Looking back into Capcom’s release catalogue, they’ve released a lot of game collections. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. It’s always nice to see these beloved titles from their catalogue make their way into more modern platforms, especially so that new players can enjoy these games, given that even getting a DSi or a 3DS has been outrageously overpriced on eBay.
The Mega Man Star Force series is certainly a part of the long list of games I enjoyed back on my old DS Lite. So getting the opportunity to replay these titles was just something I couldn’t resist. But strap down, and let’s see if this collection truly does the franchise justice, and maybe we can all peer pressure Capcom into making a new Star Force game…
Mega Man Star Force 1: Attack of the FM Aliens
Starting our list, we have Mega Man Star Force, which is divided into three versions: Pegasus, Leo, and Dragon. Our story begins with humanity attempting to form a sort of friendship bond called a Brother Band with aliens on another planet. For this purpose, the space station Peace was constructed. However, things didn’t go so well, as the station was attacked, and communications were lost, with no one knowing what happened to the crew inside.
And unfortunately, one of the crew members was Kelvin Stelar, the father of our protagonist, Geo Stelar. When the investigation efforts to find Peace and its crew members were written as a loss, Geo was traumatized and shut himself off from interacting with friends, and as a result, he doesn’t commute to school anymore. Three years after the incident, Geo comes home to find a friend of his father and co-worker at AMAKEN space agency, Aaron Boreal, conversing with his mother, Hope Stelar. Aaron gives Geo a glasses-like item called the Visualizer, which used to belong to his father. Wearing these glasses, it gives the user the ability to see EM Waves and the EM Wave World.
This, in turn, caused Geo to meet with an alien who is on the run from Planet FM, Omega-Xis, or Mega, for short. When fused together, he and Geo are able to transform into an EM being called Mega Man, allowing him to go inside any electronic device and delete any of the viruses causing them to malfunction. And so begins Geo’s journey to defeat the FM aliens from destroying Earth, and maybe, just maybe, make some new friends as he gets out of his shell, so to speak.
Now, I’ll have to say that I have never played the first game that much as a kid, and initially, I couldn’t really remember why. But that memory resurfaced as soon as I saw a very… interesting game design choice, let’s say. You see, it can be very easy for you to just get stuck and not be able to progress due to something you must do in order for the story to move forward. There are many instances where you must talk with every single NPC and interact with every object in that given scene before you get the cutscene that progresses the story. While you can press L at any time to get a “hint” from Mega, these hints are often too vague, and I can’t recall a single time this was actually useful.
Furthermore, Star Force 1 currently has a pretty major oversight, and that is the fact that Capcom has kept the text as-is from the DS version. Now I know what you’re thinking: That’s a good thing, isn’t it? And you’d be right. But that meant two major issues were carried over. The first is that the horrible font from the DS, which caused the text to be split into multiple text boxes, causes the text in Legacy Collection to be awkwardly split, when you can clearly see that this new font can support more text. Another issue is that keeping the text as-is means any typos from the original release have not been fixed, such as the Card Trader SP in Dream Island erroneously claiming he’ll give you 10 cards in exchange for 10 cards, when actually it’s 10 cards for 1.
Mega Man Star Force 2: Artifact Hunting
Next up, we have Star Force 2, which is divided into Zerker x Ninja and Zerker x Saurian, making it the first time we’ve had two games on a single cartridge. The story takes place two months after Mega Man’s battle with the FM-ians, and Geo has upgraded to the new mobile terminal called the Star Carrier. During his trip to see the sights and sounds of the IFL Tower in Wilshire Hills, they come across a new threat. A mysterious EM being that is eerily similar to how Geo can turn into Mega Man. There are also mentions of three mysterious tribes that once ruled over the world, but were mysteriously defeated… and that’s just scratching the surface.
One of the biggest additions to Star Force 2 is the Link Power system, which allows you to equip several different abilities, and many parts of the story will refer to that. Now, I may sound incredibly biased here, but I do think that the second game of the series is when it feels like it started to get its own identity. The first Star Force game still borrowed a lot of concepts from the Battle Network franchise, but by the second game, it seemed the developers knew about the shortcomings of the first. The amount of quality of life improvements that were made from the second game is staggering, and there was truly a lot of polish made to the experience.
