Megaman Star Force is truly a stellar game. As the japanese title says, it really is a shooting star.
The story is pretty good. The set-up is that you are a 5th-grader named Geo Stelar (Subaru Hoshikawa in Japan. That’s how I’m going to refer to him from now on) –you can rename him if you so wish—in the far flung future who hasn’t gone to school in 3 years because his father was lost on a space colony during an experiment to “Brother Band”(The game’s equivalent to registering friends on Xbox Live or something) with the FM Planet. The FM king mistook the request for an invasion and kicked the crap out of the space station. One of the FM aliens Omega-Xis (referring to him as War-Rock because that’s his Japanese name) went traitor and ran to Earth with a precious artifact called the “Andromeda key”. One night while star gazing, Subaru puts on his Visualizer --which is a pair of tricked out sunglasses made by his dad, which allows the wearer to see the wave roads, that are formed by the radio waves used in everyday life—and sees War-Rock as he crashes into Subaru. They accidentally merge to become Megaman! After fighting some viruses, War-Rock decides to hide out in Subaru’s transer (a mini, wrist-worn computer that serves as Star Force’s equivalent to the PET of Battle Network). Soon, the other FM aliens following War-Rock get to Earth and crazy crap happens.
Most of the game uses 2d sprites. These are used for everything but battles, and are slightly crisper, and more smoothly animated than Battle Network’s sprites. During battle, everything is a 3d model, that doesn’t look too good. They have a lot of jagged edges and look blocky, but it’s the DS so it’s forgivable.
The sound in this game feels like the sound in the Battle Network games on the GBA. It's all tecno, but the music for this game belongs to 1/3 DS games that I can stand to hear because it doesn't grate your ears. Overall, it does a good job of setting a mood, but some tracks are pulled straight from the Battle Network games, like the crisis track, which is unfortunate.
The game play feels like a traditional action-rpg, but at the same time, doesn’t. While running around either as the 2 worlds (normal world that the humans live their daily lives (and you play as Subaru), and the wave world where EM wave beings /FM aliens and humans merged with FM aliens live, and carry out their lives (You play as Megaman. A merging of Subaru and War-Rock). The wave world is basically the new version of the internet), you can talk to people, advance the storyline, check stats ect. But the battles are where the game differs from other action-rpgs. If you’ve played a Battle Network game before, you have an inkling of what to suspect. This time, you have a behind-the-back view of the action. At the start of each turn, you pick “battle cards” –cards that hold weapons, support features, and other attacks—from 2 rows of 3. The limitations are that you can only pick cards in the same column. Exceptions to that are that you can pick more than 1 card anywhere on the screen if they are the same (2 swords for example), and white cards. White cards are 1 of 6 favorited cards that can be picked no matter what. An example is: I just picked a “Heal 50” card on the top-right. A “Barrier” card on the bottom-middle is a white card, and therefore I can also select that. If you use your “Star Force” (transformation with the creature of your version. Pegasus, Leo or Dragon, although through adding friends (Called Brothering) you can get the other version’s transformations) you can also pick every card in the same row.
Once you pick your cards, you can start the battle. The battle takes place on a 3x5 grid which to you are constrained to the back 3 panels. You can move side to side on your 3 panels with the D-pad, and unleash the cards you’ve selected with the A button or use your mega buster (arm-mounted energy blaster for the 2 people who don’t know) with the B button for a machine-gun effect, or use your shield to block most attacks (not bodily attacks. Fists and tackles for example) with the Y button. Because you are constrained to the back row, it makes it hard for your sword cards to be effective; this is where the lock on feature comes into play. You press down on the D-pad and War-Rock changes to “lock-on” mode where he locks on to an enemy in the same column or diagonal from Megaman. You can then use the card (any attacking card will work. It doesn’t have to be swords) and Megaman will get all into the enemy’s face and attack. Your enemies will move around and unleash attacks of their own in an attempt to kill you (duh -.-). If you’ve used up all your selected cards, but the battle isn’t over, don’t fret because a bar on the right hand side is filling up while you fight. When it’s full, you can press L or R and go to the card selection screen again. When you’ve killed your foes, you win money, new cards, or sometimes an hp refill. Leveling up is done through the gathering of HP memories, which increase your max health. Leveling up doesn’t not affect your other stats though; instead, the weapons you equip on your buster (evidently War-Rock’s head) affect your attack rating (how much damage you do per shot with your buster), rapid rating (how fast you shoot), and your charge rating (how fast you charge up a charge shot for more damage).
The game supports both online and local multiplayer, although PvP is only possible through local multiplayer. Online, you can send e-mails to your brothers (friends), trade cards, and make brothers. The advantage to brothering is that you get a bonus (such as increased max health or first barrier which gives you a one-hit protection at the start of every battle) plus if you brother with a version different from your own, you get their Star Force.
No matter which version of Megaman Star Force you get (Pegasus, Leo or Dragon. The only differences are your star force transformation, menu colour, and giga (ultimate awesomeness) chips.), it is a great game, weighing in at around 17-20 hours depending on how you play/how fast you play. The battles are exciting, and whenever the battles get a little dull due to weak/same enemies, when you get to the next area in the storyline, the enemies ramp up in difficulty and keep you on your toes. The game differs in difficulty depending on your skill, both with this game, and your skill with the Battle Network games as the game really just puts a slight twist on the Battle Network series’ formula. Personally, I’m a veteran BN player and felt this game to be slightly above-average in difficulty. No matter how hard the game is at first, the streamlined game play makes it easy for you to get used to it and get better quicker.