Video Game / Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

The fourth game in the Shantae series, released for multiple platforms in 2016, two years after Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.

Once again, Risky Boots attacks Scuttle Town to retrieve the blueprints for one of Uncle Mimic's inventions. Shantae manages to beat her and protect the blueprints, but in order to stop her foe from completing the device, known as the Dynamo, Shantae must search the land for all the machine's components and have Uncle Mimic build it before Risky has a chance to build it herself.

The game continues with the separate level structure used by Pirate's Curse, but brings back the animal transformations and introduces some new ones.

Co-developed by Inti Creates and funded through Kickstarter, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero saw simultaneous release on all major home consoles of the eighth generation, as well as PC (through Steam) and the PlayStation Vita. An Ultimate Edition of the game, bundling the game with all of its DLC and previously Kickstarter backer-exclusive content, was released in 2018 with these new modes:

• Pirate Queen's Quest: Play as Risky Boots herself for the first time in the series and help her gather her Dynamo parts so she can conquer the world. Unlike Shantae, Risky slowly recovers the abilities from Pirate's Curse.
• Friends To The End: Bolo, Rottytops, and Sky also become playable for the first time as they must team up to save Shantae from a dark power gripping her. Each of them has their own set of abilities, and you must cycle through them and use those abilities to solve puzzles and navigate the world.
• Hard Core Mode: A harder version of the main story mode where enemies have more health, move faster, and deal more damage, and extra enemies and obstacles appear as well.

A "Day One" edition for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch that features an artbook and CD soundtrack along with a physical copy of the game was also released.

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This game contains examples of:

• Alas, Poor Villain: After defeating Squid Baron, Shantae laments that this time the villain seemingly blew up for good. It turns out he's fine.
• Anchored Attack Stance: The Super Mega Puff keeps Shantae in place, so the arrow keys that are usually used to move her around, can instead be used to designate in which direction she fires the electricity.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Scuttle Town has respawning jars that can be reset via entering the Art Gallery. Handy if you're short a few gems to get that upgrade before leaving the town.
  • If you fall off of the screen at anytime during the Magic Carpet Race, Shantae gets launched back up instead of dying, with Shantae holding her butt with a shocked expression on her face. Notably, this feature is absent in Hard Core Mode, where falling forces you to restart.
  • The game allows you to save right between level segments and even before boss battles, allowing you to pick up right where you left off if you die or exit the game.
• Another Side, Another Story:
  • While the start and end of Pirate Queen's Quest fall under "Rashomon"-Style and Unreliable Narrator, respectively, the events in between detail Risky's dealings with the Barons of Sequin Land as she assembles the Tinkerbrain. In particular, Ammo Baron in the main game mentions running into Risky, and Squid Baron's behaviour during his boss fight proves Hypno Baron's point about being 'impossible to work with'.
  • Although Friends to the End takes place within a short period of the main game from the player's perspective, it goes into greater detail on how Shantae's friends travelled through her memories to save her from dark magic and defeating Nega-Shantae.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: As opposed to the pixel art spritework in previous games, this game's sprites are done in a more cartoony style.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Shantae opens most Boss Battles with a proclamation of destroying the enemy; when there's a weak point to attack, she points it out.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A number of the bosses are absolutely gigantic. The first three bosses - the Tinkerslug, the Mermaid Queen, and Wilbur - all have the screen zoom out to show how large they are.
• Auto-Scrolling Level: Cape Crustacean's first part.
• Barrier Maiden: In the good ending, this is explained as to why the genies all left in the first place. They're out there keeping the world safe from even bigger threats.
• Beach Episode: The aptly-named Beach Mode DLC. Shantae is on a quest not to save the world, but rather to find a good beach to vacation on.
• Big Bad: Risky Boots, once again. She starts the game off by attacking Scuttle Town with her pirate crew. Turns out it's part of a Batman Gambit to give Shantae fake blueprints.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Hypno Baron's Castle, a spooky castle where Hypno Baron resides. The first part of the stage has you contend with Slime Girls, bats, ghost girls, succubi and a very confusing maze that will make you lost. The second part takes you outside in a storm where you'll have to go through some intense Platform Hell.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Risky's new ship, the Tinkerslug, is a giant sea snail with the top half of a ship mounted on top of it. Also Wilbur, a titanic centipede-like creature.
