Starfy swims across cultures
Already beloved by gaming fans in Japan, Starfy has finally been introduced to North America’s kiddie gamers on the portable Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi systems. The Legendary Starfy places its charming, five-pointed hero at the center of a wild adventure as he completes a series of challenges that highlight his incredible bravery and impressive underwater moves. While being promoted by Nintendo as its “newest character,” the game now released in English, is actually the fifth Starfy title in the series. The others are available only in Japanese. Rumor has it that Nintendo considered the Starfy franchise to be too Japanese. Interestingly, sales of the The Legendary Starfy in America have now outpaced sales in Japan.
Starfy is a starfish, of course, who lives in the Pufftop Palace. The game genre is a bit unusual. It is a marine platform, with the characters doing a lot more swimming rather than running around. The Legendary Starfy asks players to help Starfy make his way through a variety of challenges in and around the ocean. Starfy is on a quest to help a mysterious character named Bunston, who crashed through Starfy’s ceiling. Players must figure out how to navigate Starfy to the end of each stage by swimming, jumping and bouncing him over, under and through obstacles.
Starfy’s abilities keep players engaged and bad guys running for cover. His Star Spin, for example, lets him burst through walls and barriers, or power through strong ocean currents. When Starfy teams up with Bunston, he can change into four powerful forms that help him overcome any hindrance and defeat enemies who dare to float in his way. Starfy can become Monstar, a dragon that spits fire; Starpedo, an Arctic seal with acrobatic abilities; Starfright, a spooky specter or Roostar, a super-squawking chicken that lays sonic eggs.
The Legendary Starfy includes multiplayer options that let up to four friends or family members link up and play a variety of fun mini-games. Players can also team up to play through many of the game’s stages cooperatively as Starfy and his sister, Starly. Meet The Legendary Starfy at www.starfy.com.
New twist on the yellow smiley face
Animated “smileys” can get made up, accessorized and e-mailed everywhere thanks to SmileyCentralStudio.com, a free online arts and crafts destination for kids. At SmileyCentralStudio.com kids can mix and match smiley parts to create unique emoticons with the Create-A-Smiley feature, share them in the online Art Gallery and then save, print or e-mail. They can also use their original smileys to create artwork in the online Art Studio. Here’s how it works:
l Create-A-Smiley: Start with a smiley head. Keep it yellow or choose from a palette of more than 50 colors to turn it shades of pink, purple, blue, green and more. Mix and match smiley eyes, mouths, hands, feet, hair and accessories. Then use art tools such as Draw, Spray Paint, Paint Roller, Stencil, Spin Art and more to create a truly one-of-a-kind emoticon.
l Art Studio: Create personalized greeting cards, invitations, calendars, computer wallpaper and diary and scrapbook pages with this complete online art studio. Choose from a library of backgrounds, fonts, graphics, and borders and use fun art tools, including Sling Shot, Sponge, Stamp and more.
l Art Gallery: Show off customized smileys in this online community gallery. Sort by Newest, My Smileys, My Favorites or View All. Click “I Love it” to give a smiley “Loves” and make it the most popular. Tag smileys to change their status by giving them virtual gifts — duck (cute), bear (huggable), sunglasses (cool), flower (pretty), diamond (fabulous), cupcake (sweet), Groucho glasses (silly), painter’s palette (creative), or lips (sassy).
Books follow video game’s success
In an effort to encourage reading, Disney Press is publishing a new series for tweens based on Disney Interactive Studios’ best-selling Spectrobes videogames. The sci-fi story of two planetary officers and the mysterious Spectrobes creatures will be told through these original junior novels, with four Spectrobes novels available by year end. Spectrobes is Disney Interactive Studios’ original monster battle video game franchise. The first Wii game of the series, Spectrobes: Origins, will be released this fall. More than 1.6 million units of the two Spectrobes Nintendo DS games released in each of the last two years have been shipped worldwide. The Spectrobes books feature original stories with characters from the video game and introduce never-previously-revealed exclusive tales. The junior novel titles are: Spectrobes: First Contact and Spectrobes: Rise of the Ancient, both available now. Spectrobes: Origins publishes in August and Spectrobes: The Ultimate Returns will be available in November. The books retail for $4.99.
To provide an idea of how the books and video games will differ, Disney has provided the example of the book title and the Wii title, both called Spectrobes: Origins. In the game, the fight to defeat the evil Krawl horde continues, but this time only a series of lost fragments can stop the growing menace. The game lets players control either the character Rallen or Jeena. Players will find, train, and command more than 100 mysterious creatures. With the Spectrobes at their side, they will use the creatures’ special powers and abilities to stop the Krawl and save the galaxy.
The novel by Ned Lerr expands on the story from the Wii game. When Rallen and Jeena respond to an anomaly in the Nanairo System, they are sucked into a portal and sent to a new dimension! Once they arrive on an unknown planet, they are met with a well-known enemy: the Krawl. When they learn that a massive army of Krawl will be unleashed in this galaxy, Rallen and Jeena must find five mysterious shards that when combined, will release a powerful energy that will finally end the evil force known as the Krawl. But the High Krawl known as Jado will stop at nothing to put an end to Rallen and Jeena for good. And just when the officers thought they had enough on their hands, Commander Grant’s strange behavior begins to unfold as the officer’s learn of his past and his connection to this new galaxy and a mysterious being known as Krux.
Cross branding of characters is nothing new — although it is generally novels that become movies and then video games. The Halo and Resident Evil game franchises both have novels based on their characters, and there is quite a collection of children’s books written about Sonic the Hedgehog. For parents desperate to find any way to lure their tweens away from a screen, Disney’s Spectrobes books could be just the right temptation.