defintely a step down from pirates curse, despite some of the improvements it makes.

best way to sum it up is this:

PROS:
- Visuals look much better
- Still lots of fun
- Soundtrack is still fantastic
- More modes and ways to play the game
- Some of the transformations feel super fun
- Still lots of personality, maybe even more so than Pirates Curse

CONS:
- Suuuuuper easy
- Feels really short
- Goes over the top with backtracking
- NPCs directly telling you what to do ruins feels cheap and ruins any chance at immersion
- Collectables feel less rewarding to collect, especially the switch to "Heart Containers" instead of the Heart Squids
- Lackluster and confusing final boss
- Story a downgrade over pirates curse
- A handful of the dances feel completely useless

Why a not give it a lower score? Because Shantae is just plain fun regardless if it messes up in a lot of aspects.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is a very fun, albeit very flawed game. The core game is well done. Platforming and controls are tight and Shantae is a joy to control. The game starts off hard, but gets way easier the more you upgrade yourself. The upgrades and different dances you can do break the game the further you find/upgrade them but most are very fun to use. The dances I actually got a use out of most of them in regular gameplay. Your curiosity also pays off with your exploration often netting you some cool stuff. The game looks fantastic with well done 3D backgrounds and amazing 2D drawn characters. It also sounds great with good sound effects and an infectious soundtrack. The boss fights are also very well done with each challenging your skills.

Now, for the flawed parts of the game. The game is short, very short actually. It took me 6ish hours to 100% the main game. The journey of 100% completion was very comfortable actually but the main game is clearly struggling to be any longer with actually cool stuff. What I mean is half this game feels like a fetch quest, because it essentially is. In order for you to unlock new areas, you are required to visit previous areas and use your new abilities to get what certain characters ask for. That's pretty typical for most medtroidvania type games, but the way it is done here irks me. It's VERY clear this is here to simply pad out the game. The levels themselves are also cool to explore and platform in, but their level design tends to be very basic. Furthermore, the writing tends to be very cheesy at times with a story that is all over the fucking place. I did not give a single ♥♥♥♥ about these characters and what was happening because the game kept jumping from plot point to plot point with no real clarity as to why.

The only side modes I played is actually just pirate queen's quest which is a blast. Using Risky's load out from The Pirate's Curse game is just as great as it was there. The campaign is shorter and filled with awesome stuff to upgrade your current stuff with that turns Risky into much more of a fun character. Highly recommend this one. I can't say the same praise for the other modes as I have not played them, but I assume they are mostly all of high quality.

Half-Genie Hero is a step down from The Pirate's Curse but that does not stop it from being a great game. It has flaws, but the core game still remained incredibly fun to me. Plus there's a lot of extra side stuff for you to play around with!

This was my first Shantae game and I think this will be my last. The reasons this was not a game for me is because:
- The pacing on the game was so slow in the beginning
- The level design I feel was above average at best
- The back tracking is awful (I know its a metroidvania) but how it was done, turned my off the genre for over a year
- How Shantae was portrayed, feminist would have a field day with this if they knew...
In saying this, I feel the jump and attack mechanics works really well and was satisfying. I liked the ability to morph to different animals (shame how it was implemented via the control scheme) and the graphics was REALLY nice. I was interested due to the morphs and graphics, but don't let pretty visuals fool you. I see the effort made to the game. I tried to like the game but couldn't. There are much better metroidvanias out there. This was the only game I have actually deleted from my Switch

This won't exactly be a review - I loved this game, but what I thought would be interesting to do would be to compare it to another game I love, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. Through the comparison, I can look at the game's strengths and weaknesses. Let's see which is better!

Pro Pirate's Curse:

PC's dungeons were excellent cappers to the levels. HGH has more variety in its level structure, but I loved the big finales that the labyrinthian, challenging, puzzling dungeons offered to each island, testing your skills and offering new abilities.

Progression in PC is a lot more streamlined. HGH sometimes feels in over its head with the backtracking, requiring too many visits with too many abilities that are hard to keep track of. PC proves less is more, as I was actually capable of keeping mental notice of different secrets I couldn't access yet, which proved unfeasible in HGH.

PC's writing is a lot better. While HGH has its moments, PC manages to be consistently hilarious and endlessly charming. I loved most characters and jokes a lot.



Pro Half-Genie Hero:

The visuals in HGH are far more appealing. Don't get me wrong, the pixel art in PC is great, but the backgrounds are all clearly high-def images that were auto-downscaled and look very rough, the particle effects use bad-looking scaling effects, and the UI, especially with the fonts, can often look cheap and unprofessional. HGH fixes all of these, with its beautiful and expressive character sprites, detailed 3D environments, sleek UI and a greater level of polish.

The OST is somehow even better. PC's soundtrack was already phenomenal, yet Kauffman has outdone himself here, delivering absolute nonstop bangers no matter what, using the higher fidelity sound the new style afforded him to great effect.

As I said before, HGH has more variety in its levels, and even though it lacks dungeons, this can be a strength too. It particularly shines with its setpieces, which are grander than any seen in the series before. It is immensely creative.

HGH is just more consistent to me. PC had some very high highs but it hit some lows on quite a few occasions which held it back. HGH is almost always a banger, as Way Forward really perfected the craft.

So, what's my conclusion? Well... I liked HGH a bit more! I feel most of the points for it, the latter 2 in particular, were a real deciding factor for me. The game managed to just be brilliant basically all the time. But I still love both.

Has the usual positives of the series with great animation and detail, more simple but fun gameplay and stage design, and fun characters.

This time along with the usual magic and hair attacks there are multiple creature transformations you can take with different attacks and dance abilities. You can also easily farm money for upgrades if you want an easier time and you can switch off upgrades and skills to make it more difficult. A hardcore mode for more of a challenge.

Like the previous game, this one has some issues with backtracking but going back to stages can change enemies and the transformations can make things a bit more interesting in how you get around. Unfortunately, some of those transformations are really only used to get extra items and are either fairly useless for anything else to begin with or are made mostly useless by other forms. The game is also very short and feels it and the DLC is very overpriced unless you have just gotten the Ultimate Edition.