• Bittersweet Ending: Occurs if you immediately rush off to Risky's lair instead of helping the Barons to collect the polarizer. The day is saved, but Shantae is forced to destroy the Genie Realm to protect the world.
• Blackout Basement: One of the hidden rooms in the third level of Cape Crustacean is pitch black inside and filled with platforms and spikes, requiring Shantae to have the Bat Sonar ability to properly navigate. Or, if one feels like challenging themselves, you can find your way through using only the placement of jugs on platforms and the small flashes of light provided by Shantae's transformations.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The French translation is still understandable, but translates some sentences too literally, and as a result many lines are confusing at best and don't make sense at worst. The Italian one, oddly enough, has a decent translation for the main game, but an atrociously literal one for the DLC contents. The Spanish translation also translates lines too literally, as the French version.
• Brain Bleach: In Jammies Mode, it turns out that Techno Baron wears the same style of pajamas as Shantae. Fortunately, this is only something that's said rather than shown, but still.
• Caged Inside a Monster: Late in the game you encounter Slimegals, deceptively cute Slime Girls that engulf your character and deal constant damage until you manage to shake them off by Button Mashing. They're largely harmless as they can easily be escaped from often before they even manage to deal damage, implying they're not actually intending to harm you since they appear to be just trying to hug you.
• Call-Back:
  • When fighting Risky Boots, she uses all of the equipment she took back from Shantae in Pirate's Curse.
  • The four genies that appear at the end of the game resemble the four genies that Shantae rescued in the first game.
  • The Harpy and Spider transformations, absent in Risky's Revenge, have returned as late-game dances.
  • In the Friends to the End DLC, Shantae's memory of Cape Crustacean shows Rotty's human self, which Shantae had met in Pirate's Curse.
• Camera Abuse: The Officer mode from the Costume DLC allows Shantae to make certain platforms appear and disappear. If an enemy is standing where a platform is when it appears, they get sent flying into the camera for an instant kill that temporally cracks the screen.
• Cap: Shantae can hold a max of 6 of Monster Eggs.
• Chainmail Bikini: Although she's never depicted wearing it in game one of the relics you can pick up in the Item Shop is literally called "Bikini Armor". It reduces damage Shantae takes by half.
• Cherry Tapping: One of the trophies tasks you with defeating Risky Boots by biting at her ankles in mouse form.
• Chest Monster: One of the backer designed enemies is a Cute Ghost Girl who hides in treasure chests "to surprise unsuspecting heroes".
• Collection Sidequest: The game has you scouring the land for ten Gallery Keys that will let you unlock doors in the Art Gallery to view various official art and backer-submitted Fan Art. Finding all of the keys and unlocking all the doors gives Shantae a Magical Tiara that grants her unlimited mana.
• Creepy Centipedes: There's a colossal, one-eyed centipede monster living in the ruins of the deserted city of Tassel Town called Wilbur, encountered first as an Advancing Boss of Doom and later as a Pivotal Boss, coming out the center of a tower and attacking as Shantae runs around. Holly reveals that Wilbur eats memories, and she fed him the memories of Scuttle Town's inhabitants. Killing Wilbur releases the memories and causes Holly to vanish.
• David Versus Goliath: Shantae's much smaller than her biggest foes, such as the Tinkerslug, the Mermaid Queen, and Wilbur - all have the screen zoom out to show how large they are. The smallest of those would possibly be Tinkerslug, which is a whole ship that can fit at least 10 Tinkerbats, which are approximately Shantae's size, just on a third of what's visible of its top surface.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Every single boss is covered in multiple explosions after being defeated. Most of them end up being non-fatal.
• Denser and Wackier:
  • Hypno Baron, a source of some of the most nightmarish things in the game has some pretty ridiculous ambitions here. Subverted in the end where he plainly refuses to be cemented as some sort of comical relief and demands Shantae to find and give him souls so he can become stronger again.
  • The Costume DLC (Beach, Officer, Ninja, and Jammies^note technically not part of the Costume DLC, but listed here because it follows the same theme) episodes go beyond the realm of absurdity and sheer silliness.
• Directionally Solid Platforms: Unlike other games in the series, this one allows you to jump "down" them.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Shantae's voice actress Cristina Vee performs the game's theme song, "Dance Through the Danger."
