#Shantae sprites evolution series

Shantae and the Seven Sirens doesn’t take itself seriously at all and it’s stronger for it, leading to some deliciously absurd subplots that are sure to delight. It’s a given that not all the jokes land quite the same, but it’s tough to not become enamoured with the constant barrage of self-aware humour and fourth-wall-breaking jokes. The plot is treated with a kind of snarky irreverence that shines through in some fashion in nearly all the dialogue, which keeps the tone lighthearted and bubbly. It’s soon revealed that their disappearance was linked to the eponymous Seven Sirens who live beneath the island, and it’s up to Shantae to save the day and hopefully still have time to get some sun on her much-needed vacation.Īs expected for the series, the storyline itself isn’t anything particularly memorable, but nonetheless remains consistently excellent due to the strong writing at play. Shortly after the curtain rises on their first belly-dancing performance, a sinister force swoops in and kidnaps everyone but Shantae. I’m hoping that WayForward will take some risks with the level design, because the formula’s beginning to feel a bit predictable with so many similar new games in such a short span of time, but we’ll tackle that another time when we give Half-Genie Hero a whirl for our review.The story picks up with Shantae and her crew taking a vacation to a tropical island paradise, where a half-genie festival is being thrown in which Shantae and five other new half-genies are the guests of honour. These, combined with Shantae’s ever-trusty hair and dexterity, make for a fun and incredibly-polished experience. You’ve got your transformations, like the adorable monkey and underwater-exploring crab and you’ve got your magic, like a super-helpful healing spell. Instead, XSEED highlighted the fact that the genie girl’s got a whole host of powers this time around, including a semi-”best of” slate of abilities she’s carried in previous games. Speaking of characters, Risky Boots is playable this time around in a sort of reverse-campaign where her goal is to defeat Shantae - but unfortunately, she wasn’t anywhere to be seen in this particular demo. This time around, the game will be split into “chapters” that can be revisited once new characters and abilities are unlocked, which is much more up my alley. It appears that Half-Genie Hero will eschew the free-roaming, Metroidvania-style elements found in Pirate’s Curse in favor of a more straightforward style the level I played had a fairly standard and linear left-to-right progression, which - to be honest - I found quite refreshing after getting lost and stuck so many times in Curse (constant reviews often mean I’ll return to games after a while of not playing them, which means I’ll often have forgotten the objective by the time I return).

The visuals may be different, but the game still contains all the hoppin’ and hair-boppin’ that platforming fans have come to love from the series. Everything looks a little bit more fluid and malleable compared to its predecessors, and while I personally prefer the new graphical style to the old one, I’m sure there will be some disappointment at the change. While previous Shantae games have used pixel art, the new game fuses smoothly-animated 2D sprites with 3D background environments. The most obvious and striking difference when I first started playing, of course, was the visual style. The demo took me through one standard combination of level and boss battle. I got a chance to try the game at E3, and it seems like it should be another fun and classic bout of platforming action.

#Shantae sprites evolution series

Now, of course, the series has seen three sequels and raised a massive $776,084 on Kickstarter (not even including donations they took on PayPal) for the latest entry, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Boy, am I glad I played it - at least at the time, it was one of those hidden platforming gems that made me wonder how I ever missed it.