Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Embark on an all-new adventure with Shantae, the hair-whipping belly dancing genie. After losing her magic, Shantae teams up with the nefarious pirate Risky Boots in order to save Sequin Land from a curse.
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Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition on Steam
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The ultimate edition of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero comes with all of the previously released DLC, Modes, and Costumes in one epic collection! Includes an exclusive Blue Bathing Suit for use in Beach Mode!
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is a female protagonist, platformer and metroidvania game
developed by WayForward
and published by WayForward .
Released on May 08th 2018 is available on Windows, Steam Deck and Steam Machine
in 6 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain and Japanese.
It has received 901 reviews of which 811 were positive and 90 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.5 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 24.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 2.49€ on K4G.
The Steam community has classified Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition into these genres:
Female Protagonist
Platformer
Metroidvania
Indie
Adventure
Action
Pirates
Anime
Great Soundtrack
2D
Singleplayer
Side Scroller
Cute
2D Platformer
Funny
Cartoony
Colorful
Here is the detailed breakdown of supported languages for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition:
| UI | Subtitle | Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | |||
| German | |||
| French | |||
| Italian | |||
| Spanish - Spain | |||
| Japanese |
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition through various videos and screenshots.
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7 Service Pack 1
- Processor: 2.2 GHz Dual-Core CPU with Hyper Threading
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 310 or equivalent (it must be able to manage Pixel Shader 3.0) with at least 1GB of display memory
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 2 GB available space
Steam Price & Best Deals
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Will always be one of my favorite platformers and metroidvanias as someone who doesn't usually play either genre. The story is super silly, the gameplay is great, and while the extra modes aren't always the best they're all really creative and worth trying out if you had fun with the base game.
Preface: I encountered a bug where the game would run too quickly. It took me a while to figure out the issue, so if you encounter the same problem you need to adjust the refresh rate of your monitor to 60Hz. If you have multiple monitors they ALL need to be at 60Hz. This really sucks and should have been fixed not only for the definitive edition, but should have been patched by now. I really feel my opinions of this game are heavily influenced by how I tend to enjoy steam games, which is to try and hunt all the achievements. First the positives: This game is hands down the best the Shantae series has looked graphically. They finally moved from pixel art to 2D character art, but they even went the extra mile having all the levels be 2.5D. I love the art direction for this game and if that was all this game had to accomplish then it passes with flying colours. The music is another huge positive. Every track was fun to listen to with some older tracks getting remastered in the DLCs. My stand out is “Dance through the danger” with Christina Valenzuela absolutely killing it not only singing the song, but VAing both Shantae and Risky. This game follows up the true ending of the previous game which means the return of transformation dances and they don’t disappoint. There are tons of new additions with interesting gameplay and returning classics. They also returned to the item mechanics of Risky’s Revenge which I felt was a better system than Pirates Curse. ======= Major Spoilers There are a lot of references to the earlier games, one of the final levels has a section very similar to the mermaid section in Risky’s Revenge with the final fight against Risky aping the final boss of that game too. >>>>>>> Spoilers Over I want to preface I enjoyed the game and it was fun, but I really feel like this game doesn’t fit the metroidvania genre. I really feel that the way the levels are made and played doesn’t fit with the metroidvania genre. Pirate Curse was the first game in the series to have individual stages instead of an interconnect map (which now in retrospect does hurt my opinion of it), ½ Genie Hero really makes its levels feel very disconnected. At least in Pirates Curse the reason all the area’s were so different was due to them being on their own isolated islands and you sailed between them, but this game doesn’t have that. All the stages are on the same island and it really doesn’t feel like there’s much connecting them at all. While there are elements of back tracking and retracing to previous levels, without the interconnected map like Risky’s Revenge or other games in the genre like Metroid, Castlevania, or Hollowknight they really just feel like levels not a map/world. This gets worse when you bring in the DLC which I’ll touch on later. Overall the Main game was fun for the first playthrough, but every subsequent playthrough for the speedrunning, 100%, & Hard Mode achievements really just went to show that the title of metroidvania wasn’t the best fit. Speaking of Hard mode it definitely was a challenge, but in a fair way. The enemies deal a lot more damage, with some being faster, or insta-kills. It made the game longer and you have to be more careful, but it was still an alright experience. I do feel that once you beat Ammo Baron the difficulty kinda drops off since by then you probably have a few heart containers, a good magic attack and tons of transformation options to make the harder sections easier. Not to say that it’s bad for it to feel easier since it shows your growth in skill. If I was to give a ranking for just