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Risky may be the Final Boss, but after defeating her and destroying the Dynamo, Shantae isn't in the clear; the volcano island base starts to erupt, and she has to make an Indy Escape and survive to truly finish the game.
• Downer Ending: The ending to Pirate Queen's Quest. Though it's actually a good thing that Risky did not succeed.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: The corrupted Dynamo blasts Shantae with huge amounts of dark magic, and Shantae's genie half turns evil as a result. Nega-Shantae points out how incredible the power feels.
• Dual Boss: Twitch and Vinegar. Also, Squid Baron and Hypno Baron, once you defeat Squid for the first time.
• Dueling Player Characters: The final boss of the Pirate Queen's Quest DLC is the Shantae and Risky fight from the latter's perspective. That said, you probably didn't pull off half the moves Shantae is able to do during this version of the fight.
• Dungeon Bypass: In a New Game Plus, Shantae starts out with her transformation dances already unlocked, including the Harpy Dance which allows her to fly and thus skip much of the platforming that was required in the first play through.
• Easy Amnesia:
  • Every human in Scuttle Town comes down with amnesia about the time Shantae delivers the Copper Ore to Uncle Mimic. Holly is out of town at this time because she's the one that stole everyone's memories in the first place as food for her pet worm Wilbur.
  • In Risky's DLC, Risky's knowledge of Holly causes her to be remembered enough to rematerialize. After Wilbur's defeat, Holly gloats that she's still basically immortal as long as Risky remembers her... until one of the tinkerbats whacks Risky in the back of the head with a mallet, causing her to forget Holly completely.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Played with when Risky corrupts Shantae with the Dynamo. She had it tested on Shantae in order to get rid of her, but failed to consider Sky, Bolo and Rottytops being able to bring her back. Risky Lampshades it during Pirate's Queen Curse
  Risky: Bah! I should have dealt with those FRIENDS of yours first!
  • Nega-Shantae plays it staight during Friends To The End. She tries to make Sly, Bolo and Rottytops give up and lose hope by making them think she killed Shantae. It only drives them to defeat her more.
• Evil Is Hammy: Nega-Shantae's speech to Shantae's friends is rather over the top.
  "I know what you can do... you can suffer! You can squirm like the pathetic maggots you are! Wallow in torment and pain forever in oblivion! Now beg! Beg for your very lives!"
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire game, DLC side stories and all, takes place over the course of just one day. This is lampshaded after the fifth boss where the gang comments that stopping evil five times in one day is a new record for her.
• Failed a Spot Check: In the ending of Pirate Queen's Quest, if the Tinkerbats checked over the Dynamo for errors and made sure everything was okay, Risky would've won.
• Feminine Leg Swish: In "Pirate Queen's Quest", Bare Midriffs Are Feminine Risky Boots, is being a Bathing Beauty in her bathtub, in multiple possible positions that randomize when loading the Captain's Cabin. One of those positions has her thinking in her bathtub while on her stomach and her feet are in the air, waving forward and back.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Wilbur, the giant memory-eating Sand Worm.
• Foreshadowing: Unlike in the first game, the Burning Town scenario plays out after Risky has what she needs from Mimic's workshop, leaving little reason for the attack apart from For the Evulz. Once you find out Risky sabotaged the Dynamo's plans, it becomes clear the attack was staged in order to stall Shantae, giving her time to make the necessary changes before returning the blueprints.
• Funny Background Event: When you first enter the mermaid factory, you can see Bolo being dragged by the hooks upside down. Early on, a fish envelops his head. As you progress through the level, you can see Bolo struggling with the fish on his upper body.
• Fun with Acronyms: Risky's new ship, the Part Omni-Organic, Partially Titanic, Ocean-Optional Tinkerslug.
  Shantae: "P.O.O.P. T.O.O.T.?"
  Risky: "Don't call it that!"
• Game of The Year Edition: The Ultimate Edition serves as one for this game, which bundles all of the game's DLCs at a discounted price, in addition to featuring previously Kickstarter backer-only content.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In Beach Mode, Shantae is somehow able to get sunburned even in stages that take place indoors and/or at night.
