The Legendary Starfy (video game)

The Legendary Starfy, known as Densetsu no Stafī: Taiketsu! Daīru Kaizokudan[lower-alpha 1] in Japan, is a 2008 platform video game developed by Tose and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It is the fifth game in The Legendary Starfy video game series. On June 8, 2009, the game became the first, and so far the only, in the series to be released outside Japan.

The Legendary Starfy
North American box art
Developer(s)Tose
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Miki Fujii
Kazuki Yoshihara
Producer(s)Yasuhiro Minamimoto
Hitoshi Yamagami
Designer(s)Chiemi Taniguchi
Programmer(s)Satoshi Nakajima
Hisatsugu Shiro
Kenta Egami
Artist(s)Toki Kando
Harumi Mochizuki
Kazuya Yoshioka
Writer(s)Akio Imai
Composer(s)Morihiro Iwamoto
Platform(s)Nintendo DS
Release
  • JP: July 10, 2008
  • NA: June 8, 2009
  • AU: October 10, 2009
Genre(s)Platforming
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Legendary Starfy received positive reviews for its presentation, story and amount of content, although it was met with criticism for its low difficulty.

Plot

Pufftop Palace's prince Starfy is suddenly awakened by a rabbit who fell from the sky through the roof of the palace. A group of pirates, the Terrible Trio fails to capture the rabbit; Starfy then searches the rabbit after he escaped and, alongside Moe, goes into the ocean.

After saving the rabbit from a gigantic octopus, Starfy recovers a crystal shard, and the rabbit, presenting himself as Bunston, is revealed to be amnesiac. All together, they cross along the ocean to retrieve the missing shards.

Learning the shards are parts of a ship, Bunston recovers his memory and the events: as a prince of the planet Bunnera, he holds the most of their powers. The Terrible Trio was sent by the space pirate Mashtooth to steal the Bunnera's power. Bunston escaped in a ship predestinated to Pufftop.

With the ship rebuilt, they depart to Bunnera and confront Mashtooth; Starfy winning, Mashtooth crashes on to the moon and he never was seen after. Starfy and Moe return to Pufftop and take a nap. Meanwhile, Starly – Starfy's sister – searches for him.

Gameplay

The game is described as a "sea platformer", where it takes similarities from Kirby. The player controls Starfy in underwater segments, where the character can spin and dive, and can also exit the water for some land sections.

Pearls, the game's currency, are used to buy items and retrieve health. Each stage has treasure chests, whose rewards are collectibles such as costumes or heart-shaped stones which give Starfy more health.

The game uses the dual-screen function to show a variety of information on the lower screen, such as a mermaid giving a summary of the level's mission; Moe gives the players hints to get treasures and secrets doors; Bunston shows the player's main progress of the story and upgrades; Old Man Lobber summarizes the current exploration's statistics and rank.

Returning from the previous four Starfy titles are costumes that offer special abilities, including ghost, dragon, chicken, and an ice-tailed seal costume.[1] Unlike other games in the series, instead of touching a costume, Starfy touches Bunston's thought bubbles to put on a costume. The game also has DS wireless co-op play in select areas and boss fights, where one person controls Starfy and the other controls Starly. Only one cartridge copy of the game is required for this feature.[2] Five different minigames are offered, one of them a cooking game starring Starly.[1] Returning from earlier entries in the series is the wardrobe collection in which players dress Starfy and Starly in different outfits.[1]

Development

The Legendary Starfy is the first game in the series to be released outside Japan. Nintendo of America previously found games in the series to be "too Japanese" for a North American release.[3] The joint decision by Nintendo and Tose to finally release the Starfy series abroad came about because the Nintendo DS was doing well in the market. Yurie Hattori, assistant director for the Starfy series states "it's a game that's really the result of all the great ideas we had in [Densetsu no Stafy] 1-4. This is a really accessible game and a great starting point to bring it to the US".[3] Very few changes were made for the game's English adaptation.[3] To promote the game, a launch event was held at the Nintendo World Store in New York City on July 11, 2009.[4]

Reception

Reviews

The Legendary Starfy has received generally positive reviews. Reviews have commented on the game's similarities to Kirby.[8] Reviewers have applauded the size and depth of the world, and creative story telling presented to the player.

IGN Nintendo Team editor Mark Bozon expressed in his review that the game contains an "incredible amount" of activities, and can feel almost cluttered at times because of this.[10] Game Informer's Matt Helgeson said in his review of the game that "[it] isn't mind-blowing, but it's certainly well crafted and bolstered by some genuinely funny writing".[8] Both of the Game Informer staff who reviewed the game also found that the cooldown (character's dizziness) after performing Starfy's spin attack too many times was "annoying".[8]

Sales

The Legendary Starfy debuted on the Japanese sales charts at number 3, selling 29,000 copies. It is the slowest debut for the series so far.[12] Media Create sales data lists the game at having sold 126,428 copies in Japan by the end of 2008.[13] Public sales information from Amazon.com suggests that The Legendary Starfy was the top-selling Nintendo DS game in North America during its week of release, temporarily beating out previous top-sellers on the platform such as Mario Kart DS and New Super Mario Bros.[14] NPD Group reports that the game was the 19th best-selling game in North America during the months of June and July 2009.[15]

Notes
  1. Japanese: 伝説のスタフィー　たいけつ！ダイール海賊団, lit. "The Legendary Stafy: Confrontation! Dire Pirate Squad"

References
  1. Spencer (June 26, 2008). "Stafy as a whale, a ghost, and in the third dimension". Siliconera.com. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  2. Spencer (June 16, 2008). "New Stafy game has dragons, co-op, and probably pirates". Siliconera.com. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  3. Dillard, Corbie (May 22, 2009). "Interviews: Nintendo/Tose - The Legendary Starfy". NintendoLife.com. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  4. hattrick (July 8, 2009). "Starfy Coming to New York on July 11, 2009". WiiNintendo.net. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  5. "The Legendary Starfy at Game Rankings". GameRankings. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
  6. "Legendary Starfy, The: Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
  7. RawmeatCowboy (July 2, 2008). "GoNintendo - Famitsu - review scores". GoNintendo.com. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
  8. Helgeson, Matt; VanBurkleo, Meagan (August 2009). "The Legendary Starfy". Game Informer. No. 198. p. 93. ISSN 1067-6392. OCLC 27315596.
  9. "Review: The Legendary Starfy". GamePro. IDG. June 25, 2009. Archived from the original on 2010-03-02. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
  10. Mark Bozon (9 June 2009). "The Legendary Starfy Review". IGN. Retrieved June 9, 2009.
  11. DiMola, Francesca (July 14, 2009). "Nintendo World Report - DS Review: The Legendary Starfy". NintendoWorldReport.com. Retrieved August 16, 2009.
  12. Jenkins, David (July 17, 2008). "Persona 4 Boosts Japanese Software Charts". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
  13. "GEIMIN.NET／2008年テレビゲームソフト売り上げTOP500（ファミ通版）". Geimin.net (in Japanese). Retrieved August 8, 2009.
  14. Cowan, David (July 17, 2009). "Saling The World: NCAA Football 10, Dragon Quest IX Head Worldwide Charts". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved August 8, 2009.
  15. Matthews, Matt (August 14, 2009). "EA, Nintendo Dominate July 2009 Top 20". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
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