Alternate Character Interpretation: Ruby seems to be unaware that Moe has a crush on her, and just sees him as a friend. But some of her dialogue with him can come off as almost teasing or flirty, which could imply that she's actually well aware of his interest in her and is playing along with it to tease him.
That being said what the game lacks in nightmare fuel, it does make up for in surprisingly dark and mature storylines and subject matters for a kid friendly game, tackling topics such as divorce and unrequited love in a mature, yet easy to understand manner.
Difficulty Spike: Most of each game's first playthrough is fairly simple and can be easily cleared without too much trouble. Things start getting steadily tougher with the game's final stages, often involving more frustrating enemies (such as Trappas) and trickier puzzles. After all that, the game's final boss generally provides a decent challenge. Then comes the New Game Plus, which ramps up the difficulty by adding new (sometimes Nintendo Hard) levels with more difficult bosses, capped off by facing the True Final Boss of the game. In the first three games especially, you're going to start feeling the pain of only having five hit points.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Ogura is by far the most popular character in the series, due to his surprising amount of depth for an arch rival like character.
Fandom Rivalry: A mostly one-sided one with Kirby. Most Starfy fans like Kirby, but a lot of Kirby fans dislike Starfy for being a similarly cute platformer (but without Kirby's signature Surprisingly Creepy Moments). It doesn't help that Super Smash Bros has done Take Thats at Starfy.
It's Easy, So It Sucks!: The Starfy games tend to be on the easy side in terms of difficulty, leading to plenty of players who are more used to platformers not finding them very fun. The difficulty only begins to ramp up once you reach the game’s Final Boss, and especially during the New Game Plus parts, which feature harder levels, trickier bosses, and a suitably difficult True Final Boss. Unfortunately, given that the only game in the series to be released outside of Japan lacked such a feature (though it does have a very difficult unlockable stage), most American gamers can’t experience most of the legitimately challenging aspects of the series—at least not legally.
Try to Star Spin three times in a row, and Starfy/Starly will be temporarily stunned by dizziness. This prevents you from just spamming your attack, but it's also annoyingly easy to accidentally cause before you learn to work around it (and sometimes even after).
Take any damage while in a vehicle or transformation and you'll get sent back to the beginning of the section. This was thankfully undone in the fifth game so that transformations just share Starfy's regular health meter.
Sequel Difficulty Drop: The challenge in the platforming part of the Starfy series has been lowered down since Starfy 3. For example, in Starfy 2, you have to deal with 3 worlds without the Glide ability, with many ground levels. This same ability is learned within the first level for all the next installments except the 5th game, where you learn the Glide ability in the second world instead.
Averted with the boss fights (which get more complicated patterns and more HP) and the bonus levels.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Whether Starfy actually riffed off of Kirby is up in the air, but a lot of the series' poor reputation outside of Japan comes from the idea that he's just a Kirby knockoff.
Moe. His family is forced to move from their home, his mother dies, and then when he meets his dad, he makes a Heroic Sacrifice that kills him.
Ogura also counts. He was seemingly enslaved by Evil at a young age, and is hurt by Evil when he loses to Starfy. Despite secretly respecting Starfy, he can't show this because Evil would kill him. Makes it all the more sad when he performs a heroic sacrifice to eliminate Evil.
"Showdown with Mashtooth" and "The Final Battle" are excitingly fast, intense songs that play during both of Mashtooth's fights. You'll definitely be feeling the adrenaline rush that's necessary to hold back the moon.
Similarly, you have "Super Tough", which is a theme that plays during the Big Bossdown, Stage 10's levels, and Konk's boss battles. It's an intense, heart-pumping tune, fitting for such post-game challenges.
During Papes' interview on The Moe Show, he refuses to tell Moe anything. Suddenly, Shurikit comes out, and Papes asks what she's doing there. Shurikit then apologizes and leaves.
