At this point, almost every Mega Man game out there is some sort of remaster compilation. I’m not complaining, although I’m still a little sad that Mega Man Legends is staying out of the collection, but that’s a story for another day. The latest in Capcom’s efforts to catalog the Blue Bomber’s expansive library is the Mega Man Star Force legacy collection.
If you’ve never heard of the Star Force games, I wouldn’t be too upset about it, as it’s a Battle Network series, itself a spin-off. With the exception of Mega Man Soccer, there may not be a more niche, forgotten part of his history than the DS era. This was a time of relative uncertainty for Mega Man, as the last line of last, home console entry was a decade ago. It had found a home on handhelds, but the results were mixed.
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Zero and ZX were great, as you can see for yourself in the Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection, but other games of this era relied on creating something different. Star Force followed the same logic as Battle Network, built upon redefining Mega Man for a new generation. The tone was a big departure, but the biggest changes came in the game itself.
Like Battle Network, Star Force relies on card-based combat. It’s a far cry from Mega Man’s roots, but it’s managed to produce some pretty fun experiences along the way. The Star Force games felt like something of a letdown from War Network, but there was still a lot to like, and if you’ve never experienced it, Capcom’s latest integration is a great place to enter.
Oh, One Last Thing
The final result of a compilation always depends on the quality of the games that are put together, and Star Force is certainly not Mega Man at his best. It’s not Mega Man at its worst, either, but these games were average back in the day, and not much has changed. After six Battle Network games, it always baffled me how Star Force managed to take a few steps back.
Despite reducing the grid to create a faster pace to combat, going from 3×6 to 3×1, combat felt a little sluggish back in the day and feels even worse now. The movement speed feels good, but the small grid and back-to-back views make the scale feel smaller and the pace even slower. It was always very disappointing on the DS, and it feels even worse today.
I consider myself a bit of a nerd when it comes to card-based combat in games, and while the action seen in the Star Force games feels less satisfying than Battle Network, it’s still pretty fun. Picking cards feels like a breeze, and being able to stack results by matching them together adds to the fun of the experience. It’s not as deep as one would hope, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had from being Mega Man and seeing old enemies in 3D space.
This collection includes all three Star Force games, each of which contains many Pokémon-like versions and was released over a three-year period from 2007 to 2009. I hope you liked Battle Network, which means I hope you liked it a lot, because this is actually more of that style, but worse.
Unlike Battle Network, the Star Force games are probably the oldest Mega Man games ever. Everything feels restrictive and distrustful of you as the player, NPCs explaining how to do a simple task, re-explaining it and begging to explain it again. It was the only thing I couldn’t help but laugh at when an NPC said, “Oh, one more thing” deep in one of these games.
Unlike Battle Network, the Star Force games are probably the oldest Mega Man games ever.
The stories themselves also have names. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I was surprised at how little I remembered about the stories in each game. There is a lot of dialogue, sometimes bordering on boring. It also has a lot of unbearably cheesy and corny dialogue, which might be your thing. It’s definitely mine, but it can get a little loud after a while.
The story and writing aren’t all bad, of course. Some of the dialogue is really sharp and funny, as both Battle Network and Star Force lean heavily on the anime style when it comes to writing. There’s a lot of funny, funny stuff that’s hard to come by these days.
The unfortunate part of this whole story is that the Star Force games have just aged incredibly badly. There’s a veritable mountain of Mega Man games to choose from on modern platforms, and this one sadly scratches the bottom of the franchise’s barrel. After playing six Battle Network games, going into the spin-off with the same systems that sound so bad is disappointing. Worse, games don’t do much to make everyone feel the same way. By the time I got to Star Force 3, I was feeling very tired.
Preserving the Legacy
Capcom has always done an excellent job of maintaining the long, storied history of Mega Man over the years. Each release in their Legacy Collection line has done well to not only keep the games available to all audiences, but to maintain the historical significance of each game. The integration of Star Force is not the same. Concept art, a complete soundtrack from each game and card galleries are all there. It’s common these days in compilation games, but it’s always nice to see.
Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection includes some of the worst aspects of modern arcade games. Bad, low-quality CRT filters and unattractive pixel smoothing are on by default, but can obviously be turned off. The fact that you can turn it off is great, but the fact that these things continue to rank is always very disappointing.
Thankfully, each game in the collection looks and runs like a dream.
Thankfully, each game in the collection looks and runs like a dream. These are classic DS games from about three generations ago, but it’s always nice to see them running well. Considering how poorly some console titles have been done by other developers in the past, it’s not always a guarantee that older games will run the way they should on modern hardware.
Some would argue that the Mega Man spin-off games are actually much better than the main games. And in a way, I would agree, as the X and Legends series continue to be my favorite Mega Man games. Star Force isn’t on the same level as other Mega Man spin-offs, but if you’ve never played this, there’s likely to be something here that will catch your attention.
The Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection brings three of Capcom’s most iconic mascot titles. Star Force continues the tradition that began with 2001’s Battle Network, combining card-based combat with simple RPG elements and exploration. The games themselves are terribly old, with somewhat basic combat and a game world determined to tell you what to do at all times. As long as you don’t mind dealing with odd design choices and long-winded stories, you can have a lot of fun with this unique, or flawed, Mega Man card game.
