I backed this on Kickstarter back in 2013; it’s about time I played it eh?

Half-Genie Hero (HGH) represents a similar shift I’ve noticed in other WayForward games, compared to Pirate’s Curse. Moving from pixels to smooth lines and 3D backgrounds, which have a lush charm of their own. The art style has also shifted to a cuter, slightly chibified look that suits the cast well, and of course the music is as banging as ever from Jake Kaufman! Occasional voice clips also add character to the typically funny dialogue.

Otherwise, it continues the Shantae series admirably. The sidescrolling gameplay is tight, with plenty of upgrades and secrets to find, and the return of transformation dances: tons of them in this instalment. Maybe too many! The difference HGH brings to the table is in its structure. Previous games had large, sprawling worlds with dungeons. Now the world is chunked up into more linear levels, broken up by visits back to town or revisiting previous levels to find hidden goodies. There’s still some exploration and discovery but it’s a lot more conventional, which facilitates the many extra modes.

As part of the Kickstarter, stretch goals included adding new ways to play the game. In the final product there’s no less than six additional modes (on top of the hard mode and “everything unlocked” mode). Some are more substantial, like Risky’s adventure using some of the concepts from Pirate’s Curse, the Friends mode with Shantae’s three buddies, and the mode that reworks the entire game into essentially a new instalment of Mighty Switch Force. The other costume modes add new tools to Shantae’s repertoire that are fun to play around with, but every mode retreads the exact same levels and bosses which tired me out when playing them all back-to-back. At least they make an effort to reframe it each time with fun new dialogue, and changing up things like collectible locations and enemy placements, even reintroducing older enemies that weren’t in the base game in some cases.

Personally I prefer the open structure of previous games, but HGH kept me interested, and the bonus modes are a big value-adding feature. The new aesthetic direction really suits the silly, adventurous tone of the series, and I enjoyed the reunion feel of the cast building on all previous games. I can’t wait for Seven Sirens to be released in a complete state so I can see what the series does next!