Video Game / Densetsu no Stafy 3

Densetsu no Stafy 3 (Legend of Starfy 3) is the third game in The Legendary Starfy series, released for the Game Boy Advance.

On a seemingly normal day on Pufftop, a storm suddenly begins brewing around the castle, with the culprit being Ogura's master—a demonic being by the name of Evil. He has grown impatient with Ogura's constant failures to conquer Pufftop, but deciding to give him one final chance, Evil destroys Ogura's jar with a bolt of lightning. Gloating over the power his master holds, Ogura soars off to meet up with him. Starfy and Moe are reluctant to go after the two villains, until someone else shows up—Starfy's energetic younger sister Starly. Motivated to beat up the villains causing trouble, she pushes Starfy and Moe into the ocean before jumping in herself to go after them, ready to find and challenge Ogura and his master.

This game in the Starfy series, in addition to being The One With… a guest-star appearance by Wario in one of its stages, is most notable for introducing Starfy's little sister Starly, who is playable in certain levels and has her own special abilities. With its introduction of a threatening new villain and a gradually less upbeat atmosphere, it's generally also considered to be somewhat darker than other entries in the series.

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This game contains examples of:

• Advancing Wall of Doom:
  • Both stages 4-3 and 4-4 end with Starfy having to outrun a massive avalanche that acts as an advancing wall to his left.
  • Stage 6-4 has a similar event near the end of the stage, only given the location this time it's a huge lava flow you have to outrun.
• Auto-Scrolling Level:
  • After meeting Mad Piero in stage 3-3, the room begins scrolling to the left.
  • The first section of stage 5-1 automatically scrolls slowly to the right.
  • 8-3 has three autoscrolling sections once you trigger the security systems; one with Starfy and two at the level's end with Starly.
• Bad Boss:
  • Evil to Ogura.
  • The shaved ice machines in Kachiwari Iceberg include worker penguins being attacked by their bosses with whips.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Misty Town, a literal ghost town full of fog.
• Blackout Basement: Parts of Gabun Ocean Trench are pitch-black until you hit a Lyte or use the submarine's lamp.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Wario gifts Starfy a copy of Warioware at the end of the second Undersea Ruins level, and begins to boast about how it's even more fun than "this game" before stopping himself.
• The Bus Came Back: Bankiross, a boss from the first Starfy game, makes a return here in Gabun Ocean Trench as a boss once again.
• Call-Back:
  • The final stage of Kachiwari Iceberg involves the Jellato Sisters being frozen in a block of ice and Starfy having to dunk them in a hot spring in order to thaw them out, just like their appearance in the Sea of Ice in the first game.
  • Bankiross returns from the first game, and the level he appears in is very similar to the Stranded Whale stage from said game, having you go inside the body of a giant sea creature (Gabun in this case) and find that he is causing them pain internally. Moe even lampshades this when you first encounter Gabun, noting that the situation sounds a lot like what happened with the Stranded Whale.
• Chain of Deals: During the Jungle stage, you find out that Moe has been saddled with his father's debt to Mantahan with no way to repay it. Mantahan suggests the heroes get him access to a cave full of treasure as an alternate way to repay the debt, but the deed to the cave is currently owned by a hippo named Kabasonchou. In order to acquire the treasure cave, you have to get Jungle Manjuu from Funazou, trade it to Kit Fish for a shovel, trade the shovel to Halo and Hillaryn for a Bear-san backpack, and finally give the backpack to Kabasonchou so that he'll be willing to sell you the deed to the treasure cave.
• Chest Monster: The Treasure Monsters found in Misty Town look like ordinary treasure chests, but reveal sharp teeth and attack when Starfy or Starly tries to open them. One is used by Mad Piero to kidnap Starfy, and several others must be defeated to save Mamanezu's children.
• Convection, Schmonvection: As is expected for a video game, Starfy and friends are perfectly fine when going inside a volcano, only being hurt if they directly touch the lava inside.
• Crossover: The game features a cameo by Wario in the eighth world. You have to activate some of his Wario Land 4 transformations in order to make your way through the stages. He ropes Starfy into helping him seek the ruins' treasure.
• Cute and Psycho: Hirara is an adorable pink fish found in Gabun's body, who is so torn up over her crush Halo getting together with Hillaryn that she plans to spend the rest of her life inside Gabun. She's prone to angry outbursts that turn her body spiky, and doesn't care that it's harming Gabun from the inside. Fortunately, Starly solves the problem by tickling Gabun's nose to get him to sneeze her out.
• Darker and Edgier: The game as a whole compared to the rest of the series. The environments and enemies are creepier and less upbeat, many of the new character designs lack the cartoony cuteness of the rest of the series, it has an intimidating and very evil new villain, the soundtrack is much less upbeat than the other games in the series, and it includes the deaths of Moe's father and Ogura, as well as confirming the deaths of the Puchi Oguras from the previous game.
• Disk-One Final Boss: The final stage's sole boss fight is against a souped-up Ogura who only has one phase, after which Starfy and friends escape from the Old Castle and head back home. It's only then you learn about the Evil Crystals that you have to collect in order to face Evil himself, prompting the second playthrough to begin.
