The Legendary Starfy
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| The Legendary Starfy | ||||||||||||||||||||
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 One fear's friend.
Fii! | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The Legendary Starfy is a series of platformer games, developed by Tose and published by Nintendo. The franchise focuses on a star-like creature named Starfy, a prince of the Pufftop Palace, who must explore the underneaths of the ocean to save the world from various threats alongsides his friends and family. Originally released only in Japan, the franchise would make it's way to North America and Australia in 2009 with the release of the fifth installment, while first three games were later released on July 12, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch Online.
List of games
| Game | Release Date | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Densetsu no Stafy | JP: September 6, 2002 WW: July 12, 2024 |
Game Boy Advance |
| Densetsu no Stafy 2 | JP: September 5, 2003 WW: July 12, 2024 | |
| Densetsu no Stafy 3 | JP: August 5, 2004 WW: July 12, 2024 | |
| Densetsu no Stafy 4 | JP: April 13, 2006 | Nintendo DS |
| The Legendary Starfy[1] | JP: July 10, 2008 NA: June 8, 2009 AU: October 10, 2009 |
Why It's Legendary
- The concept of an anthromorphobic starfish who is a prince of a palace in the sky who must explore the underneaths of the ocean to save the world from various threats is very interesting, considering Starfy is not a starfish but a star-like creature and is a prince of a palace that is in the sky, called Pufftop, and yet his adventure takes place in the ocean.
- Well-done plot for each game, with the first three games having a similar one, while the fourth and fifth games have different plots, making sure the series doesn't get stale when you play the fourth game.
- The first three games involve Starfy having to use his efforts in order to stop Ogura from sabotaging the ocean.
- The fourth game involves Starfy having to save a distant island.
- The fifth game involves Starfy having to defeat the space pirates from abusing power.
- Each game has very colourful and gorgeous graphics that can be compared to the likes of Tomato Adventure, Mother 3, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, or Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Everything is well-detailed with amazing colour choices and fluid animations, with the backgrounds being as well-done as the main stuff.
- As typical for a Nintendo platform game, one of the main things that shouldn't be screwed up, are the controls, and these games' controls are typical as they should be for a platform game: tight and responsive. Starfy is very controllable, and the Star Spin itself is responsive and fun to use. The Dash is also tight to control by pressing the "B"/"Y" button while walking.
- Many likeable characters that are absolutely adorable and wouldn't look out-of-place for a Kirby game.
- Starfy is an adorable star-like creature that may be cute, but is very capable fighter and has defeated many powerful foes, though he can be quite scatterbrained to the point of occasionally forgetting how to use his skills. The fact that he is seven years old make him more of a badass adorable.
- Starly is Starfy's younger sister, who is more responsible and is more hot-headed and willing to fight.
- Moe is a clam who is Starfy's best friend. He doesn't do much (or any) fighting himself and is somewhat arrogant, but he does have a good heart.
- Old Man Lobber is an elderly lobster who teaches Starfy new moves and offers sagely advice to help him on his journey.
- Mermaid is a kind... well, you guessed it, mermaid, who gives advice and the objective and allows you to save the game.
- Bunston is a mysterious spacesuit-wearing rabbit that meets Starfy after falling through the roof and cannot remember where does he come from, though he has the power to fuse with Starfy to transform into various creatures with different abilities.
- Awesome soundtrack for each game, with them having a largely happy-feel to it, making sure the adventure is pretty exciting as you explore the ocean, though some music has much different feeling that makes sure the music doesn't keep the same style over and over again, with some examples notably from the fifth game; Chillydip Cove Map is a very pretty, swing-style song with a nice wintry feel, while Showdown with Mashtooth and The Final Battle are excitingly fast, intense songs that play during both of Mashtooth's fights and make you feel the adrenaline rush that's necessary to hold back the moon.
- The animations themselves are great and are extremely well-animated in each game, with fluid and smooth movements of the characters.
- The voice clips are pretty welcoming to hear and make sure the voice actors do the job, such as Starfy's voice clips, which Satomi Koorogi did an excellent job providing.
- Wario makes an appearance in the third game, where he appears in the eighth stage, the Undersea Ruins. He assists Starfy mainly for his own personal gain and is first encountered at the start of the stage after appearing through a vortex. The general idea of Wario making a guest appearance in a game that's not Mario or Wario is pretty neat, especially three years following the release of Wario Land 4.
- An amazing and beautiful artstyle that is just eye-candy and makes sure the characters are well-designed. The fifth game notably makes the characters look more chibi and plush-like, making their cute appearance even cuter, especially for Starfy and Starly.
- Long length for each game, which is notable in the second game, as it features 101 levels, spanning 11 worlds (57 main game levels and 44 more levels that can be unlocked in postgame), making it the longest game in the series.
Bad Qualities
- The difficulty is pretty low for each game, with the only time the games getting harder is during the final boss, and especially during the New Game Plus parts, which feature harder levels, trickier bosses, and a suitably difficult true final boss. This is the most notable in the fifth game, which lacks such feature, resulting in low difficulty being one of the main criticisms for it.
- The overall reason why the franchise wasn't released in the west until 2009 is because Nintendo of America claimed the franchise was "too Japanese" for western audience, which is very absurd as some alterations could be obviously done. Fortunately, they eventually changed their minds and the fifth entry did see the release in North America and Australia (but not in Europe).
- The first three games were not translated when they were released for the Nintendo Switch Online, making it difficult to understand what the characters are saying, especially for those that don't understand Japanese. Even Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System originally released only in Japan in 1990, was translated when it was released in 2020 for a limited time via the Nintendo Switch Online.
Reception
Every game in the franchise was met with a very positive reception, with the first, third, fourth and fifth games receiving a 30/40, 31/40, 33/40, and 31/40, respectively from Famitsu. Nintendo Life gave the third game a 10/10, calling it "one of the best platformers ever created".[2]
On Metacritic, the fifth game had a 75/100 rating[3]. It was praised for its presentation, story and amount of content, although its low difficulty was criticized.
Videos
Trivia
- The first game was stuck in development hell for over 7 years. The game originally started development in November 1995 for the Game Boy and was meant to be a floaty platformer, with the initial concept involving a balloon-like character that had to be pushed through a maze, though due to issues with the controlling, said concept was scrapped. A water-based character would eventually have a concept developed in 1998, with the game being supposed to be released for the Game Boy Color instead. Near the game's completion in 1999, the release of the Game Boy Advance two years later caused the developers to scrap the project and remake it once again. Eventually, the game finally saw a release in 2002 only in Japan after 7 years of development.
- There were plans to expand the series to the Wii, depending on "fan response". However, due to no new Starfy games being released after the fifth game, this didn't happen. As a result, Starfy has yet to see a game released on a home console (unless the releases of the first three games for the Nintendo Switch Online count).
- There were plans to release the first and second games in China, but were cancelled due to high piracy. Their prototypes would surface on March 25, 2019, with build dates of March and June 6, 2006, respectively.
References
- ↑ Known in Japan as The Legendary Stafy: Confrontation! Dire Pirate Squad (伝説のスタフィー たいけつ！ダイール海賊団, Densetsu no Stafī: Taiketsu! Daīru Kaizokudan)
- ↑ Densetsu no Starfy 3 Review (Game Boy Advance) - Nintendo Life
- ↑ Legendary Starfy, The (ds) review - Metacritic (Wayback Machine)
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