Welcome to the Weekly Nintendo Corner! Every week, as the weekend nears, Smashboards will be covering a title from the Nintendo pantheon. Most of the time, these are new releases or games that are coming out soon, but we’re not exempt from surprises – every once in a while, there may be an old classic or forgotten treasure thrown in! Check back every week for the scoop on the upcoming Nintendo games. This week’s topic is a double feature of Kickstarted indie games!
Hyper Light Drifter
Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero
Both Hyper Light Drifter and Shantae: Half Genie Hero – Why are these two being put together? Both are indie games coming out this year being released on the Wii U.
Hyper Light Drifter
Hyper Light Drifter is a new IP that’s labeled under the Action RPG genre and features elements from A Link to the Past and Diablo.
The goal was to create a game that’s easy to pick up, but addictive and hard to master. With the theme of a dark, detailed, and interconnected world, it all presents a game that’s valued beautifully.
Shantae: Hale Genie Hero
Shantae, unlike Hyper Light Drifter, is not a new series. Shantae: Half Genie hero has had three other entries – Shantae, Shantae: Risky Revenge, and Shantae: The Pirate’s Curse. All these entries can be found on the Nintendo 3DS. Shantae is a platformer that’s known for its emphasis on exploration, similar to the Metroid games.
Shantae is focused as a sequel on putting more emphasis on perfect controls to make newcomers of the series the best introduction they can; big priority has been placed on making Shantae look the best and on storyline.
Premise
“Drifters of this world are the collectors of forgotten knowledge, lost technologies and broken histories. Our Drifter is haunted by an insatiable illness, traveling further into the lands of Buried Time, steeped in blood and treasure hoping to discover a way to quiet the vicious disease. Echoes of a dark and violent past from the dead eras resonate throughout and he can't help but listen.” (Taken from theHyper Light Drifter Kickstarter page)
“Shantae is roused from a deep sleep, suddenly alert. She plunges into the moonlit forest in search of answers. In nearby Scuttle Town she discovers a mysterious trapdoor, and beyond that, a luminous subterranean cavern. A familiar voice calls out, drawing Shantae to a beautiful fountain. Touching its waters she is immediately spirited away to the fabled Genie Realm. At her feet a magical seal swells as some powerful evil seeks escape. The chamber trembles with a deep, bellowing roar and everything goes white. Shantae sits upright, back in her bed. Was it just a dream? Or a vision of things to come?”
Features
Both Shantae and Hyper Light Drifter are loaded with features; thanks to backers, they were able to be expanded upon even more!
Shantae
Highly Expansive from the Originals – With a prologue, three chapters, and an epilogue, that’s already enough to satisfy a whole game, right? Thanks to the Kickstarter, four bonus chapters are included as well!
Multiple Playable Characters – Is playing the game once not enough? Shantae features Rottytops, Bolo, Sky, and Risky all as playable characters – Each with their own abilities and story crafted!
Special Costumes – Special Costumes are featured, and while most of these are original to Shantae, the “Drifter Blade” from Hyper Light Drifter is available to any backers!
Hyper Light Drifter
Multiplayer Modes – Both Co-Op *and* competitive multiplayers are featured through-out all of Hyper Light Drifter.
Challenge Mode – This isn’t as usual new game plus or anything; it’s a mode that allows the player to have several mini-quests to test their skill in waves. How long can the player level up through boss rush runs, speed runs, and other oddities that wouldn’t fit into the core game?
New Game+ - Know how there was a joke about this earlier? A New Game+ is indeed available as well!
About the Team(s)
Shantae: Half Genie Hero was developed by Way Forward Technologies located in Valencia, California. Along with the Shantae series, they’re responsible for Contra 4, Mighty Switch Force, Ducktales Remastered, The Adventure Time and Regular Show games, and Sigma Star Saga. The rest of their games can be found over here, for those curious.
Hyper Light Drifter was developed by Heart Machine. While they weren’t an entity that all worked together until now, amongst their group, there’s been work done on Fez, The Moonlighters, and Samurai Gunn. More information about Heart Machine and Hyper Light Drifter can be found at their website here!
Music
Hyper Light Drifter & Shantae: Half-Genie Hero were both planned October releases, but unfortunately had to be delayed to “Sometime in 2015” / “End of Holiday Season 2014” for final touches. They’ll both be out on Wii U, PS4, Steam, Vita, and Xbox One with Shantae also available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Keep an eye out for them!
