The Blue Bomber returns with a bigger role and a compelling story to go on with it.

User Rating: 7 | Mega Man Star Force: Leo DS
The Megaman franchise has finally reached its 20th anniversary mark and to top that it off, Capcom has released a new Blue Bomber game for the public localized into the U.S. Megaman Star Force in 3 versions, Pegasus, Leo, and Dragon. The game takes core ideas from the original Megaman Battle Network game and inputs it into this new game and creates a new stunning world with new features onto the DS. Megaman Star Force is practically a continuation of Battle Network that takes about 2 centuries after the adventures of Lan and Megaman. The hero of this game, Geo Stelar, is a young boy who wishes to travel to space in order to look for his missing father that disappeared 3 years back. Geo skips school and is afraid of making friends when suddenly a strange alien, called Omega-Xis or Mega, confronts him. This new being is called a FM-ain which is a race from the planet FM. Omega-Xis has betrayed his home world and escaped to the planet Earth with a strange object with a priority to protect it. Through strange events of the game, Mega and Geo merge together into one being called Megaman and using his newfound powers intends to stop the evil FM-ians invading the world. The world has evolved from internet and PET usage from Battle Network into a wave society which is controlled by Electro-Magnetic Waves, or EM waves. As the world has transferred from the Internet to Wave Roads and EM Waves, the PET have disappeared and came in with the new Transers. Transers basically act as PETs except that it's attached to a person's arm and gains access with the Brotherband feature, which will be described later on. By the use of the Transer, Omega-Xis is able to live inside of it and allows Geo to fuse with Mega and make use of his battle cards. The basic layout of the game on the Nintendo DS is that the top screen acts as the Transer information menu which basically shows what's on the Transer at the moment, most of the time it'll be your information card which shows a picture of the character, HP, Favorite battle cards, and level. By clicking X the menu of the Transer will open and allow you to organize your battle chip folder, see email, access items that you've found, and save. There is also a wireless function and a wi-fi function which makes full use of the Brotherband system. However, when the menu is not accessed the bottom screen acts as the RPG area where the character is free to roam around the world. The graphics of the world and the characters which is displayed at the bottom screen on the DS is very identical to the style from the Battle Network series so it doesn't show great graphical improvement from the GBA to the DS however, the scenery, characters, and edges of the world seem much smoother so it shows that Capcom liked the art style of the game and just wanted to improve on it. At certain parts of the Wave World where you are Megaman, the bottom screen acts as an activity screen where you have to touch certain parts of the screen with your stylus to progress through the game, such as shooting notes by click the arrows on the screen and much more. Though this task seems tedious at times, it can be amusing with a positive thought. The basic layout of the button country is almost identical to the Battle Network, just like everything else, with the addition of X and Y button. These buttons in the real world act as the Visualizer and the menu button respectively. Overall the exploration of the world and its presentation seems to be smooth and slick just like the original Battle Network series.
Omega-Xis is an FM-ian is also part of the EM waves and therefore can't be seen with the human eye, however, with a visor called the Visualizer, Geo is able to see EM waves and the wave roads that cover the world. The world is covered by the 3 satellites called, Dragon, Pegasus, and Leo. Geo by merging with Mega is able to transform himself into an EM Wave being and is able to freely travel the world on the wave roads in his city. However, nothing in the world is perfect and therefore, on the wave roads, where Megaman travels, is infested with EM Viruses which attack and mess up electronic devices. The game uses the same RPG format the Battle Network series used, which allows the players to randomly walk around as Megaman and run into a battle randomly. While this old format of random battle is very tedious, Capcom has lowered the random encounter rates drastically compared to the Battle Network series. However, the battles are not so few so that the players will not gain any experience for future fights but enough so that the player builds up quick reflexes and finger movements. Once entered into battle the player has the actual battle screen on the top and the bottom screen acts as the chip choosing menu. The custom gauge is back once more and is still a very effective idea even in the new Megaman game. The custom menu is part of the battle where the player gets to choose chips from the bottom screen, with a stylus or the D-pad, and load them up to Megaman. After the chips are decided the battle starts and the chips loaded become available to use in battle, but once used they disappear. In order to use the chips you will press the A button and activate the chips effect whether its support, offensive, or defensive. These chips are used against the various types of viruses you will fight against in battle. Once you are out of chips, you are free to use the Mega Buster and shoot at your enemies with the B button or use the X button to use the shield to block against enemy attack for a second or two. However, not everything can be blocked by the shield. The shield becomes an important asset in the new game because of the change in battle system compared to the BN series. Unlike the original battle network series where you have 3x3 range to move around in with a bit of a bird's eye view of the battle area, it has completely shifted to a third person, behind the Megaman view, with only a 3x1 area of movement, when the whole battlefield's area is 3x6 or 3x5. This seems limited but it's actually due to the fact that some or most of the virus attacks are very linear and top that off with very good 3-D graphics supporting the game, battles look and run exceptionally smooth. Everything in the battle is run in 3-D from special navi-chip attacks to defending. However, most of the time you'll only get to see Megaman's back since that's the only view of the battle the game offers the player. Nonetheless with this limited movement, strafing left and right only, the shield becomes vital to use in tough virus fights and most importantly, boss fights. Close range chips are back once more, but how can you attack an enemy that's far back in the battle stage? The right and left buttons on the D-pad allows Megaman to strafe in battle and the back button acts as a target button. The target system allows Megaman to lock on to an enemy when it is in range. The range is that the enemy is straight in front of megaman, regardless of distance, or that person is diagonally left or right from him. This new system works very well with swords and close up attacks but can be very cheap due to the fact that you can just lock on just about every enemy and spam battle chips. However, this system is not so perfect that allows Megaman to become invincible. When locked on an enemy Megaman moves close to the target, THEN uses the chip, and it takes a quick second in order for this process to take place so at anytime where Megaman attacks to finishing the attack, he is very vulnerable. When Megaman is out of chips a gauge on the top right corner of the top screen is where you need to pay attention. Over the time of the battle this gauge will fill up, and once it is filled up the battle chip selection menu will come up again and the whole process starts all over.
The Brotherband system is a new feature added to this game and takes fights and outside extras to fullest. What the Brotherband system does is that you can link your Transers with other people in real life (with your DS of course) or in game and allows you to enhance Megaman's abilities. The Brotherband is basically a link that allows you customize how you want your Megaman to fight. There are features in the game that go into a great deal to customize and alter your Megaman so that he can fight to your use, but it's something that needs to be done by the player to fully realize.
The sound and the music seem really cheap and repetitive just like other RPGs and Megaman is no exception. What also makes the music seem really cheap is that it seems like remixed music versions of the original BN series, which to some can get really old. Other than that, the music fits according to each situation in the game.
Fans of the Megaman series might think the transition into this type of gaming style will be stupid or dumb, but will be sadly surprised when this game turns out to be better than expected for them. From stunning graphics to amazing fights, and endless wandering where to go next, this game shows what kind of great RPGs are on the DS now, and what is to come.