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There are times in life
when something happens
and you have to make a choice,
and this choice will change
your path in life forever.
You create your own destiny,
but sometimes,
just sometimes...
destiny chooses you.

Starshine Legacy (SSL or SL for short) is a horse-riding adventure platformer game created by Hidden Entertainment, Stabenfeld and Pixel Tales in 2005. Originally it was only accessible through Ponyclub membership.

The first game: The Mystery of the Soulriders is about a young high school girl named Lisa whose father got a new job in Jorvik, so they have to move there. She quickly befriends three other girls and a blue horse named Starshine. Soon she learns about the mysterious organization named Dark Core and meet their leader Mr. Sands. When her beloved horse gets stolen by them, she must gather all her courage and inner strenght to get him back.

The second game: The Secret of the Pine Hill Mansion is about Linda the smartest girl in the Jorvik High School, who has difficulties balancing between her horse-riding practices and schoolwork. One day she discovers a mysterious picture about Mr. Sands where he stands near to a building called the Pine Hill Mansion. Along with her newest and closest friend Lisa they decide to explore It's secrets - despite being told not to. She also starts having weird visions about the Jorvik Dam being destroyed. What could these vision are trying to tell her and what's the secret of the Pine Hill Mansion?

The third game is about Anne. She is a somewhat snobbish character, with hair and a heart of gold. She wants to win the Glamour No. 5. competention (As well as the photographer Derek's heart) and be the new face of their Perfume. But when a new enemy Jessica appears and seals her beloved horse Concorde into a strange dimension of Pandoria she must find a way to get him back as well as stop her newfound rival, who may be more than what she seems.

The protagonist of fourth and final game is Alex, a tomboyish girl who loves fixing things. We also meet her timid brother, who is constantly bullied by a boy named Buck. When his younger brother disappears after a race against a sinister girl, named Katja, Alex must find a way to get him back, as well as quicky learn to use her newfound powers, since an old enemy returns...

As of September 2021, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of Star Stable, all of the Starshine Legacy games were made available to play for free on Star Stable Entertainment's official website.


Tropes:

  • Acid-Trip Dimension: Pandoria

  • Another Side, Another Story: More like: Another Game, Another Story

  • Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The three chosen girls before Lisa's arrival:
    • Anne: Beauty
    • Linda: Brains
    • Alex: Brawn
  • Big Boo's Haunt: Subverted with the Pine Hill Mansion. It has the settings of a haunted mansion but despite Herman's warnings there are no ghosts in the entire level.
  • Bonus Level: After the "Epilogue" there is a horse riding segment where you can do three Cross Country courses. The funny thing is that any rider can ride on any horse.
  • Bottomless Pits: Being a Platformer game, It's natural that you have to jump some of these.

  • Character Development: Anne and Alex doesn't seemed close friends in the first game, but when Derek got attacked by the Goons, Alex's first thought was to contact with Anne to inform her. She even gives her a compliment.

  • Cheaters Never Prosper: Double-subverted with Katja and Inverted with Anne. The former because despite she cheated on her first Cross Country against Alex she still got what she wanted, but after Alex won the second race, she disappears and never to be seen again.
    • The latter because in the Dressing competention you can only make the half of the 8 moves and still win.

  • Darker and Edgier: While it's downplayed compared to more well-known games, It has very unusual settings and slight difficulty for a kids game; dark levels, offscreen violence.

  • Dark Is Evil: Almost every dialog in the game mentions that "The Darkness must be stopped and it never defeats the power of love and friendship".

  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In Starshine Legacy, no matter who (or what) caught you, the worst thing you'll ever get is (Like when you get caught by the Black Holes of Pandoria) start the level all over again. Which gets worse as you keep playing.

  • Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Being the only Boss in the game Buck is laughably easy. However the rest of the level is a living nightmare, especially if you're inexperienced with horse riding games. First you have to ride through the narrow path of Devil's Gap, while timing your jump very precisely or say hello to the Bottomless Pit. After defeating Buck, you have to race against Katja, which means this time you don't have time to carefully observe, you have to beat your rival in a cross-country what is not scripted, meaning if you lose you can start the entire race (or if the game is glitched then the entire level) all over again. And even when you're defeated Katja, you have to ride all the way back, for James.