The story isn’t scared of touching on much darker topics. But I must say that the buildup for it is absolutely fantastic. It’s also the Star Force game with the best soundtrack, in my opinion, because you visit way beyond the confines of Echo Ridge and its nearby areas. There’s also a very challenging post-game story, which I won’t spoil you on what it is, but I do recommend you are prepared for it, because “challenging” might just be an understatement.
Mega Man Star Force 3: A True Big Bang
And last but not least, we have the third game: Mega Man Star Force 3, which is divided into Black Ace and Red Joker. After the events of the second game, advancements in EM technology have progressed dramatically to the point that people use EM bodies as what are now called Wizards. But, though they seem to be at peace, a new threat looms over Earth… an ominous red meteor by the name of Meteor G.
The main mechanic of Star Force 3 is, to put it simply, Noise. After reaching a certain part of the game, Mega Man can be subject to Noise interference, and this can cause him to transform into an alternate form that can change how the Mega Buster performs in battle. You also have loads of Noise Gates that are scattered across the overworld, which, if you can brave the hordes of Viruses inside, you can find some neat items.
Out of the three games in the legacy collection, Star Force 3 can be a bit of a mixed bag. Its gameplay is perhaps the best we’ve seen from the series yet, but its story does have its weird moments, and there are so many “intermissions” where it feels like it’s padding for time. But the ending offers a satisfying conclusion to the series, so it’s a title that I still hold dear to my heart.
This version of Star Force 3 also has lots of content that was previously exclusive to Japan, too! First, we have the Noise Mod Gear, where you can input up to five Noise cards from a list and equip them. These cards follow the rules of poker, and matching them up accordingly will give you an extremely powerful boost during combat. And if you just mix and match them willy-nilly, the game will actually penalize you for doing so. These cards may seem like they completely destroy the game balance, but with how many cards there are, it’s actually a neat little addition to the game.
Another new feature that was previously exclusive to Japan is the Secret Satellite Server, or SS Server for short. On your brother’s screen, you can add access ports to this server, and it will randomly appear as an option for you to select in battle. Once you tap it, you’ll be asked to select from a folder: A, B, or C. And your Battle Cards selection will change to the ones from that server for the given turn. As you progress through the main story, the server will unlock even stronger folder lineups, and you’ll also gain extra access ports to use it more often.
An Action-Packed Combat System
One of the biggest aspects of the Star Force series is its combat system. As you walk in the overworld, you’ll come across a number of EM viruses. The way it works is pretty simple. Remember the Battle Cards I mentioned? Here, you’ll be given six of them at random, and you must pick them following specific rules. Each of the games varies a bit, but to summarize, the cards you pick can then be used to delete these viruses. You also have access to the Mega Buster, which doesn’t do a lot of damage, but some games introduce Abilities and Weapons that can be equipped to Omega-Xis to change the stats.
The best part about the combat system has to be editing your Battle Cards folder. There are a lot of them, so trust me when I say it is a lot of fun to change up your deck often, especially since the games don’t exactly feature a leveling system in the traditional sense. In the overworld, you have these items called HP Memories, and they increase Mega Man’s HP permanently. And also, to complete your Library, you’ll need a lot of Zenny, the in-game currency, so regardless, you’ll have to do some grinding for 100%.
With that said, the Star Force games aren’t exactly gargantuan in size. Each game took me about 11 to 12 hours to complete the main story, with the post-game potentially taking an additional 6 to 7 hours per game. Although if you stop to think about it for a second, I guess if you want to 100% every single version, some quick maths puts this at about 80 hours, so you’re set for content.
Connect to the ‘Net And Battle!
As someone who lives in Brazil, I was sadly a bit late to the party when it came to using the DS’s network capabilities. At most, I would maybe trade Pokémon with my sister using local communication, but that meant I had no way of experiencing the Network functions of the Star Force series. However, in a similar manner to the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection adds online and local multiplayer, so you can relive those days.
