At least I assume so, I got my backer code a couple of days ago and played through the first three stages today. Anybody else here playing this? What are your thoughts so far? I'm having a pretty good time(This is the first Shantae game I have played besides about an hour of Risky's Revenge, mind). It looks good, feels good and sounds good too. It's a lot like Risky's Revenge, but sharper in every respect. The writing is still lighthearted, but the drawings(and 3d with good, 2d-looking textures?) as well as the instruments and vocals they're using make it a better experience, and the jumps aren't killing me half as often as during Risky's Revenge's first stage, so the controls are tighter as well. I had a laugh at the mermaid factory production line. Overall, I absolutely recommend it to fans of platformers.

I've got a few complaints, though, some more reasonable than others. The first is fundamental stuff with their platforming that's just not my taste as much as other platformers(They're going for a sort of precision jump on tiny platforms, digital movement with no startup/run speed that I think is more Mega Man than Mario). The other is some odd checkpointing. If you fall off a platform into a pit, you're sent all the way back to the beginning of that part of the stage. All the enemies you defeated are still gone. Besides that, I have seen two enemies so far that launch projectiles all around them at set intervals. I don't know a way to avoid taking damage from those besides beat them quickly, and they are frustrating to deal with. Could be an item that helps. The bosses are easier than the stages, with super simple patterns, but they look phenomenally good, so that's not much of an issue. Finally, between the monkey transformation that jumps higher, climbs walls and moves faster and the regular Shantae that attacks, there's just constant transformations because both are necessary. I wish the monkey could throw bananas or something. I'd play the monkey all the time!

Pirate's Curse is one of my favorite 3DS games and I was skeptical of the art style change here. But man, it looks gorgeous.

I'm about 2 hours in and have been loving it so far. It has the Alucard backdash, which is essential to platformer melee combat to me. Cool set piece stuff, that quirky Shantae humor, well-designed boss battles, excellent music. I'm not deep enough yet to make a final opinion, but seeing the series on a big screen is a bit heartwarming. As for transformations, I preferred the different pirate moves in the last one since they were so fluid to pull off, although you can upgrade the transformation speed to make that a nonissue.

Kickstarter games by an established studio have been really good to me. Wayforward outlined why they wouldn't mess this up on their original backer page and they kept their word. I think they nailed what a console Shantae game could be.

Nice, was wondering when this game would finally come out. Glad to hear it's good.

Got the last game with the Humble Nintendo Bundle and it was great. Played a bit of Risky's Revenge on PC (also another humble bundle) and the controls didnt really seem suited to a 360 controller. So i'll probably wait for the Wii U version of this. (the map on the game pad was surprisingly useful)

Glad to hear this is a good one. I'll hopefully be able to pick it up sometime soon. I'm curious on length though.

Still waiting for my wii U code. Hope it wont take too long :´) Good to hear positive impressions.

I've also always preferred megaman or castlevania styled 'tight' platforming as opposed to marios inertia based platforming so thats a positive to me as well.

I feel I should mention that it's been a pretty easy game so far. We'll see where it goes but I wish there was a bit more challenge.

Lucky son of a gun! The rest of us have to wait till the 20th!

I've played Risky's Revenge and Pirate's Curse, which is one of favorite platformers on the 3DS (it's right up there with Shovel Knight), and I'm really looking forward to playing Half-Genie Hero. Glad to hear you like the game so far and based off some of the Youtube videos I've seen it looks real good.

@csl316 said:

So far the one review I read was Destructoid, and he scored it kind of low because he thought it was too hard. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The official, final release is tomorrow!

Shantae games are great. They typically start out pretty easy and then get a bit insane later on. I might pick this one up. I love me some Metroidvanias.

Wait are Shantae games Metroidvanias? I thought they were just level based platformers.

My only complaint so far is that the Wii U version has no gamepad functionality, which is a step back from Pirate's Curse. However, given recent Kickstarters that have dropped Wii U support at the last minute, I am impressed that they delivered on the platform as well as they have. I had other options, but I feel like Wayforward (and now Yacht Club) games belong on Nintendo platforms.

This was by far my best Kickstarter experience. I backed multiple games around the same time. Some of them were complete shitshows (lookin at you No. 9), some went silent for long periods and dropped platform support, while others are still up in the air. Wayforward ran a professional campaign, and constantly interacted with their supporters throughout the entire process. A lot of the content choices were made by supporters as well. Really can't overstate how much I admire this company.

Once you beat a level, you get an animal transformation that lets you access more parts of previous levels. Mostly it's just for secrets or collectables. I beat it in about 9 hours and found everything. As for the difficulty, I only died got a game over once, though it was against the final boss and I wasn't really paying attention to my health. I died a lot, but those were because of environment hazards.

Still haven't received my Wii U EU code yet but got a Steam code while I wait which was nice. The game seem great so far, the platforming/controls might not be exactly my preferred style but it's totally fine. Maybe I'm used to the bit more slower style that Shovel Knight has, Shantae has quicker air control or something, it's hard to describe.

The Soundtrack is excellent so far! Virt is doing good stuff. Reminds me more about Mighty Switch Force.

Eu wii U backer code in the pocket!

Now I also got a physical ps4 copy because I didnt expect the wiiU code to arrive before the holidays and well.......

I played the wiiU version first and besides thinking some background elements were a little blurry I didnt notice anything wrong with it. I then played the ps4 and boy does that look noticeably more clear! It was most noticeable to me in the burned out part of the first real stage you go through. And on top of that the wii U version has slightly more inputlag than the ps4 version. A short tap of 'right' on the d-pad moves shantea further on the wiiU than ps4.

The wii U version is definitely not bad mind you but if you have the choice go for ps4 (or pc).

Im also really particular when it comes to how I want my platforming to feel. I really dislike how mario and dkc games feel but love castlevania both old and new. I thought the previous shantea games all felt a little off in their own ways to me but this one controls like a goshdarn dream. Its a little more snappy and reminded me of how I remember controlling alucard in symphony of the night felt.(Its been yeeeeeaaaaars since I last played that though.)