• Distressed Dude: Starfy briefly becomes one when Mad Piero kidnaps him by tricking him with a fake treasure chest, leaving Starly to save him.
• The Dragon: Ogura to Evil this time around.
• Dual Boss: Mad Piero fights with Kanterabaa assisting him.
• Establishing Character Moment: Starly introduces herself by hearing about the new villain causing trouble, immediately showing up before Starfy and Moe to declare that the three of them should teach him a lesson, and shoving the two into the ocean to go after him.
• Eye Beams: Muga can project a large beam from its eye to attack that sweeps in a circle, following Starfy.
• Fastball Special: Upon catching up to Kyorozou each time in stage 8-4, Wario hurls Starfy at him to make him drop one of the jewels he's carrying.
• Feud Episode: Starfy and Starly have a fight within the Kachiwari Iceberg stage, causing Starly to run away. This separates her from Starfy and Moe, eventually trapping herself in a room with strong currents. Starfy is able to relearn the Mighty Star Spin to find her again, and the two apologize and reconcile with some pushing from Moe.
• Giant's Droplet, Human's Shower: Evil weaponizes this in his boss battle by unleashing a huge wave of Waterfall Puke like a Wave-Motion Gun onto the tiny Starfy as an attack.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Muga. It appears as the boss of the Sea of Sky as sort of a boss variant to the watcher enemies found earlier on, but otherwise its presence isn't really explained.
• Giant Squid: Muga, a huge, eerie, one-eyed squidlike creature who is the boss of the Sea of Sky. It follows Starfy with its eye and can fire beams from it directionally to attack, but swimming in circles around it will make it dizzy, leaving the eye open for a Star Spin attack.
• Go for the Eye: Muga's eye is its weak point, though you have to make it dizzy first by swimming in circles.
• Grows on Trees: Trees in the jungle with orange palm leaves somehow grow meat, as it falls from said trees when you attack them. This can be used to distract certain enemies.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: Starly introduces the stage screens by talking directly to the player, even telling them which buttons to use during her spiel.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Starfy pushes Starly and Moe out of the way of a bunch of possessed knives and chairs aimed for them in Misty Town, which results in him being buried in a pile of the objects. Comically subverted when Starly uses a bomb to blow the junk away and Starfy is shown merely asleep beneath them, completely unharmed.
  • As detailed below, Ogura and Moe's dad (he'll try to hamper your progress in World 8 towards Evil) both sacrifice themselves in a Heel–Face Turn against their boss, Evil.
• Joker Immunity: Subverted - Ogura is Killed Off for Real in this game. With a Heroic Sacrifice, no less. Almost makes you forget that he kidnapped Starfy's entire family in the previous game.
• Jungle Japes: The fifth stage, simply named Jungle, has this theme, combined with Ruins for Ruins' Sake.
• King Mook: The Pengod boss at the end of Kachiwari Iceberg resembles a larger version of the Pingoon enemies found in the area.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: The lava found in Crackling Volcano is essentially just a recolored version of the purple acid pools also found in the game, and has the same properties as well; having occasional spouts that lift platforms and damaging you on contact. This even makes it look like boiling Kool-Aid as well.
• Lethal Lava Land: Crackling Volcano, which as the name implies, takes place mostly inside a volcano.
• Monster Clown: Mad Piero, the stage boss of Misty Town is a cackling clown who continuously pranks and scares Starfy and his friends. While his actions initially seem mostly harmless, he tricks Starfy with a monstrous treasure chest at the end of stage 3-3, imprisoning him inside.
• Mook Bouncer: The Imadames and Trappas reappear in this game in the Old Castle, in addition to a new enemy called Mistrappa unique to this game. Its appearance is more mechanical, though its behavior is the same as the Trappa—it will chase the player and transport them to the room's entrance if it catches them.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: You don't get any more blatant than with a powerful villain named Evil.
• Piranha Problem: Piranyans combine this with Painful Pointy Pufferfish. They're fish that relentlessly pursue you and can't be killed due to their spines. You can, however, temporarily pacify them by giving them meat.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain:
  • The boss Gyamuran (a mecha piloted by Amaenbi) repeatedly explodes this way upon defeat before falling apart.
  • Ogura also repeatedly explodes once he's defeated at the end of the first playthrough.
• Power at a Price: Evil charges Ogura's strength to its maximum potential in hopes of finally defeating Starfy, though the process is physically (and potentially mentally) painful to Ogura himself.
• Redemption Equals Death:
  • Moe's father has a rocky relationship with his son, and starts working for Evil during the events of the game, even trying to push Moe himself into becoming one of Evil's lackeys. While in the Old Castle, Moe's father and Evil force Moe into a situation where he effectively has to choose between Starfy and Starly's lives or his own–either he lies to them about the nature of a deadly trap from Evil, or he tells the truth and is killed by Evil's lightning. Moe decides to tell Starfy and Starly the truth, and they make it out of the trap safely. Evil prepares to strike Moe down with lightning for disobeying him, but Moe's father is moved enough by his actions that he shoves his son out of the way and takes Evil's lightning in his place. He laments not being a better father to Moe and for taking so long to realize the impact of his actions as he dies.