By connecting to the ‘Net, you can choose either a Casual Match or a Ranked Match. The former will match you up against a random player, and whether you win or lose, you won’t lose anything, and it is meant to be more in the spirit of fun. As for the latter, winning will earn you cumulative points, which increase your Rank. Unfortunately, cross-platform play is not possible, so you will have to be careful on which platform you’ll pick up the game.
It’s incredibly easy to set up an online match with someone, because you can set your preferences to look for a match for all three games, and you technically don’t really have to beat any of the games to get started, as pre-made folders are available at your disposal to use.
Amazing Quality of Life Features
Capcom has done a lot of work with Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection to make the experience pleasant on modern platforms, and they did a lot more than just slapping the Nintendo DS ROMs as-is and calling it a day.
First, we have an Assist Mode. By pressing ZR, you can either change the rate at which enemies spawn while ZR is held down, or have it so you can toggle it on and off. You can even turn off battle encounters with this. This is something I definitely abused quite a bit, especially for Star Force 2. Don’t get me wrong, while the battles are something that can take a minute at most to conclude, there are many times when I’m thinking how to solve a puzzle, and I lose my train of thought because of an enemy encounter. You can also add a speed multiplier, so that Geo and Mega Man can walk faster in the overworld.
Furthermore, you have a plethora of multipliers you can change under the Difficulty menu. You can toggle how much damage the Mega Buster deals against enemies, how much money you’ll earn, and even completely reduce the damage you take from a percentage. While there isn’t a way to make the game harder, just easier, this is a great feature for more casual players, especially for some of the post-game bosses, since those can be rather tough, even if you have a strong Battle Card deck.
Japanese Content Now Made Available
It’s no surprise that, in a similar vein to Battle Network, the Star Force series had a lot of content that was sadly exclusive to Japan. But with the Legacy Collection, Capcom has gone truly above and beyond to translate and make that content available throughout each of the three games. For example, in the first game, there was a collaboration with the Boktai games from Konami that was exclusive to Japan, and any mention of it was removed in the English releases. But this quest has been translated, and you can even add the cards from that collaboration to your folder.
Not just that, but the extra accessories that were also Japan-exclusive can also be used in Star Force 1 and Star Force 2. This includes the Wave Command cards that will give you special gifts. It is worth noting that since a lot of these items are incredibly strong, they can make the early game rather easy. But honestly, I had so much fun doing this that I’m quite glad they implemented such a feature.
Finally, though this is more of a side note than anything, from the main menu you can change the text language to Japanese or Chinese. While it’s a shame they didn’t take the opportunity to add more languages other than those, I’m all in favor of allowing fans the option to be able to change the language without having to pay for a completely separate version…
A Gallery Full of Pictures
As is the custom of many of Capcom’s Legacy Collections, Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection also has a Gallery mode. Here, you can take a look at a plethora of art, including design documents, all divided across the three games. As an avid collector of art books, I always love paging through all these early drafts and thinking about how the design process was for these characters. The only minor gripe is that all the design documents are in Japanese, unlike the English-translated ones we’ve had in books such as the Mega Man Star Force Official Complete Works art book, but for me, this wasn’t too much of an issue.
You also have the Music Player, containing both the original and arranged soundtracks. One neat feature that I found was that you can favorite a song you like with X, and then later, you can press the Minus button while in a game to change the song that is currently being played. So if you’re like me and you like to listen to the Sky Wave soundtrack on repeat, you can do that!
However, it may be due to nostalgia bias, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the arranged versions of the soundtracks. I was constantly just going back to the Original soundtrack, but I feel that’s because… While I understand that the intention was to modernize the amount of instrument samples, there’s just something about the DS’s soundfont that makes my ears happier. Even as I write this specific section of the review, I just can’t stop listening to this game’s soundtracks. They are, and forgive the overused word, certified bangers.
A Truly Legendary Collection
Without a doubt, Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is one of the biggest highlights of 2026. I could go on and on about how much fun I’ve had replaying the games, and I’m still reeling from the fact that we finally have them on a modern platform. The assist features, the vast gallery, and of course, the online connectivity all allow for newbies and veterans alike to dive into this amazing world finally, and I urge anyone who is even remotely interested in playing Star Force to give the Legacy Collection a try.
Disclaimer: Capcom provided a Nintendo Switch copy of Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection for review purposes.