• Genre Shift: Although the game still has lots of exploration and backtracking, it's much more of a straightforward action Platform Game rather than a Metroidvania. Instead of dungeons, it has lengthy platforming challenges, with discrete worlds and endpoints for each area.
• Glass Cannon: Shantae in Jammies Mode. Your base attack starts at a whopping 10 (courtesy of Rottytops) and can be upgraded to 16, which is high enough to destroy bosses in mere seconds. But like the other costume DLC, you're limited to only three hearts throughout the campaign.
• Golden Ending: Occurs if you don't rush off to Risky's lair and stick around town to help out the Barons. Doing so allows Uncle Mimic to create a polarizing device, which Shantae uses in the final battle to reverse the dark magic of the Dynamo. The day is saved and the Genie Realm survives, with the mysterious entity that visited Shantae thanking her for her efforts.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • The Super Mega Puff can fire in a straight line out from Shantae, in any direction, instead of just in front of her, isn't explained in its description, and only discovered if it's held down and the arrow keys used when using it.
  • Travelling in waterfalls only allow two adjacent places to travel from. If the waterfall intersects with a platform in a third location, it can't be used.
• Helpful Mook: The starfish enemies attack Shantae herself on sight... but if you're using the Mermaid transformation, they fall in love with you, follow you around, and will attack other enemies for you.
• Hero Antagonist:
  • In the Officer DLC, Ammo Baron is actually an undercover cop and gets into a fight with Officer Shantae because she ruined his investigation.
  • Shantae herself is the Final Boss during "Pirate Queen's Quest".
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Parodied in the Ninja route. Not only is she wearing a very conspicuous and skimpy ninja costume, but does things like loudly shouting "NINJA VANISH!!", admitting her identity only mere seconds after saying she should hide it, and claiming to be a tree while standing in an open field. Shantae is indeed far more detectable than a ninja should be, as according to Uncle Mimic at the end, Shantae has actually been wearing a thoroughly soiled diaper from her infancy, and hasn't noticed because she was wearing her uncle's odor-blocking mask.
• Hint System: The bathhouse attendants serve as hint-givers, as noted in the first conversation with one to acquire the Sales Slip, at the end of which she notes that she gives FREE HINTs. And after beating the Tinkerslug, she starts really working:
  Would you like a hint? [Yes] [No]
  
  Shantae says Yes: [Cycles through available hints]
  Want another hint? Ask again!
  
  Shantae says No: Okay then, have a nice day.
• Hybrid Power: Thanks to Shantae's genie half, she's unaffected by Wilbur's memory eating powers. Also, when Shantae's magic is turned evil, it's her human side that saves her. Uncle Mimic even states that her human side is the strongest part of herself.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: After Shantae's genie half gets corrupted by dark magic, Sky, Rotty and Bolo start to appeal to her human side, asking her to remember who she truly is. The Friends to the End DLC expands on this, showing them beating up Nega-Shantae in order to help Shantae recover.
• In the Blood: Holly says that having a Stage Magician for a father makes her more magical than other half-genies, but Shantae starts to retort that before being cut off:
  Shantae: Babies don't work that w-
  Mayor Scuttlebutt: It's true. She stole my nose AND removed her own thumb while I watched.
  As our OLD GUARDIAN GENIE, I'd like you to show her the ropes.
• Intimate Lotion Application: Beach Mode's third summer safety tip nods at this on applying sunscreen:
  Summer Safety Tips #3: "You could even get a friend or two to help out!"
  "Maybe even draw fan art of the whole scene! I mean, why not?"
  "Send a copy to "Sequin Land Safety" post office box number 8, care of Squid Baron."
  Shantae: Ugh.
  Moving on...
• It's All About Me: Holly is pretty full of herself. To the point that she made a deal with a memory-eating worm to keep the memories of her alive at the expense of others.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Risky's Evil Plan starts with stealing the blueprints to Mimic's latest invention, which is thwarted by Shantae in the first level. Her real plan was to sabotage the blueprints while she had them, let Shantae get the plans back, and wait for Mimic to build the Dynamo to Risky's specifications.
• Large and in Charge: The Mermaid Queen. The normal mermaids are Shantae's height, while the Queen is so big Shantae could fit in the palm of her hand.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the start of all of the Costume Pack DLC modes, Shantae comments that her debriefing/summer safety tips/ninja scroll is lengthy, and she wishes she had a way to just skip all of it - a subtle reminder to the player that skipping cutscenes is a thing in this game, in case they're on their second time through.
