With ten days of a thirty day crowdfunding attempt now passed, Shantae Half-Genie Hero is now at only a little over half its goal of $400K. While this is certainly an accomplishment for such a niche game, I can't help but express some disappointment in the speed (or lack thereof) of the funding in question. There is no doubt that Shantae will certainly be funded in time, but as far as any stretch goals are concerned there is a seriously large question mark hanging overhead.
WayForward have been actively creating post after post to keep their new found community invigorated, responding quickly to questions and concerns as well as changing aspects of the game and Kickstarter page on the fly to satisfy fans. And yet it is not drawing in the large crowd I personally would have expected. Some would attribute this to the poor timing given Mighty No. 9's Kickstarter launch mere days before Shantae's. Shantae's following has been strong in spite of its issues, but I feel it ought to be even stronger.
For those who don't know, Shantae is a 2D platforming series about a half-genie protecting a small town from a nefariousness pirate named Risky Boots. This iteration is the first time that WayForward has attempted to do a console iteration and for all major consoles, both previous and current generation. A certainly very promising prospect, especially for fans of platforming games.
My hope in the end is for those who donated to Mighty No. 9 as well as to other KS platformer titles to see a similar appeal in Shantae and hopefully pledge for that game as well, but because it is not nearly as well know, it really is up to gaming fans to spread the game and its kickstarter around. I can only do so much as one person, but maybe I can encourage you to this game a much stronger push. If you have other friends or actively engage in community discussions on other sites, consider spreading the link around or just opting to talk about the game with some who many not already know of it. It probably comes off as being a walking advertisement, but I feel this title may largely benefit from it.
With another twenty or so days to go and the goal still not met, I hope with this blog I can convince some of you N4G users out there to pledge, spread the word or do both (assuming you have not yet done so) and boost the game's chances of not only being made, but surpassing what the bare minimum will offer. Most people know me as one of N4G's bigger Nintendo guys, but for me the Shantae series was always the real deal and this new game is by no means any exception. I certainly cannot wait to play it and I hope my excitement is shared by all of you.
Now go out there and pledge and talk and spread the word if you can. If you're unsure, give the game a look at least. I personally don't think you will walk away disappointed.
Exit Condition One HD is a remaster of a three-year-old game, available now for SteamVR and Meta Quest players.
NVIDIA has just announced that the Path Tracing Patch for DOOM: The Dark Ages will be released tomorrow, June 18th.
A psychological survival horror game that takes place in 1990s Poland where you play as Tomasz who is searching for his missing friend in the town Jeziorne-Kolonia. A strange substance has taken over the town and is transforming its inhabitants into grotesque monsters.
Well, considering that there's been no response, I guess I'll have to dish out a heavy sigh.
Can't say I didn't give it my best shot though.
I'm more interested in Project Phoenix and Mighty No.9, but No.9 kinda screwed Shantae over.
After seeing a spiritual successor to MegaMan, people probably said to themselves 'Hm, I want to support Shantae, but I wanna support Mighty No.9 more.'
I wrote this on another forum, thought I'd post it here:
"It's weird when you compare it to Shantae, which is asking for less than half of what Mighty No. 9 is and will in all likelyhood be a longer and more dynamic adventure than anything going off the template of Mega Man. Not to mention it was being developed for nearly every platform from the start, whereas MN9 needed over half of its minimum funding just to reach current-gen consoles.
If this is going to be nearly identical to Mega Man, then the main stages will theoretically be able to be completed in a few minutes. If that's true, then a few mini-mission modes based off the campaign aren't going to help with the value much. I have no doubt MN9 will be fantastic as a spiritual successor to Mega Man, but I agree that these stretch goals are asking too much to make a complete game. The padding with that documentary and including all the story robots and such is particularly insulting. Shantae is offering a whole new version of the campaign with the first stretch goal. Whole new chapters to the game, new abilities, voice acting, ect. All for roughly a third of what MN9 is asking for in full stretch goals and the content itself sounds much more substantial and fair.
MN9 hasn't even shown real in-game assets yet (not to be confused with actual, functioning gameplay), while Shantae had a whole trailer showing them off. Mega Man's popularity must be incredibly influential, because Shantae is having to work much harder for its funding than MN9 when it isn't asking for nearly as much. It doesn't seem right."