The Legendary Starfy (video game)

The Legendary Starfy, known as Densetsu no Stafī: Taiketsu! Daīru Kaizokudan (伝説のスタフィー　たいけつ！ダイール海賊団) 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 in the series to be released outside Japan.

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
Starfy is awakened by a rabbit who fell through the roof of his palace while escaping the Terrible Trio pirates. The rabbit escapes and Starfy goes to his pursuit with Moe, where they fall into the ocean. Starfy rescues the rabbit from a giant octopus and finds a mysterious crystal shard, which helps the rabbit recover parts of his memory, beginning with his name Bunston. Starfy then decides to help Bunston recovers from his amnesia and crosses the ocean for the missing shards.

As the collect progresses successfully, the team discover the shards form a ship that Bunston crashed on Pufftop Palace while escaping the Terrible Trio and their leader, Mashtooth from the planet Bunnera; as its prince, Bunston holds a special power.

The ship repaired, Starfy lands on Bunnera and confronts Mashtooth. The latter transforms into a dragon but fails to defeat Starfy and crashes on the moon to his apparent death. The team bids farewell, and Starfy and Moe return home to take a nap. Meanwhile, Starfy's sister Starly searches for him through Pufftop.

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. 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. Five different minigames are offered, one of them a cooking game starring Starly. Returning from earlier entries in the series is the wardrobe collection in which players dress Starfy and Starly in different outfits.

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. 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". Very few changes were made for the game's English adaptation. To promote the game, a launch event was held at the Nintendo World Store in New York City on July 11, 2009.

Reviews
The Legendary Starfy has received generally positive reviews. Reviews have commented on the game's similarities to Kirby. 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. 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". 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".

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. Media Create sales data lists the game at having sold 126,428 copies in Japan by the end of 2008. 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. NPD Group reports that the game was the 19th best-selling game in North America during the months of June and July 2009.