Densetsu no Starfy

"Is Nintendo’s little underwater legend worthy of importing, or just a fallen star?"

Most people who play games in the west will have likely only seen Stafy - or stafi, starfy, or however you wish to spell his name - as an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, most notably as being the one assistant that could actually be knocked out of the arena by the other players. However, what many people won't know is that Stafy has starred in five of his own games, released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS since 2002, none of which have seen a release outside of Japan. So the question is thus, is Nintendo's little underwater legend worthy of importing, or just a fallen star?

It all starts in the cloud Kingdom of Tenkai, with what appears to be spring cleaning, for whatever purpose Stafy is moving some items around the palace that is his home, including an enchanted jar. He slips and the jar falls over the edge into the water below, this is followed by absolute chaos as the kingdom is rocked by thunderbolts and tornados. As they buffer the palace Stafy ends up falling off the kingdom and into the sea himself, there he is found by Lobjii-San, an elderly hermit crab, who aids Stafy in his quest to get back home. Along the way Stafy helps out with the troubles of other denizens of the sea and befriends a cantankerous clam named Kyorosuke.

Legend of Stafy is, in essence, a platform game, only there isn't as much in the way of platforming. A good potion of the game is spent at or around water, meaning that Stafy does more swimming than jumping. Fortunately, the designers have managed to make a swimming platform game work quite well.

Nine levels await the intrepid star, from sea caverns to the innards of a whale, each level has multiple routes, although only one is available at the start, with the others locked off until after the main game with red blocks preventing entry. Before then the levels are in effect linear and although a few of the puzzles might give you a few problems - generally more to do with the language barrier than anything - the game is mostly pretty straightforward and fairly easy, with only the occasional boss fight to put up any kind of challenge.

A lot of The Legend of Stafy is spent in the water and thankfully this little star is an apt swimmer, movement is as simple as pressing the desired direction and Stafy moves very well, the A button is used to make him swim fasting. In water, or on land, the B button makes Stafy spin. This is Stafy's primary form of attack, killing most enemies and breaking breakable blocks. However spinning rapidly three times will make Stafy dizzy and unable to move for a short period, leaving him open to enemy attack and making sure that the spin attack isn't broken.

The star can also run on land with the B button held and can do a running dive under small gaps. He can also jump and glide over gaps from the outset and gains additional moves as he progresses through the game, allowing him to spin faster and jump out of the water higher. The controls all work great and are responsive and simple to learn while offering a nice degree of depth.

There are also occasional sections of the game were you will man (star?) a parachute like thing as well as ride on an animal. In these areas you have to navigate around spikes and enemies, generally without being able to defend yourself, these parts are rare in the main game and act as nice deviations from the rest of the game.

Enemies wander around, attacking when you get here them, but bigger dangers come from strong currents, spikes and being crushed, the latter killing you outright. Some of the puzzles are obscure enough to hinder your progress for a while as well. Otherwise the game isn't challenging and is rather on the short side, however the game is also quite a bit of fun while it lasts.

The levels can be completely linear, or can be outright mazes; also a few forced scrolling levels make an appearance, threatening to crush unwary stars. Generally however the game is fairly forgiving in its demands. Stafy has quite a bit of health with five hearts that can be replenished via collecting the numerous pearls dotted around the levels, or with checkpoints - a mermaid in a clamshell - which also act as quick saves. Altogether this compounds the short length of the main game further, as it is rather hard to die unless your come completely stuck, platform veterans will likely finish the main quest in a single day.

After you do complete the main game, which won't take long, you can return to any level you wish and find the alternative routes, picking up various trinkets like a series of mini-games to play and other such things. These give the game considerable more replay value than it would have without them and helps enormously with the lifespan.

Cinemas and conversational cut-scenes play out the story and the level are nicely varied in design, with only a few - like the obligingly ice world - tending towards the cliche end of things. Legend of Stafy is a cute and cartoony game and this follows through in every part of it, the main characters in particular are well designed and Stafy himself is an adorable lead, competing with other Nintendo characters in the cuteness stakes. The animation is on par with other Advance games and the whole package feels like an interactive cartoon.

The audio is more of a mixed bag; most of the tunes are rather nice and follow the watery theme of the game, the main theme being the standout of the bunch. Meanwhile the effects just don't work very well, most of them being a tad too sharp on the ears and in some case don't sound like they're should even be in the game. Most of the effects are primitive blip noises, recycled throughout the game, many of them could be referred to as generic and a few as almost jarring.

The Legend of Stafy is a good game and a good start for the new hero. It doesn't really do much new and is a bit too simple at times but those looking for a nice and fun platforming game with a star - literally in this case - to rival the likes of Kirby in cuteness could do worse than to bring this little star into their homes.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/09

Game Release: Densetsu no Starfy (JP, 09/06/02)