  • He Knows Too Much: In The Secret of the Pine Hill Mansion Mr. Sands orders two of his goons to "take care of" Mr. Herman; Herman is at the moment the only one who knows the existence of the Soulriders. Luckily, both Linda and Lisa are able to save him.

  • Early-Bird Cameo: Katja appears in the third game as the previous model of Glamour. No. 5

  • Eternal Engine: Plays straight with "The Industrial Complex" downplayed with the "Dark Core Platform" and the "Dark Core Garnok project"

  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: The game uses sparkle effects for almost everything.

  • Forced Tutorial: Subverted, since you can cancel the the tutorial in the options menu, but don't blame the game if you have forgotten.

  • Game Mod: In the first game the creators left the Data Folder open (Whether by accident or on purpose It's unknown, though It's most likely by accident, since in the other games the Data Folder is very well hidden) so you can freely change characters shape or even cheat by freezing a character when you delete his/her respective san/oan file.

  • Guide Dang It!: In the level "Pandoria" even if you take your time and listen to Fripp's advice, instead of rushing through the texts, you may cluelessly run around in circles of what you should do with the puzzle. First you have to find their name, then click with the left mouse button. By doing this four types of symbols will appear. All you have to do is match the name with the correct symbol:
    • Lisa - Star
    • Linda - Moon
    • Anne - Sun
    • Alex - Lightning
      • And then there is the "Epilogue". Even if you manage to find all the four Seals first try within ten minutes. If you run out of time then you may have to go back and collect all Golden Stars which isn't easy since it's difficult to find a reliable walkthrough.

  • Invisible Wall: The game is filled with these...

  • Light Is Not Good: Downplayed with Katja. She wears white clothes but everything else in her is closer to the Darkness.

  • Only Six Faces: Both the boy and the girl students - with the exception of Josh - of the school have the exact same features just with different texture colors.

  • Remember the New Guy?: Jessica, Katja and Buck are treated as this in games 3 and 4.

  • Sickly Green Glow: From the green fluid from the Industrial Complex, throughout the rings coming from the villains when they captured you to Sands's green eye and the goo on his wheelchair.

  • Stealth-Based Mission: "The Library" and "The Strange Camera".

  • Talking Animal: After becoming Soul Riders the girls can understand their horses. It might be also implied that they can understand their friends's horses (Like in the fourth level of the second game Meteor notices the car and warns the girls and Lisa seems to understand him.)

  • The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Goons notice you right away if you ride in front of them, but fail to even sense you when you walk right behind them.
    • And there is the Goon from the Industrial Complex. After you've crossed the first iron door and stop after the jump, you'll see that he tries to go after from you, but he forgets to jump and falls into the green fluid, while his comrade just stands and stare.

  • The Power of Love: Discussed.
    Starshine: You have special power, I promise. And you woke me up from a Dark Sleep. But you've already tried to heal me and It didn't work.
    Lisa: My father always told me, never give up, and I'm stronger now, Starshine. My love for you is so much more powerful, than those dark and evil men.

  • Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: The first part of the Cloak Rider theme is from the Industrial Complex while the second part if from the Hunt music (What is also part of the Main Theme).
    • The ending (Devine Friends) is the exact same as the opening in piano version.

  • Timed Mission: "Epilogue"

  • Video Game Caring Potential: If you stand in front of your horse you can, pet him. In the first game it's important to calm Starshine down. (Un)fortunately, it's only required in three games out of the four.

  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • After you're learned the Soul Strike, you can use it to harm Tin-Can and the game doesn’t even punish you for doing so.
    • You can drop from high places and crush into obstacles.

  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: You thought that defeating Katja means you can finally finish the Devil's Gap level? Wrong! You have to go back for your little brother as well!

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