Today, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero got a major update: the addition of a just-announced Hard Core Mode, a new difficulty setting intended to make the platformer even more challenging. The mode rebalances the difficulty of Shantae’s entire campaign by increasing enemy health, damage and projectile speeds. It also deploys new patterns of enemies in existing stages and even drops late-game enemies in stages they previously never inhabited.
The game’s 1.01 update, out today for all platforms, adds the new mode free of charge for all owners of the game, in addition to a few bug fixes and PlayStation TV support for the PlayStation Vita version.
Above, watch eight minutes of Hard Core Mode in action, including rebalanced sections of the game’s first two stages, plus the first two boss battles.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is available for PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Wii U, Windows PC and Xbox One.
