Light RPG for kids who have lots of friends playing the same game.

User Rating: 6.5 | Mega Man Star Force: Leo DS
Mega Man Starforce Leo, Pegasus and Dragon are three different versions of Capcom's Mega Man series effort in the world of hand-held RPGs. In this respect it reminds a lot of Nintendo's Pokemon series.

Story reminds me of Mega Man Battle Network. In the fictional year 220X the world has become networked through use of electromagnetic or EM waves. Three large satellites orbiting the Earth (Leo, Pegasus and Dragon) power the EM Wave World that exists around the Earth's atmosphere. You play as Geo Stelar, who can see into the Wave World by using a special pair of goggles and joins together with EM creature called Omega-X to clear the viruses inhabiting the EM Wave World. Story is told through still images and lots of text and it's quite complex when considering that the game itself is clearly designed for kids.

Graphics are colorful and anime inspired. It's not very detailed, but you'll always have a clear understanding about what you're watching. Sound design is quite typical quality for a Mega Man game, which is to say that it contains lots of blasts and other futuristic sound effects. Music is positive, yet after an hour or so quite irritating.

Controls take a while to learn, but once you've gotten past the learning curve it's quite smooth to play. There's an overworld where you navigate the environment and then there's the battle screen. You have to write notes to yourself and the in-game censorship is too good: you can't write "hello", because it starts with "hell".

Battles take place in a small platform and your movement is quite limited. First you choose a few cards and attack with them. Later you can add power to your attacks, heal yourself and so on. Game's mix between turn-based card game and a real-time battle is quite successful in what it is doing.

Mega Man Starforce Leo is a nice add-on to the DS library and it has a very specific audience in its mind. If you are an adult, who plays DS casually or have already played serious RPGs like Mass Effect or Lost Odessey then I can't recommend this game to you: it's been made for kids, who have lots of friends playing the same game.