• Lethal Joke Item: In the Jammies update, your armament is a pillow and a cute bouncy sheep. They both deal considerable damage. The pillow is at least partially justified, as Rottytops is stowing away in it.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Pressing and holding down while in crab form will cause Shantae to pull a seashell over herself, hermit crab style. She can't be harmed while doing this. There is also a shield spell available that makes you fully invulnerable when upgraded, but it rapidly drains Shantae's magic.
• Magic Carpet: The annual Magic Carpet race, which requires Shantae to leap from rug to rug to reach the goal line first.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Pirate Queen's Quest ends with Risky defeating Shantae and activating the Dynamo to corrupt the Genie Realm, but a malfunction overlooked by the Tinkerbats causes the machine to explode, rendering Risky's plan all for nothing.
• Monster Modesty: The Mermaid Queen is the only mermaid who wears a Seashell Bra, while the rest are completely topless. Justified because unlike the Shantae-sized mermaids with undetailed bumps for breasts, Mermaid Queen is so enormous that her breasts are very visible and require a bit of covering.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Some of the dances Shantae can get only from the lamia merchant are mutually exclusive. To get one, she has to trade in the other. The money-generating Gem Jug dance can only be gotten if she traded in the valuable Warp Dance, and she has to trade in the Obliterate Dance to get the Blobfish Dance. Getting them, even if you trade them back right away, is required for 100% Completion.
• Mythology Gag: Shantae uses a grown-up version of Wrench to get around Sequin Land in this game, just as she did in the cancelled GBA title Shantae Advance.
• Newbie Immunity:
  • In the first level of the game, Shantae has no Life Meter, so she can't be damaged or get a Game Over.
  • "Friends To The End" mode also has no Life Meter in its tutorial section.
• Nintendo Hard:
  • Hard Core Mode. Shantae takes more damage, enemies have more health as well as move faster, extra enemies and obstacles are placed where there were none before, late game foes appear much earlier, healing items are capped at 6 instead of 9, falling in the Cape Crustacean carpet race section now sends Shantae back to the beginning instead of bouncing her back up, and the Magical Tiara now gives slight magic regeneration instead of infinite magic.
  • The Friends to the End DLC is rather brutal as well - Bolo, Sky and Rottytops share a measly 3 hearts between themselves (which can't be upgraded), and while Rotty's got a healing mechanic, it eats up half her Dream Magic bar every time it's used, and almost nothing drops health or magic for the trio.
  • Beach Mode. Not only do you have the usual platforming to deal with, but now you also have to make sure Shantae has enough lotion to keep from frying up. Not so bad during the levels themselves, but the lotion can be hard to come by in the boss battles.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Harpy Talon here allows Shantae to fire off Feather Flechettes when in Harpy form, rather than actually use its talons to attack like in the first game.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: The mermaids were rampaging because their queen and many of their kind were kidnapped and imprisoned, not because they were jealous of the other maidens. After you rescue their queen and free their imprisoned members from Techno Baron, they become friendly and no longer appear as enemies on the Mermaid Falls stage.
• Pain-Powered Leap: Outside of Hardcore Mode, Shantae loses some health and bounces back onto stage if she falls off during the Magic Carpet Race, holding on to her hurting butt. While all playable characters leap back onto the stage after falling off, only the female characters grab their butts in pain on the way back up.
• Pajama-Clad Hero: The update-added Jammies Mode has Shantae go through levels in her jammies.
• Perverted Drooling: Bolo's first seen mesmerized by the bathhouse attendant, such that she assumes he's a BUFFOON STATUE with the drool as a water feature:
  I love the water feature on that BUFFOON STATUE! The slow drip from its slacked jaw is SO relaxing!
• Pivotal Boss: Wilbur's boss battle (after his Advancing Boss of Doom phase in the middle of the level) is this, with Shantae running on a ring-shaped platform with the boss towering over her from the middle. The Final Boss, Tinkerbrain, is likewise fought in the same manner.
• Play as a Boss: The Pirate Queen's Quest DLC has the series' main villain, Risky Boots, as its playable character, and she has several moves from her boss fight in the base game.