the main game I’d give it a 6/10. I like the gameplay, I love the art and music, but I don’t like the direction that the series is going based on how the levels were designed and the metroidvania aspects implemented. Key word, if I was just ranking the main game. It’s time to talk about the DLCs. DLCs: —--- Minor Spoilers Let's lead again with the positives. I liked the Pirate Queen’s Quest. Playing as Risky’s was a lot of fun! Over the course of the gameplay she collects all her pirate tools that Shantae collected in Pirates Curse with some new ones to boot. You’re able to tackle the levels in any order and it retains the metroidvania elements of backtracking with new upgrades to unlock secrets. I understand that making games is difficult and that Wayforward isn’t the largest studio out there, but all the levels for Pirate Queen’s Quest are the same as the main game, just with tiny changes to accommodate the new abilities you unlock as Risky. For this DLC it’s alright because it’s framed as Risky’s accounts of what happened after a certain event in the main story which I think is alright. The reuse of levels though becomes a larger issue when looking at the rest of the DLC. Friends to the end is a weird DLC to me. I don’t hate Sky, Bolo, or Rotty (quite the contrary I think Rotty is awesome and a really fun idea), but this DLC really feels like it didn’t need to be made. I won’t touch on the story of it, what little it has anyways, but it introduces the gameplay style that itself and the final DLC will stick to. You can collect gems that can upgrades your abilities, but like sonic you drop your wallet when hit allowing you to backslide to lower levels if you get hit too much. This is fine, it gives a reason to go for gems despite there being no shop so whatever. Here’s where the reuse of levels is really felt. It’s the same levels, the same bosses, but with some tweaks for the new gameplay style. I quite frankly got tired of these levels after playing all the DLC content. It’s insanely repetitive and not fun after a while since EVERY OTHER DLC DOES THIS. All the modes in the costume pack is just the same levels with a little tweak for the new gameplay. They added these new collectables “Dream Squids” to all these new DLCs despite it only making sense in Friends to the end where they are literally in a dream. Why does Ninja Shantae collect Dream Squids? No clue. Is she dreaming this and that’s why? ♥♥♥♥ if I know. The worst sin these DLC commit is they don’t even try to be metroidvania DLC. There are strictly just platformer levels, using the levels from the main game with some alterations. There’s no backtracking, there’s no reason at all to play a level again once beat other than the Dream Squids, but you can collect them all on a first pass with very minimal difficulty. It was in fact so easy I got all the ending achievements for all these DLCs in a single playthrough. That’s 100% items in regular speedrun time with literally no challenge. The gameplay of these new modes wasn't even that fun expect maybe for Swimsuit. Completing these modes started to feel like a chore and not fun (Again probably my fault with the achievement thing, but I still feel the gameplay wasn’t that interesting and the level repetition would have turned me away if not for me wanting to get all the achievements.) I ended up not even playing Jammies mode since it didn’t award any achievements. I couldn’t bear to play the same repetitive levels again. It should be said that since I bought definitive edition I should be complaining since I basically go the DLC for free, but that doesn’t excuse how bad they are for those who didn’t get the definitive edition. 4.5/10 for the DLC the only redeemable one in my mind is PQQ. >>>>> Spoilers Over TL:DR on DLC: Only play Pirate Queen’s Quest and avoid the others. There were aspects of this game I found quite fun, but this is definitely a low in gameplay for the Shantae series despite being high for it graphically. I can’t impose how much I feel you should NOT go for all achievements and only play the main game and maybe PQQ. I really hope Seven Sirens steps up it’s game. 5.5/10
This franchise came out during a period of my life where I completely stepped away from video games because I was busy doing other stuff, so I never got to play them in their original versions and I just vaguely knew they were a solid series of games in the style of old-school platformers from the NES and SNES days. So this is my first Shantae game and I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. It plays like a classic platformer with some mild Metroidvania elements, so it feels much more like Mega Man or something like that than to a true Metroidvania. It looks beautiful, the characters are likeable and the story's tone is comedic and cartoony, so everything meshes well together. I've bought all the series on sale over the years, so I'll definitely try the others, though I'm keeping my expectations in check because this one is a remake, so the earlier sequels probably don't look or play as good, though the most recent games should be comparable.
Finished this game on Hard Core mode immediately after playing the previous games for the first time. I may be in the minority opinion, but there are aspects in the level design of this game that I find better than Risky's Revenge and Pirate's Curse. Although the game lacks an overworld map, it still holds plenty of incentives to backtrack like other metroidvanias. But it has a bigger focus on precision platforming. Supposedly the game is too easy on normal mode so I can't comment on that, but on hard mode I found it to be really challenging. So much so, that I started tilting by the time I got to that awful final stage... But despite the finale, I still really enjoyed 90% of the game. It isn't as funny and as charming as Pirate's Curse, but it still feels like Shantae. My biggest criticism is the repetitive levels throughout the included DLC modes. Although it's nice to get different flavored gameplay and characters, the levels and bosses are mostly the same. So it kinda gets less interesting with each subsequent playthrough. Best to space those out.
