WayForward is extremely close to the finish line with Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. The studio remains in the testing phase, and is currently taking care of bugs on various platforms. A final date isn’t set, though WayForward will have more news to share once the game reaches the submission phase.
Other than that, WayForward also shared the lineup of product features for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Here’s the news straight from the studio:
- New Game Plus! We’ve added a bonus mode which will unlock when you clear the game for the first time! Speed runners and sequence breakers – this feature is for you. Expect some kind of treat for completing the game quickly!
- Transformations! The game contains five chapters, two of which were stretch goals. As with all previous games, this means 1 transformation per chapter for a total of FIVE, right? NO! This time, Shantae will transform into a whopping 10 forms – 11 if you include the Tinkerbat Form. A few of these forms are very unusual… hmm.
- Magical Attacks and Upgrades. We’ve added upgrades for many of the most popular Shantae powers from the past. Storm Puff, Bubble Shield, Pike Ball, and Fireball are back. But this time you can upgrade all of them through multiple stages, with some devastatingly powerful final forms. For example, you can upgrade Pikeball into the “SCIMITAR”, which will cut any foe down to size in seconds. There are other upgrades too, but we’ll let you find those for yourself!
- GIGA WRENCH and Warp Dance! New to Half-Genie Hero is the Warp Dance. Get this dance, and you can zip around the stages within a given world with ease. To travel between worlds, you can catch a ride on Giga Wrench! Whenever you need a lift, blow Sky’s Bird-Whistle for a quick lift!
- Expanded Art Gallery: As planned, the Scuttle Town Art Gallery will house the 50+ images created by Backers. Now we’ve expanded that feature to include additional artwork created by our concept artists, animators, and friends at Inti Creates. Look for over 100 pieces of original artwork to unlock! If you unlock all of the images, you might get a special reward from the Mayor.
Several new 3DS themes are out now in Japan. Here’s the lineup:
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- (x2) – 200 yen each
Sonic (x3) – 200 yen each
Kyoufu! Zombie Neko – 200 yen
A few new titles are coming to the Japanese eShop on October 26. Here’s a look at the upcoming digital downloads:
Wii U Virtual Console
Baseball Simulator 1000 (Famicom, 514 yen)
3DS Download
Koneko no Ie: Kirishimake to Sanbiki no Koneko – 500 yen
Nintendo released official videos for Picross 3D and Super Chinese 2: Dragon Kid on the Japanese Wii U Virtual Console. Watch them below.
Another round of footage has been posted for Pirate Pop Plus, which launches on Thursday on Wii U and New 3DS. View the latest gameplay below.
SteamWorld Heist nearly had multiplayer. That’s according to Image & Form community manager Julius Guldbog, who said in a Reddit AMA that the functionality was “seriously considered”. Time was the only reason why it wasn’t included in the end.
Guldbog stated:
“We would love multiplayer and seriously considered it for Heist. In the end we ran out of time, simply.”
As another aside, the SteamWorld Heist hat packs are still planned for 3DS. Image & Form “ran into a nasty bug that will take some time to fix since DLC on 3DS didn’t work the way we thought,” though the team will “definitely compensate 3DS owners for the long wait”.
Do you remember how Smash Bros. would restart after closing the game on an older 3DS system? Well, now we have another game that operates similarly.
Those who have been playing the Pokemon Sun/Moon demo on older 3DS models (not the New 3DS), noticed that the system fully reboots after it’s been closed. Miiverse is also disabled, and the Home Menu lags while the demo is open.
It just goes to show how many resources Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon require. Of course, if you’re on a New 3DS, you won’t ever run into anything like this.
Several years ago, Flat Black Films made the DSiWare app Inchworm Animation. The company is now returning with Butterfly: Inchworm Animation II, a successor for the 3DS eShop.
It’ll have the following features:
– Revolutionary looping motion graphics engine with 30 frames-per-second playback. Draw as it plays!
– Eight endlessly-configurable dynamic brush tools with custom presets
– Timeline with up to 5 layers and 2 soundtracks, for scripting events and sound effects
– Use stereoscopic 3D to arrange your layers in the third dimension. Give your movies true depth!
– Record and edit Audio, use the built-in sound -effect library or the groovy sound-effects generator!
– Shoot video, time-lapse, and stop-motion photography
– Onionskin (including video onionskin for stop-motion)
– Slick antialiased brushes with full 24-bit color and transparency
– Import from Nintendo Camera / Export to SD
– introducing the Butterfly Online Gallery! Share your movies with the world – upload/download animation, rate and comment on work. Host your own virtual art studio at www.butterflyanimation.com!
Inchworm Animation II will be out on October 27 in North America for $5. European and Japanese releases will also follow. We’ve posted a trailer for the title below.
Analyst and Kantan Games CEO Dr. Serkan Toto shared some interesting tweets about Super Mario Run as well as the reveal of NX a few minutes ago.
Regarding Super Mario Run, DeNA is handling actual development – not Nintendo. DeNA is primarily in charge of the engineering and creation. However, the company isn’t designing or directing it. Nintendo watches over QA and is essentially the creative team. Shigeru Miyamoto is personally overseeing Super Mario Run’s progress as we know. To clarify further, Super Mario Run is being designed and directed by Nintendo in Kyoto while DeNA takes care of engineering in Tokyo.
Toto has also heard that the NX will not be revealed this week, despite some rumors indicating otherwise. While that may (or may not) be true, it also seems that Nintendo will talk about its platform as part of its Q2 earnings next Wednesday – which certainly makes sense. Toto is more confidence in his source about Super Mario Run than NX.
Over on the Play Nintendo YouTube page, a new video is up showing how amiibo can be used with 3DS games, including Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, Kirby: Planet Robobot, and more. See it below.