The Legendary Starfy 3 ROM

The Legendary Starfy 3, known as Densetsu no Starfy 3 in Japan, is a platforming video game developed by Tose and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance only in Japan on August 5, 2004. It was translated into English by Dimedime on January 28, 2025. It is the third game in The Legendary Starfy series, as well as the third and last title of the series developed and released for the Game Boy Advance. Later, its sequel, Densetsu no Starfy 4, was developed for the Nintendo DS.

It received its first official re-release on the Nintendo Classics service on July 12, 2024, in all regions for the first time along with the other GBA entries. In the beginning, a short time after Densetsu no Starfy 2‘s storyline, everything is calm, and everyone, including the protagonist Stafy, known as Starfy in Western regions, is happy again, until another severe thunderstorm comes and shakes Pufftop Palace. This time, it is more severe than the ones in the past.

A lightning bolt strikes the Magic Jar and destroys it, and the antagonist of the previous titles, Ogura, is freed once again. He later flies away from Pufftop Palace, leaving everyone else wondering what he was leaving for. Starfy’s father tells Starfy and Moe that it falls to them to stop Ogura for a third time. Moe becomes angry and refused, because he is bored of doing the same things they did in the past. Later, Starfy’s sister, Starly, jumps and bounces on Moe, and introduces herself to him.

She later pushes him and her brother off the edge of Pufftop Palace and jumps down with them to pursue Ogura. Like its predecessors, Densetsu no Starfy 3 plays very much like other platforming games, such as some Super Mario Bros. titles and some Kirby titles, but it’s mostly about swimming around stages, which makes this series’ official game genre a marine platform. In fact, the colorful graphics and level layouts (as well as the look of Stafy) have drawn many comparisons to the Kirby series.

Stafy himself can run, jump, and attack via spinning; he also gains access to various transportation objects and animal familiars as the games progress. Like Densetsu no Starfy 2 and unlike the first title of the series, Densetsu no Starfy 3 usually has a certain number of stages per area, with each stage split up into four sub-stages. Most of the other stages’ goals are centered around retrieving a lost or stolen item for another character, including Wario. 

There are many items to collect and many enemies to defeat. The player can move Starfy on land by running and jumping, but when Starfy is in watery areas, he can move much more freely, push obstacles, and so on. Like the previous games, this game also includes minigames, except all of them are different compared to the ones that are similar to Atari‘s Breakout.