The Legendary Starfy[a] is a video game series developed by Tose and published by Nintendo. The series is the only franchise for which Tose owns the copyright, which they share with Nintendo; as a result, Tose, which normally does not put their company name on their games, does so in the Starfy series. The series began in 2002 with Densetsu no Stafy for the Game Boy Advance, and four sequels were released. For its first seven years, Starfy games were not released outside Japan. The fifth and latest game in the series was released as The Legendary Starfy in North America on June 8, 2009.
The following is a list of games released in the series. Games predating Taiketsu! Daīru Kaizokudan were only released in Japan. As a result, there are no English language titles for these games. An English language title may be given if any Nintendo division outside Japan elects to localize any of these games or feature any of them in a game from another series.
The Legendary Starfy series are platform games, focusing more on swimming than running and jumping around. Players control the protagonist of the series, Starfy, throughout each game; from the third title onward, Starfy's sister Starly is also playable occasionally. When on land, the controls are equal to the controls of most other platform games. When in the water, players can only move Starfy around using the control pad alone; however, if players want to make Starfy swim faster, they hold the B button down while moving him around. The games are usually composed of multiple stages or worlds, with each stage split up into four sub-stages. Boss characters hide at the end of each world's final sub-stage. Most of the other sub-stages' goals are centered around retrieving a lost or stolen item for another character. Most power-ups are vehicles and costumes. Some are new moves,and some are upgrades for moves and other power-ups.
Although there had always been plans to bring the series to North America, the reason why the series stayed in Japan until the announcement of the fifth game was because Nintendo of America had declared the series to be "too Japanese". Nintendo of America has also considered bringing the other four games to North America in some form as well as expanding the series to the Wii, depending on "fan response".[3]
The animated television commercials loosely take place in the plot of whatever title is being advertised, as well as its gameplay. The settings and actions were slightly different compared to the ones in the titles they advertised. For instance, in the first The Legendary Starfy title, Starfy was walking inside the Tenkai Palace while carrying some stuff, including the Magic Jar holding the antagonist, Ogura, until Starfy tripped and dropped the stuff he was carrying, while the Magic Jar fell into the ocean below the Tenkai Palace. But in one of the commercials for the first title of the series, Starfy was walking outside of Tenkai Palace while only carrying the Magic Jar, until he tripped and fell in the ocean along with the Magic Jar. Except for Densetsu no Stafy 3, its commercial is the only one in The Legendary Starfy series that has a different setting. Instead of taking place anywhere in the game, the commercial takes place in a sushi bar, where the characters are standing on plates while being moved around on a conveyor belt. In the Japanese commercials for Densetsu no Stafy 4 and Densetsu no Stafy Taiketsu! Daīru Kaizokudan go back to the way the commercials for the first two titles of the series were, by making them loosely based on the plots of whatever is being advertised.