If there is a Mega Man game out there, chances are, I’ve played it, and this one is no exception. We have another Legacy Collection from Capcom, and this time, it features Mega Man Star Force, the sequel to the highly popular Mega Man Battle Network series. As always, with a collection, I’m looking at the overall quality of the collection and its content. Does the Mega Man Star Force: Legacy Collection offer up something special?
The Games
The biggest question with any game collection is, “What am I getting for my money?”
The short answer is that you’re getting all three games in the Mega Man Star Force series. If you’re sitting there scratching your head and thinking, “Wait, didn’t this collection say that it comes with ten games?” Then you would technically be right. You see, Mega Man Battle Network (starting with MMBN3) and Mega Man Star Force go the Pokémon route by having multiple versions of each game. The games are, primarily, the same, but include a couple of different bosses and battle cards.
The complete list of games is:
- Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus
- Mega Man Star Force: Leo
- Mega Man Star Force: Dragon
- Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker x Saurian
- Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker x Ninja
- Mega Man Star Force 3: Red Joker
- Mega Man Star Force 3: Black Ace
If you’re really hardcore and feel like playing the same game twice (or three times in the first game’s case), then you will have anywhere from 700-1,400 hours of gameplay content to play, because yes… going through and getting a 100% completion rate can take about 100-200 hours per game. As someone who did this with the original releases, I can attest to that, but I also did that without a guide. There are many out there on Gamefaqs (remember that site?) which can walk you through how to get everything and save you quite a bit of time… if you choose to go that route.
I will mention here that the collection spent a great deal of time redoing all of the character portraits, menus, battle card artwork, and in-game text to be crisp, clear, and HD. There is an option to turn that off and revert the graphics to their original Nintendo DS state; however, even doing so leaves the text boxes as HD. Not that I mind it, but HD text is very nice-looking and is a welcome change, no matter what game mode you play in. Just be warned that the original games were on a 4” screen, so the lower resolution wasn’t much of a problem; swapping it to original mode on a standard PC monitor may not be the best experience.
On the other hand, the smoothing filter doesn’t truly do that good of a job, but in games like this (and not just the Legacy Collections, other franchises have a similar issue), it makes the graphics look oily, and sometimes a bit blurry. It makes you wonder if time, money, and effort should have been spent just redoing the entire game as a remake rather than a remaster. We know the budget for Mega Man isn’t exactly the biggest at Capcom, so that would probably be a huge ask for them, but it is what it is. If you’ve seen one smoothing filter from Capcom, then this one won’t be much different.
The Gameplay
I will briefly touch upon this since these games have been out for quite some time, but I do know that this could be someone’s first time playing a Star Force game.
Mega Man Star Force takes the Mega Man Battle Network battle system and flips it from horizontal 2D to vertical 3D. Enemies are in front of you as you move Subaru Hoshikawa from left to right to avoid enemy attacks. Attacks that hit all panels can be blocked via a shield. A gauge fills up, and when it does (along with the very start of a battle), you can select battle cards to unleash upon your foes. If you don’t select any or use up your cards in a turn, you still have your trusty Mega Buster to get the job done.
When you’re not battling, you’re exploring the world, which is made up of EM Waves. Subaru has a pair of glasses called the Visualizer that he can put on to see the EM world. He can then stand in certain spots and shout out Denpa Henkan! Hoshikawa, Subaru. ON AIR! (EM Wave Change, Geo Stelar, ON AIR for you English speakers out there). He will then transform into Mega Man with his trust partner Warrock (Omega-Xis) acting as his Mega Buster.
They can explore the radio world, and even jump into the “cyberspace” of objects to hunt down viruses and evil Navis… all while trying to save the world from each game’s world-ending threat. (Fun fact… Star Force 2’s Ra Mu (Le Mu) has more detail in the video game than he did in the anime. No, seriously… look it up! He was just a bunch of solid mint green rectangles and triangles! What was Xebec thinking by not matching the quality of a Nintendo DS game!?)
Of course, collecting Battle Cards is always the name of the game, and there is a TON of them. From swords to cannons, to Gatling guns, to electric pulses, to even summoning the bosses of the games themselves, each with multiple power levels, there is a world’s worth of power at your command! Forget getting through the story mode because collecting Battle Cards is the true endgame, and that is what will eat up the majority of your time!
The Collection
As I said, I was going to be brief with the gameplay because Mega Man Star Force is one of those games that’s just easy to pick up, and easy to master. It’s all pretty self-explanatory, and although the in-game tutorial can throw a lot at you, it’s not truly hard to figure out.
So, that leaves the meat and potatoes of the collection, and that is what comes with the collection itself, aside from the games?
Sadly, the collection doesn’t offer anything new or unique outside of any other Mega Man Legacy Collection out there. Capcom has decided to stick to the same formula as they have with all previous collections. What you get is:
- Character and Concept Artwork from the series
- Artwork of all of the Battle Cards (in HD)
- Soundtracks
- