over and over. It reminded me a lot of Muramasa in that way. It's an easy way to develop cheap content and is a bit disappointing. Sure you can re-play the levels in new ways, I did enjoy playing as Risky as her movement tech was amazing. There also was a very cool DLC version of Might Switch Force Shantae style. It was nowhere near as good as the original games but it's nice to see that WayForward still recognizes that awesome IP. The other decent DLC was of Sky, Rottyytops and Bolo in a puzzle platformer. That was also clever and fun and had some unique sections that weren't just reusing the main levels. The only downside is that the final levels really push mechanics that you barely use in the first few levels, so you need to spend a ton of time adjusting to how the characters play at the very end of the game. I'm not complaining about the challenge, I in fact loved it, I'm just saying the main 6 levels should have pushed you more to use their unique abilities and rather than just once again reusing the same 6 levels, maybe they should have designed and built levels just for these 3 characters. I did 100% every DLC I played, but I just couldn't bring myself to play the final 2 DLCs. They really should have trimmed down the gimmick Shantaes and put that effort into more levels and bosses. With all of that said, I really did enjoy this game and look forward to playing the latest in the series. Enjoy my blind playthrough.

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