• Post-Treatment Lollipop: Part of a Chain of Deals side quest requires you to trade "sick" for "lollipop" by visiting a doctor.
• Promoted to Playable: Certain stretch goals promised certain characters becoming playable with their own story and abilities in Half-Genie Hero. They have both been reached:
  • $500,000 for Risky Boots to become playable with her own storyline.
  • $900,000 for Rottytops, Bolo, and Sky to become playable in a shared storyline.
• "Rashomon"-Style: Played for Laughs at the start and end of Pirate Queen's Quest. The story begins with Risky's narration proclaiming that "This is what REALLY happened"; the first cutscene is a repeat of Mimic's completed dynamo turning Shantae's light magic into dark magic, and aside from Mimic blatantly praising Risky's intellect in a way he never really would, it plays out like a basic Rashomon retelling. The final boss fight is Shantae's attack on the factory from Risky's perspective, and goes full-blown Unreliable Narrator; Risky takes victory... only for the Tinkerbrain to self-destruct because of her incompetent Tinkerbats. Turns out she's just (re)telling the story to her Tinkerbat crew.
• Record Needle Scratch: Hypno Baron summons a "creature of unspeakable horror" to ominous music... only for this trope to take place when the creature turns out to be Squid Baron.
• Recycled Soundtrack: All the music in the Officer Mode DLC is recycled from Mighty Switch Force! 1 and 2.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Mermaid Queen is so enraged over being held captive that both her eyes and hair jewel turn red; once she's pacified, her eyes and jewel are blue, their natural color. Nega Shantae's eyes are red as well.
• Refuge in Audacity: In the ending of the Ninja Mode DLC episode, Shantae proudly proclaims herself as a Ninja Master...until Uncle Mimic comes along and delivers some interesting news to Shantae. Her Ninja suit actually arrived. The "Ninja Suit" she was wearing the whole time was her old potty training clothes she wore as a child (including her diaper). It hasn't been washed in years and also lost its original color (it used to be white). The reason Shantae didn't notice the odor from her old clothes? The "Ninja mask" she was wearing was Uncle Mimic's odor blocking mask, and the "Ninja Scroll" she was reading? It was actually Toilet Paper.
  Uncle Mimic: Looking back, you sure did take toilet training seriously.
• Rise to the Challenge: Wilbur, to begin with, chases Shantae up a tower. He becomes a conventional boss a bit later.
• Rump Roast: Falling off during the Magic Carpet Race will cause your character to rise right back up in this manner, just losing some health.
  • Surprisingly only suffered by the female characters, as they are the only ones who grab their butts in pain on the way back up.
• Same Content, Different Rating: Most Shantae games are rated E10+. Half-Genie Hero is rated T, largely because of more detailed animations and slightly more overt movement.
• Secret A.I. Moves: The Risky vs. Shantae fight at the end has this on both sides.
  • During the main game, Risky possesses a stick-bomb shot from her pistol and a giant anchor to drop down. She's also much faster and jumps much higher in the boss fight with her.
  • The Shantae boss fight in Pirate Queen's Quest and the Nega-Shantae fight in Friends to the End has her use powered-up versions of her transformations, such as dropping from the air as an Elephant, Speed Blitzing as a monkey, summoning geysers to warp between as a crab, leaping into the air as a mermaid and firing omni-directional bubbles, and turning the screen dark while flying as a bat. Also, the bat can fly up and down as well as left and right.
• Sequel Hook: At the end of the game, Rottytops, Bolo and Sky all mention a prospective adventure each of them have lined up. The Genie Spirit also warns that Shantae's mother had to leave in order to prevent "even worse dangers" from escaping from the Genie Realm to Shantae's world...
• Shifting Sand Land: Tassel Town is this as well as Gusty Glade and Ruins for Ruins' Sake, the latter courtesy of a sandstorm that destroyed the town centuries prior. Encountered in the level are cactus-like Spikebugs, Bird People who drop said Spikebugs from the air, a bow-wielding Amazon Brigade, and Sand Worms, both smaller individual ones, and a giant specimen that chases Shantae in the auto-scrolling tower section before returning as the world's boss under Lingerbean's command.
• Shout-Out:
  • Ikki the Chest Monster is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Nikki from the ill-fated Swapnote application.
  • When enemies die, they launch through the edge of the screen, exploding when they cross the border.
