Customer Reviews

Mega Man Star Force 3 Red Joker

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone who has played the previous SF titles will no doubt enjoy this game. I have tried the Battle Network series before and never quite got hooked. But SF has continued to catch my attention since the beginning. Fans will be glad to see familiar faces return, as well as a stellar conclusion to the main plot of the game. The new enemy threat fits right in, as they feel like lifelong rivals. The difficulty progressively increases, especially near the end. Diehard fans with push through the challenge and find another great Mega Man game to add to their DS collection.

I have been a long time fan of the Mega Man Battle Network series, of which Star Force is a spin-off/sequel to. The games have followed the original format throughout the whole series, but find ways to vary the game play. With 9 games (6 Battle Network, 3 StarForce) out, there are some low points and some highs. StarForce 3 ranks in the top third in the series for me.

One of my main complaints with some of the other games in this series is that the boss areas were less about exploring a location and solving a few puzzles, in favor of mini-games of varying quality. Starforce 3 drops a lot of the mini-games, keeping you more into the storyline. The mini-games that I recall, had direct bearing on the story and felt quite epic in the form of defensive/offensive operations as opposed to say, unearthing generic npcs from an avalanche while skiing (StarForce 2).

The battle system continues on from the previous 2 games, with a form changing system akin to style changes from the early battle network games. The difference being, you have to earn your power ups in each battle. Once you can transform, you can overkill enemies to increase a counter. When the counter is at 50, you get your form's special powers. At 100 or above, you start the next battle at 50. At 200 or more you can become your title's final form and use special skills based on how high your counter is. You can also combine forms, but I have not been able to try that.

This game has a 'brother band' system where linking your game with friends who also play it, allows you to equip more power ups, and combine your forms. Without friends that also have the game, it becomes more difficult to combine forms. You would need to win a battle online vs likely over powered opponents, to get new forms that way.

Overall, I feel this apparent final game in this series had a lot of love put into it, and came out as one of the best in the run. I won't give it a max score though, seeing as some of the game mechanics cannot be explored without friends who also own the game. You can play fine without linked friends, but the game makes a big point of promoting it.

An excellent game for anyone; gaming experience or not, the combat is fast-paced, has a good story line and cast, and improves on its predecessors.