REVIEW
The Legendary Starfy
By Jorge Figueiredo - July 2nd, 2009
While I don’t mind side-scrolling platformers so much, I don’t go out of my way to play them (there are some exceptions that I will continually go back to). I’m not sure if the chief forgot this when he put this game in my inbox, but I figured I would give it a chance.
The Legendary Starfy is the North American release of a game series that has seen a lot of success in Japan. This iteration sees the main character, Starfy (yes, he’s an actual star) sleeping in bed when a spacesuit-wearing bunny falls through the ceiling of Pufftop Palace and lands on our hero. The bunny is then pursued by shadowy figures, but Starfy saves the day by using his trademark spinning attack to dispatch the would-be villains. Interestingly, we never see the details of these shadowy figures, giving a neat visual pun to these characters and their names. After the bunny disappears, Starfy decides he’s got nothing better to do than to go off in search of him. Upon finding the memory-challenged bunny and rescuing him in the first World of the game, Starfy’s quest changes as he and the bunny go off in search of the missing pieces to a mysterious crystal which is key to the bunny’s past. Did I mention the bunny can also team up with Starfy to transform into several different creatures? It’s actually pretty cool.
The action takes place on the top screen of the DS. As you play through the game, you will meet characters who will add touch-based activity to the bottom screen (a treasure indicator, for example). Most of the environments for the game are underwater. It’s an interesting dynamic, because it removes the jumping element which can be very frustrating at times in most platformers. As side-scrollers go, the graphics are crisp and the animation is smooth. It incorporates a unique visual style in that the hero and villain characters as well as the surrounding environment are all depicted in crisp, bright pixel art while the backgrounds of the stages are rendered in 3D. Depending on where you happen to be in the stage, the perspective of the background changes. Dive deep, and you can look above to see the surface of the water. As you swim closer to it, the perspective changes and less of the surface area is visible. Jump above the surface, and the camera follows you and you’ll be able to see the water from above. What’s really cool about this is that most side-scrollers have typically used preset layers of scrolling to emulate this parallax, and here because the background is 3D, it’s much more compelling. I’d like to see more games take this approach to background design.
The levels, however, are fairly straightforward. The stage design features some minor tangents to explore, but overall the design is still quite basic. But it’s also effective. At times, though, there are parts of the levels that seem inconsistent and perhaps unnecessary. Each side quest is prefaced with a brief dialogue moment, and while this doesn’t affect gameplay insofar as creating obstacles for the player, it interrupts the flow of the game even if you choose to decline the simple quests.
The music and sound effects are fitting, given the subject matter. The music follows the action, as it should, and the sound effects are a good match for what your eyes perceive. My only beef with the sound effects was Starfy’s main vocalization. It’s initially very cute, but after a while it got old.
All in all, this is an overly cutesy game. The main story mode is lengthy enough, and follows the typical formula (with a boss at the end of each World). There are also mini games that you can unlock that make great use of the stylus. I found myself playing the dumpling game for far too long. Controls are straightforward. Overall, though, it is a pretty easy game, and one obviously aimed at a much younger demographic. Boss fights are fairly easy to figure out and don’t really get harder as the game progresses. Upon finishing the game, I had no inclination to play it again, as it’s not something that interests me. But fans of side-scrollers should give it a shot anyway.
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you can beat the first boss without moving at all, and only pressing the fire button.
lol
I enjoyed it, fun game. Excessive talking though.
Starfy is one of those games where I played many hours of it and enjoyed myself, but wondered what all of the shouting was about. For years I’ve heard how amazing these games are… Maybe this one isn’t up to par, I don’t know.
It’s fun, but it’s fun in the sense that certain Kirby games are: it’s relaxing, interesting to look at and has some neat devices. I’d have a hard time calling it a big favorite.
And yeah, the characters talk WAY too much.
I’ve played this game since Jorge’s review and wold like to add that Starfy is a game that is probably best enjoyed by children. It would be a great introduction to contemporary side-scrollers as well as a fun way to learn how to read. Plus the game is pretty fun despite its sugary sweetness.