Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: TO SE

Release Date: 6/7/2009

Available Exclusively On

The Legendary Starfy is actually the fifth game in the series, but the first game seen here in the States. You play as Starfy, who finds a little rabbit who lost his memory and must find crystal shards that will restore his memory. Yeah, it’s not too great, but this game is clearly aimed toward little kids.

The game has tight controls and is easy to grasp, with Starfy mostly swimming underwater, but he’s really slow on land. The goal of the game is just to navigate screen to screen, collect little stars (currency in the game), and watch cutscenes until the end. It gets very boring after the second chapter, and most older, more experienced gamers will turn it off. The game is just way too easy with enemies that don’t attack you. Yeah, you have to run into them to get hurt. Navigating the levels for treasure chests and stars is probably the only incentive to go through this game, but the items you can buy are pretty lame.

Try dressing up a star. It looks pretty bad and obviously only appeals to small children or simple-minded people. Even the boss fights are easy and can be killed in just a few hits, not to mention a save before a door, then a save when you go through it, then no save until the end of the level. Yeah, that makes no sense, but kids won’t really notice or care. Plus, you can save it in the start menu! Do we really need this many saves?! Well, you can find different abilities to help Starfy that are attached to the touchscreen, such as Moe’s ability to sense treasure, a mermaid’s ability to give you level info as you go, and you can transform into a fire-breathing dino, but it’s not as fun as you would think.

There are four different mini-games that are boring and pretty lame even with other people, but little kids will enjoy them, I guess. There is even a little talk show thing that Moe does, but it’s as strange and lame as can be, so I don’t even think kids will get this. Overall, the game has a nice art style, looks really cute, and has crisp, clean visuals, but the underlying game is just for casual DS players and kids. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone remotely more than the most casual of casual players or kids.