I'm writing this as I am finishing up the more annoying achievements in the game (like getting all win screens from the extra modes) Ok so, HGH, I'd consider it the black sheep of the series, it's still great fun as a standalone game, but if you're more familiar with the other Shantae games, that's where I think this game does a few things worse than Risky's Revenge or Pirate's Curse, and if you are planning on doing the extra modes (like I am), you'll probably start noticing a few issues. First, I wanna start with the positives: - Artstyle works great, if you like a cheerful and colorful world, you'll definitely enjoy it - The cast is fun - Music, like usual, is phenomenal work, I'd say it's somewhat on par with Pirate's Curse - Gameplay for normal Shantae, Risky, Ninja Shantae are pretty fun, Risky plays somewhat the same as Shantae in Pirate's Curse (minus the dash and down thrust) and Shantae's transformations are fun to mess around with - Levels are for the most part, well made, they reward exploring with the transformations you find across them - Bosses are decent - It's speedrunner-friendly and the game motivates you to play fast like with other Metroidvanias - Decent challenge, though it can get pretty easy in the main campaign (Hard Core mode does offer a better challenge, and imo a better way to play if you enjoy harder experiences) For mixed points: - This game leans into a linear stage level design (sort of like Mega Man X4-X6), meaning that the levels aren't connected like in a regular metroidvania, not even Pirate's Curse where they had the islands separate, this can lead to moments where you either have to use the warp dance or use the whistle to replay the level if you missed something or just gotten a new item, and it can get really annoying at first playthrough. -- During so many moments I felt like the level structure could've worked better had it functioned like a regular Metroidvania, especially with how much you backtrack and use the transformations - The regular jump is kinda hard to get used to at first especially when last game it felt just right Now for the negatives: - Plot feels pretty disconnected, the execution makes things pretty awkward, things just happen to keep the plot going - Final boss sucks, it's piss easy and pretty underwhelming - Some transformations feel a bit redundant once you get another one later on (like Spider and Crab), I think some of them could've been condensed to other forms (like Harpy and Mermaid) - The extra modes (Friends to the End, Ninja, Officer, Beach and Jammies) while a fun novelty casually, aren't as fun to go through because they follow essentially the same flow, just with a different gimmick, you go through the same stages, with a gem-dependent level system dictating your attack, speed and specials, and you lose a level if you get hit enough times, while it's not egregious to the point of rage-quitting, it is extremely annoying also since you don't get access to heath upgrades, defense, items or different magic (like with Risky's campaign), and for each of these, you can collect 3 dream squids in the stage for completion, which do nothing at all. Because of this shared structure, it gets really repetitive. for the extra modes themselves, I'll do some mini-reviews -- Pirate Queen's Quest has you play as Risky, and like I said, she plays similarly to how Shantae did in Pirate's Curse, she's pretty fun to play as and the farther you go you get permanent upgrades which does have you go through the same levels again but the backtracking isn't as bad as with the main game, her ammo switching is fun. 8/10 -- Friends to the End has you play as Bolo, Rottytops and Sky, and you switch between them to get through the levels, but it gets really clunky once it requires you to switch between characters abilities (needing to use Sky's wrench platform, then switch to rottytops to land on the platform then switch to bolo to grab onto rings), it just doesn't feel good to switch constantly. 6/10 -- Ninja Mode while fun, suffers the same issues as the other modes thanks to the shared structure, faster movement, wall jumping and teleporting are cool, but the gem levels are a hit or miss. 7/10 -- Officer mode is a bit slower since you can't crawl or swim or use magic, it's based on Mighty Switch Force, and while I haven't played those games, this mode offers the most overhaul in the levels, and for that reason I'd say this one feels the most polished especially since the levels already sort of work in favor of the block switching mechanic, at first I didn't like it that much, but it works better than the other modes. 8/10 -- Jammies is basically an easy mode for the game, just more linear and no transformations. 6/10 -- Beach mode especially was awful to go through because you're constantly worrying over the sun meter which drains your health when full, and with some enemies going all over the place and you needing to rush through levels (especially second to last boss), it's just bad. 2/10 I would say this is the biggest game so far, for that reason I would say it is a decent start to the series IF you don't mind going to metroidvanias later on, but man you're gonna need a break after this if you go for true 100% completion
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Frequently Asked Questions
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is currently priced at 24.99€ on Steam.
No, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 24.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition received 811 positive votes out of a total of 901 achieving a rating of 8.49.
😎
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition was developed by WayForward and published by WayForward .
Yes, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is not playable on MacOS.
No, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is not playable on Linux.
Yes, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is playable on Steam Deck, though it might require a few minor tweaks. Make sure to check the Steam store page and community feedback on ProtonDB for exact compatibility details.
Yes, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is playable and fully supported on Steam Machine.
No, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition does not support VR.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is a single-player game.
No, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition does not currently offer any DLC.
No, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
No, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 24 September 2026 21:23 UTC |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 22 October 2026 23:27 UTC |
| Steam price | 26 October 2026 19:57 UTC |
| Steam reviews | 20 October 2026 09:52 UTC |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition compatibility
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Game modes
Features
Online players
12
Developer
WayForward
Publisher
WayForward
Release
08 May 2018
Platforms
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