The final level of Hotcha Springs involves some sections where Starfy must outrun a rising wall of fire, due to the Hot-Spring Snapper setting fire to the area. This mechanic is also inexplicably present in one of the levels in Planet Bunnera, with no explanation given as to why the fire is there.
Captain Obvious Reveal: The revelation that Bunston is from space is fairly easy to discern before the fact given that he's wearing a spacesuit, fell from the sky from his ship, and scenes from Bunnera are shown with a starry sky outside. There's also the fact that the game seems to be a bit confused about what information should be revealed at what time, as cutscenes seem to imply that you're supposed to know where Bunston is from once Chillydip Cove is cleared, while dialogue in-game has this information hinted at, but not properly revealed, until the S.S. Logwater.
Difficulty Spike: A dramatic one at the end of the game. The game as a whole is a step below its predecessors in terms of difficulty, with even the final boss Mashtooth not being too much of a challenge for seasoned players. Beating him, however, unlocks the Big Bossdown, a tricky Boss Rush of all of the game's main opponents. To get the highest score, you have to beat the mode in under nine minutes, a legitimately difficult task given that you have to fight both of Mashtooth's forms as well as some bosses being tricky to take down quickly due to their lessened vulnerability (such as Snips). Complete that challenge? You're rewarded with the Brutal Bonus Level of Stage 10, which challenges you to complete several levels that are much more difficult than the rest of the game's fare and full of platforming challenges. In order to unlock the final stage, you must beat each level under a specific time limit. Within said final stage, you must fight Old Man Lobber as a Superboss, who has a one-hit KO attack while low on health. A pretty easy game hiding such hard-hitting challenges comes as even more of a surprise given the simpler nature of the title.
Genius Bonus: The name of the shark-like enemies in the series, Snark, sounds like a simple play on "shark", but may also be a reference to the titular creature in Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark. Though it's physically nothing like a shark, the snark in the poem is a mysterious and feared creature that causes one victim to suddenly vanish—similar to the Mega Snark in the fifth game, who lurks in the background of certain S.S. Logwater stages and swiftly swallows its victims whole when disturbed.
Mashtooth's status as a Knight of Cerebus works very well for the most part... though it occasionally gets undercut by the overall goofy nature of the game, such as him telling the Terrible Trio that he'll "squash [them] like a puff pastry" should they fail to capture Bunston.
Similarly, Mashtooth is told twice—once by one of his Mooks, and another time by Snips—that his plan is "not very nice". It's so blunt that it ruins the serious nature of both scenes it appears in.
The cutscene titled "Mashtooth's Master Plan" in the game's gallery is shown below a cute elephant sprinkling a flower patch under a rainbow. Seriously.
Mashtooth's inhale move isn't particularly difficult to avoid, just as long as you stay away from him. If you do get caught, however, you have to mash left and right on the D-pad at a very fast rate to escape, or else you'll be swallowed and lose instantly. The move is even worse to deal with during the Big Bossdown, since losing a fight means having to play the whole thing over again. The attack can also be quite annoying during said Bossdown due to it lasting for a long time, with obstacles to dodge, forcing you to wait and avoid attacks for a long period of time without being able to counterattack at all.
Old Man Lobber's Clakkity attack is ridiculously hard to dodge, and is a one-hit KO. Good luck...
That One Level: Sogwood Forest. It's full of poison pools that are difficult to get out of should you fall in them, bobbing chestnut platforms that are hard to leap from, and several levels have you swimming upwards through constantly falling dewdrops. The worst part is, to get maximum height while swimming through the dew, you need to launch from the water with a Super Star Spin, which can cause serious Damn You, Muscle Memory! moments.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While The Legendary Starfy is generally well-liked, fans of the first four games often find themselves disappointed with how many recurring characters and musical motifs got cut or replaced as this entry had to serve as a soft reboot for American audiences.
(the music that plays on the map screen for Chillydip Cove) is a very pretty, swing-style song with a nice wintry feel that'll likely make you want to idle on the the map screen for a while.