  • Ogura himself gives up the last Evil Crystal—the one that he possesses—to the heroes so that they can defeat Evil once and for all. However, without the power of the crystal, Ogura loses all his strength. As he dies, he apologizes to Starfy, hoping they would meet again as friends before he passed away.
• Rise to the Challenge: Part of the final level in Crackling Volcano, where you have to outpace a rising lava flow.
• Shielded Core Boss: Pengod protects himself from attacks with a ring of ice spheres in three different colors. Attacking a sphere will cause it to change color, and when all spheres are the same color, the ring of spheres will vanish, making Pengod vulnerable to attack. Overlaps with Puzzle Boss.
• Shock and Awe:
  • Evil's magic mostly takes the form of lightning bolts.
  • Bulrun can conduct electricity, which they use as their primary method of attack.
• Shout-Out:
  • The introductory animation for the Jungle stage shows Starfy, Starly, and Moe exploring the forest, in which Moe is equipped with a Indiana Jones-style hat and whip.
  • The Makaika Group, introduced here as a rival group to the Squirts, is based on the Makai Club, a former Japanese professional wrestling group with five main members designated by number.
• Similar Item Confusion: Done using a pun. Upon arriving at the door to the Old Castle, the team learns from Mama and Papa Star over a Shell Tape that a special item is needed to open it. Starly guesses that the item is a key (kagi), and Starfy heads into the stage to find it, retrieving a permission fruit (kaki) instead. Starly angrily throws the fruit at Starfy for making the mixup, but then the bust above the door eats the fruit, unlocking it, revealing that it was the correct item after all.
• Simon Says Minigame: To unlock some of the doors in Coral Coast, Moe will indicate the order in which to hit three pieces of coral as a code.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Kachiwari Iceberg.
• Snake Charmer: Music from record players in the treasure cave will entice the snakes hiding in there to emerge from holes in the wall, letting you use them as platforms until the music stops.
• Sneeze of Doom: After Starfy brings him his wig in the Sea of Sky, Squirt #3 uses a massive sneeze to blow away one of the members of the Makaika group.
• Stalactite Spite: Kachiwari Iceberg has falling icicles that act this way as hazards.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: Partway through stage 8-3, Starfy and Wario come across a room with a statue that looks suspiciously like a switch. Wario warns Starfy not to touch it, but jumping on top of it and setting off the area's security system is, naturally, the only way to progress forward.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Mad Piero throws knives at Starfy during his boss battle much like how he does throughout the rest of Misty Town. The key to defeating him lies in exploiting the knife handles as platforms when they stick into the wall—when Kanterabaa turns Mad Piero invulnerable, you can climb the handles to attack her and remove her enchantment.
• Taking the Bullet: Evil attempts to off Moe by striking him with lightning when he refuses to sacrifice Starfy and Starly as per Evil's orders. Moe's father Kyorozou pushes his son out of the way and takes the attack himself, saving Moe but at the unfortunate cost of his life.
• Temporary Platform:
  • A variant in a few levels of Misty Town, where certain fragile platforms will crumble under your feet if you land on them normally or dash–you have to glide slowly down onto them and then walk across. They also fall apart when you jump from them, so you have to move from platform to platform carefully.
  • Blue icicle platforms in Kachiwari Iceberg will fall a second after Starfy or Starly lands on them.
  • Palm trees in the Jungle stage can be used as platforms, though they come alive and attack soon after they're disturbed.
• Tempting Fate: Moe confidently states that the location he picked for his family's new home in Coral Coast is very peaceful and completely monster-free, so his siblings will be safe even if they wander the area. Naturally, the area soon begins swarming with monsters courtesy of Ogura, and Starfy has to help rescue Moe's siblings.
• Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: Those absolutely massive blue jewels in the Undersea Ruins, which Wario nabs for himself whenever you encounter them. They later turn out to be the key to unlocking a door further on in the ruins.
• Underwater Ruins: The aptly-named Undersea Ruins, complete with plenty of treasure and a security system to protect against intruders. Wario even guest-stars within the stage.
• Vacuum Mouth: Used by Ogura during his boss fight as an attack.
• Wall Jump: A technique of Kittana's, which he teaches to Starly as one of her exclusive abilities.
• Waterfall Puke: Evil has this as one of his attacks while in his second form, which is actually a One-Hit Kill if you fail to deflect it.
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • Muga fires giant lasers from its eye as one of its main methods of attack.
  • Similarly, Ogura fires huge screen-sweeping beams from his mouth when you fight him here.
  • Evil's second form fires wave motion puke to squish the entire screen from above that you have to deflect.
• Womb Level: Part of the Gabun Ocean Trench stage involves you exploring the interior of Gabun's body, which is very organic-looking despite Gabun having a mechanical exterior appearance.

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