Underwater Platforming Done Right
The Legendary Starfy puts you in control of some sort of a Prince Starfish that lives in a kingdom in the clouds. This rather strange and friendly creature all of a sudden goes out on an adventure when a space rabbit falls inside his palace and unable to remember what happened flees to the sea in fear. The visually impressive initial cutscene gives players a great impression on the awkwardly silly plot that is about to be unveiled, combined with incredibly detailed presentation.
The reason why this game's platforming works so well are its great mechanics, Starfy can swim pretty fast in any direction you would like too and he performs attacks with the Y button quickly getting rid of any enemies on his path. The controls are very responsive and simple and the level design of the game's underwater worlds is quite clever as all around the game's stages you will be able to find puzzles, hidden treasures, small mini-games and even secret exits to extra stages (there are two within each of the game's worlds) all gathered in the same piece of sea.
Starfy also has the ability to transform into four creatures such as a monster and a rooster, each one obviously featuring different abilities that add a lot to the game's gameplay variety and opening a wide array of possibilities regarding puzzles, hidden passages and bosses.
Starfy's main problem though is its level of difficulty. When it comes to games of the same genre Starfy can be easily compared to Kirby games in many ways including the lack of challenge, in Starfy though this easiness reaches a level that becomes extremely harmful to the experience as stages and bosses hardly require any skill to be completed. Players could simply fold their eyes and swim around the stage until they find the correct path and beat the level as there is barely any challenge along the way. The boss battles are no exception as bosses are ridiculously easy to kill.
What Starfy has to offer for more experienced players is its great swimming mechanics, good level design and tons of extras that will certainly add many hours to the gameplay total since those are actually kind of hard to find and achieve. The game's mini-games and challenges would also have been extremely compelling had they actually presented some sort of challenge.
Starfy's eventually nice platforming is punctuated by a decent story development. While older players will find the dialogue to either be too dull or pointless younger gamers will certainly have their fun and even laugh at some of the character's over-the-top personality. The plot is in fact well written and it wouldn't feel so awkward had it been produced to a game that actually needs one. Starfy, being a star that swims through vast portions of ocean, doesn't need a deep purpose or an emotional goal. Like Mario all it needs is great level design, challenge and colorful visuals.
In a nutshell Starfy has fantastic presentation and very high production values. The environments look alive, everything is colored in a tasteful manner and the cutscenes that tell the story aren't short of astonishing and fun however it is almost impossible to overlook the fact that the title is aimed towards a younger audience that has little to no experience with games or platformers. More experienced gamers will almost certainly be letdown by the game's easy – yet fun – challenges and stages, while youngsters will love everything from the apparently silly dialogues to the game's undeniable charm.
Actual Socre: 6.8