One effect I find the Super Smash Bros. series has is to suddenly boost a character’s popularity. One famous example would be Ness: originally unknown to most of North America, appearing the first game made many people actively search out Earthbound. As the Smash bros. series would progress, the addition of trophies and stickers would expose more unknown characters to oblivious players. But what I found most interesting in the latest addition, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, were the assist trophies. To me, these were characters Nintendo basically said “We like these guys so much, they need to be in the fight, but they aren’t popular enough to be playable characters.” One of these Assist Trophies was called Stafy; someone I had never seen before. This came to confuse me even more when I saw he released his own game under a different name about a year later. Out of sheer curiosity, I had to get it: The Legendary Starfy for the Nintendo DS.
Here’s a little history lesson for you (I love doing these). Starfy, who was originally known as Stafy in Japan, was created by TOSE, a company known for two things: developing various games for Nintendo, such as the Game & Watch Gallery series, and rarely crediting themselves, earning them the title of “Ninja developers”. One day in 95, Yasuhiro Minamimoto, (TOSE’s producer) approached Nintendo’s producer, Hitoshi Yamagami, with the idea of creating a “floating platformer”. (I’ll get to this later). This was reworked several times until eventually they settled on the concept for a game planned for the original Game Boy. However, the Game Boy Color was coming out soon, so TOSE was asked to revamp the game for the new generation. They ended up changing things until the year 2000 came around and TOSE was given similar orders: upgrade for the Game Boy Advance now. It would then take two more years for the game to be released: Densetsu no Stafy, which came out for the Game Boy Advance in September 2002, but only in Japan. The reasons for why it never got exported aren’t very clear, but generally it seems like no one was certain how the North American public would receive this game. But, Stafy’s first game was actually a success in its native land: so much so that it released two more games the next two years on the Game Boy Advance and a fourth one on the DS in 2006; all Japanese only releases. However, in 2009, the 5th game starring the star would finally come to North America.
The game play in The Legendary Starfy is… well, easy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent enough platformer, but remember how I said that the concept for this was a “floating platformer”? Well this is achieved by having the player character under water for most of the game. There are parts above water and you can sink to the bottom, but the real enjoyment is with swimming about in every direction. This makes most enemies easily avoidable, so dying isn’t much of a concern. There are other skills available in this game, but the ones that are actually required often are pretty easy to master. I know it sucks when a game has a sudden difficulty spike, but this is a bit too far in the other direction for me.
You’re given some transformations for Starfy at certain points, but it’s so limited. You can use them how you want, but only in a certain area, so it kind of takes the challenge out of puzzle solving. It’s not like in Kirby 64, where you’d search for the right power to use at the right time. This is more like when you’d be forced to hop on King Dedede’s back: sure it’s awesome for the time being, but REALLY limits your freedom. It’s also few and far between, making me ask “What’s the point, really?”
My final complaint here is actually about the controls: the button to go fast underwater is a different button than to run on land. Why couldn’t there be just one “go fast” button? This gets frustrating when I run into the water only to have slowed down to first gear, or I shoot out of the ocean and start trotting along. It suddenly stops the momentum, and in this type of game, that’ll just irritate the players.
The Legendary Starfy is a decently made game. The graphics are cute and that’s generally the mood it’s trying to set. The music is alright, never really over bearing but definitely good. The story is typical cartoon adventure stuff, but has some good structure and decent enough characters. But the difficulty (or lack thereof) is what really puts me off recommending this game for most people. Starfy ends up coming off as a Kirby clone (especially with the transformation power), but aimed at a younger audience. Also, except for swimming most of the time, I don’t find it did much that other platformers haven’t already done. I ended up finding most of the treasures and secrets during my first run and barely had to back track. Of course, players not used to platforming might not agree with me. So, that’s where I’m going to leave it: if you want something easy or for that roughly ten year old demographic, maybe check this out. I give The Legendary Starfy for the Nintendo DS 6.5 Levels out of 10.
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