  • One of the achievements is named "Jump Jump Slide Slide". You get it by jumping over all of the barrels in the area where Shantae's sliding down a ramp, like the prompts of Mega Man 8's snowboarding sections.
  • An achievement is named "Master of Unlocking", which you get by unlocking all 10 Art Galleries.
  • Shantae instructing the player to defeat a boss at the start of most Boss Battles (i.e. "Destroy P.O.O.P. T.O.O.T.!" "Destroy the locks!" "Destroy Ammo Baron's army!" "Defeat Risky Boots!") may or may not be a Gradius reference. Or Peppy Hare in Star Fox 64.
  • When Shantae returns to Tassel Tower, it's now occupied by tiny one-eyed snakes that drop onscreen from nowhere and stalk mindlessly forward, just like the Shemum.
  • When Shantae's infiltrating Risky's Hideout as a mermaid, she could pick up some starfish companions that will act exactly like the Options in the Gradius games.
  • One of the dances Shantae has to trade (the Super Revive Dance) for is the Sophia III Dance, which changes her to a Shantae-headed tank able to shoot in 3 directions. She is a DLC character in Blaster Master Zero.
  • Techno Baron is complaining to Shantae about being forced to do a billion hours of community service for the shenanigans he did earlier in the game, Shantae suggests whistling while he works.
  • The third boss is a reference to Kill la Kill as Ammo Baron uses the fibers of magic carpets to make battle uniforms for himself and his men, and when Shantae beats him, she destroys the costumes, reducing the Baron and his men to their underwear. It may also be a call-out to Vega / M. Bison, as Ammo Baron's upgraded commander outfit is red, and he hovers around the battle with his arms crossed and a big grin on his face.
    • When facing him in the Friends to the End DLC, he starts making A Whole New World references, offering to "show [Sky and Rottytops] the world" and getting the Boss Subtitles "Shining Shimmering Soldier".
  • After Hypno Baron's castle, the person outside the Item Shop talks about the animated movie, "The Little Bog Sahagin", presumably a reference to The Little Mermaid (1989), especially since the Bog Sahagin is called a "fish girl" who dreams of marrying something, which is an "Iron Slab" which mermaids could be described as fish girls as well, and the titular one did dream of marriage to something, a prince.
  • At one point, Grandma Blobfish asks Shantae to find her a hat. She eventually finds one: a trucker hat saying "Foxy Grandma."
• Sinister Scimitar: Played straight by Risky and her Tinkerbats, being vicious pirates and all, though technically Shantae can use the Scimitar item to summon a circle of scimitars around her, though it's more of a magic attack.
• Slide Level: The last section of Level 2 of Half Genie Hero, Mermaid Falls, ends with Shantae sliding down a waterway which requires her to jump over Bottomless Pits and falling barrels while also dodging enemies.
• Slime Girl: The pink Slimegals enemies in Hypno Baron's castle, who turn into their blob forms to move around. Their grab attack used to eat Shantae has them hugging her before she's engulfed.
• Snake Oil Salesman: Tuki, the snake saleswoman who sells a combination of useful and not-so useful dances for Shantae to buy and trade for. Downplayed, in that you can always trade the not-so useful dances back for their more useful counterparts at any time for no cost.
• Spoiler Title: Of a sort. The game was announced before Pirate's Curse released. At the end of Risky's Revenge, Shantae had lost her genie magic, making her a human instead of a half-genie. Pirate's Curse starts with Shantae workng to still protect Scuttle Town as a human. The title "Half-Genie Hero" made it obvious that Pirate's Curse would end with Shantae's genie half restored.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: The background is in 3D, but the characters and enemies are sprites.
• Statuesque Stunner: Taken to the extreme with Giga Mermaid, one of the early bosses. An enormous and beautiful mermaid queen who takes up most of the screen in the first phase of her fight. In fact, the screen has to zoom out in order to keep her in view.
• Stealth Sequel: The story and trailer make it obvious that the game is not a prequel or a reboot. The appearance of the Chef Girl from Risky's Revenge makes it a full on sequel (and not a soft reboot, even though some people like to think of it that way). It is pretty obvious that as Shantae has her genie powers, it canonically takes place after Pirate's Curse (after the Golden Ending, where she regained her powers, Came Back Strong, and took down the Pirate Master solo).
