Shantae: Half-Genie Hero to get its first update on Monday, will include Hard Core mode

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero was released in December last year, and after a well-deserved holiday break, the team has been hard at work on the DLC and the first update. Originally, it was only supposed to include (a lot of) bug fixes, but the developers obviously thought this would have been too sad an update, which is why they had kept a little surprise for fans.

And that surprise is none other than the Hard Core mode. As the name implies, it’s a special mode for the main Shantae mode, and not one for the faint of heart. According to WayForward, it was designed to “provide an old-school, tough-as-nails challenge to players who miss the days of rage-quitting and throwing controllers”.

Here’s everything you will find in this Hard Core mode for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero:

• Pain and suffering!
• Harder hitting enemies!
• Faster enemy patterns!
• Faster scroll speeds!
• Remixed enemy locations, and more of ‘em!
• New Boss patterns, attacks, and stats!
• Healing Items capped at six!
• Re-balanced magic items!
• Poor Shantae!

Naturally, since this mode is included with the first update for the game (Ver. 1.0.1), all players will get it for free, backer or not, digital or retail.

Here’s a trailer for it:

Speaking of the update, it will be available on Monday (March 6th), and all platforms are getting it on the same day (though not necessarily at the same time).

As for the DLC, the development team is still hard at work on it. According to them, the Risky Boots Mode is coming along “beautifully”. The animation team is almost done with Risky’s animation, and developers are currently creating custom level content for her. They’re not expecting to be done with this DLC until later this Spring.

Finally, WayForward teased some sort of announcement for the Nintendo Switch, which a message that is both cryptic and awfully obvious at the same time:

Last but not least, are you buying the new Nintendo Switch? The team over here is excited for Switch, and WayForward is a Switch developer. And yet, we haven’t announced… anything at all? It makes you think we’re up to something. It’s all so suspicious! Don’t worry – we’ll have more info for you soon. Enjoy launch day, and we’ll see you on the other side!

The first update for Shantae: Half-Genie Heroes (Wii U) will be released on March 6th.

Source: WayForward (Kickstarter)