Thethirdkoopa is a Game Producer, Game Collector, Musician, Gamer, and Smash Fanatic at heart who loves making these articles weekly. He's a friendly guy too. Go talk to him on Twitter about indie games! @Thirdkoopa
Hyper Light Drifter
Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero
Hyper Light Drifter
Hyper Light Drifter is a new IP that’s labeled under the Action RPG genre and features elements from A Link to the Past and Diablo.
The goal was to create a game that’s easy to pick up, but addictive and hard to master. With the theme of a dark, detailed, and interconnected world, it all presents a game that’s valued beautifully.
Shantae: Hale Genie Hero
Shantae, unlike Hyper Light Drifter, is not a new series. Shantae: Half Genie hero has had three other entries – Shantae, Shantae: Risky Revenge, and Shantae: The Pirate’s Curse. All these entries can be found on the Nintendo 3DS. Shantae is a platformer that’s known for its emphasis on exploration, similar to the Metroid games.
Shantae is focused as a sequel on putting more emphasis on perfect controls to make newcomers of the series the best introduction they can; big priority has been placed on making Shantae look the best and on storyline.
Premise
“Drifters of this world are the collectors of forgotten knowledge, lost technologies and broken histories. Our Drifter is haunted by an insatiable illness, traveling further into the lands of Buried Time, steeped in blood and treasure hoping to discover a way to quiet the vicious disease. Echoes of a dark and violent past from the dead eras resonate throughout and he can't help but listen.” (Taken from theHyper Light Drifter Kickstarter page)
“Shantae is roused from a deep sleep, suddenly alert. She plunges into the moonlit forest in search of answers. In nearby Scuttle Town she discovers a mysterious trapdoor, and beyond that, a luminous subterranean cavern. A familiar voice calls out, drawing Shantae to a beautiful fountain. Touching its waters she is immediately spirited away to the fabled Genie Realm. At her feet a magical seal swells as some powerful evil seeks escape. The chamber trembles with a deep, bellowing roar and everything goes white. Shantae sits upright, back in her bed. Was it just a dream? Or a vision of things to come?”
Both Shantae and Hyper Light Drifter are loaded with features; thanks to backers, they were able to be expanded upon even more!
Shantae
Highly Expansive from the Originals – With a prologue, three chapters, and an epilogue, that’s already enough to satisfy a whole game, right? Thanks to the Kickstarter, four bonus chapters are included as well!
Multiple Playable Characters – Is playing the game once not enough? Shantae features Rottytops, Bolo, Sky, and Risky all as playable characters – Each with their own abilities and story crafted!
Special Costumes – Special Costumes are featured, and while most of these are original to Shantae, the “Drifter Blade” from Hyper Light Drifter is available to any backers!
Hyper Light Drifter
Multiplayer Modes – Both Co-Op *and* competitive multiplayers are featured through-out all of Hyper Light Drifter.
Challenge Mode – This isn’t as usual new game plus or anything; it’s a mode that allows the player to have several mini-quests to test their skill in waves. How long can the player level up through boss rush runs, speed runs, and other oddities that wouldn’t fit into the core game?
New Game+ - Know how there was a joke about this earlier? A New Game+ is indeed available as well!
About the Team(s)
Shantae: Half Genie Hero was developed by Way Forward Technologies located in Valencia, California. Along with the Shantae series, they’re responsible for Contra 4, Mighty Switch Force, Ducktales Remastered, The Adventure Time and Regular Show games, and Sigma Star Saga. The rest of their games can be found over here, for those curious.
Hyper Light Drifter was developed by Heart Machine. While they weren’t an entity that all worked together until now, amongst their group, there’s been work done on Fez, The Moonlighters, and Samurai Gunn. More information about Heart Machine and Hyper Light Drifter can be found at their website here!
Music
Hyper Light Drifter & Shantae: Half-Genie Hero were both planned October releases, but unfortunately had to be delayed to “Sometime in 2015” / “End of Holiday Season 2014” for final touches. They’ll both be out on Wii U, PS4, Steam, Vita, and Xbox One with Shantae also available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Keep an eye out for them!
Thethirdkoopa is a Game Producer, Game Collector, Musician, Gamer, and Smash Fanatic at heart who loves making these articles weekly. He's a friendly guy too. Go talk to him on Twitter about indie games! @Thirdkoopa
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