  • One of the first characters that you talk to lampshades this by being confused what "a series" she likes did with the current installment.
  • A surprise appearance from Rotty's human form in Friends to the End further cements Half Genie Hero as a sequel to Pirate's Curse.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In Friends To The End, Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops constantly bicker and snipe at each other (Sky and Bolo barely trust Rottytops due to her shaky history, Sky and Rottytops see Bolo as an incompetent idiot, Bolo and Rottytops think Sky is a bossy Insufferable Genius). Eventually subverted, as they learn to reel in their egos and work together in order to save Shantae.
• Tennis Boss: Defeating Wilbur involves knocking out its eye, hitting it back and forth as it rolls around a circular platform, with the eye getting faster each time Shantae hits it.
• Title Drop: Variations of the phrase "Half-Genie Hero" are inserted into the dialogue at several points.
  • During the final cutscene of said mode, Sky title drops Friends To The End.
• Unexpected Shmup Level: The first section of Risky's Lair is essentially a shoot 'em up level using the mermaid form (with starfish as semi-independent drones), in a Call-Back to Risky's Revenge.
• Unstoppable Rage: When you confront Techno Baron and he reveals he has the Mermaid Queen captive, Shantae frees her while having to dodge various magical attacks from the angry titanic mermaid. However, upon being freed, the Mermaid Queen is still so utterly pissed off that she targets the closest living thing: Shantae. And she won't stop until you manage to calm her down by hitting her magical hair jewel.
• The Unfought: Techno Baron is the only of the Sequin Land Barons who is never fought directly. Holly is never fought either.
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: The Costume DLC does this for the cast, to match Shantae's changed gameplay mechanics.
• Vague Stat Values:
  • The precise range of the Power-Up Magnet passive effect, "Attract" and its stronger versions are unstated:
    Attract: Automatically draws in nearby Gems and Hearts!
    Super Attract: Automatically draws in Gems and Hearts from a greater distance!
    Max Attract: Automatically draws in Gems and Hearts from a significant distance!
  • The Revive Dance restores "some" health while its stronger version, Super Revive Dance, restores all health.
• Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Risky's Hideout. Complete with ominous music, tricky platforming and lava.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: During the magic carpet race, you can smack the other racers off their carpets. They can't interact with you, so you're either doing it just to be a jerk or to get the Achievement/Trophy for knocking them all off.
• Villain Episode: Pirate Queen's Quest in Half-Genie Hero, a DLC starring Risky, who uses pirate gear and essentially plays like Shantae did in Pirate's Curse.
• Volcano Lair: Once again, Risky's lair. Somehow, the intense heat is better for constructing her ultimate version of the Dynamo, at least according to what Mimic says when you pick up the clues...
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Subverted, as you recollect the zombie hamster after destroying the Dynamo.
• Warm-Up Boss: The P.O.O.P T.O.O.T (It Makes Sense in Context) is incredibly easy, with you just needing to hair-whip explosive barrels into it to stun it, something which is made very obvious on the stage. Combine that with most of the projectiles being insanely easy to dodge, and it's highly unlikely you'll lose.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: At the end of Pirate Queen's Quest, Risky finally succeeds in defeating Shantae... but when she activates the Dynamo, it malfunctions and explodes, taking her entire lair down. Turns out the Tinkerbats Failed a Spot Check. Risky came so close to winning, but ultimately fell short. Ultimately subverted when you remember that this ending is simply Risky trying to explain how she failed in the main campaign without having to admit Shantae really did beat her.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Subverted at the beginning when Shantae manages to recover the dynamo blueprints. She even comments on it. It's actually a double subversion, as Risky gave her modified plans, turning the whole game into one long MacGuffin Delivery Service as you assembled Risky's doomsday device for her.
• You Have Researched Breathing:
  • The Crab Claw and Mouse Bite upgrades, which lets Shantae attacks enemies while in Crab and Mouse form, respectively. Apparently, Shantae doesn't know how to snip at things as a crab or bite people as a mouse without being taught beforehand.
  • In Pirate Queen's Quest, one of the movement tools is the Pirate's Hat, which can be used as a makeshift parachute to glide through the air. Even though Risky has been wearing her pirate hat from the start, she can't do it until you actually get this upgrade.

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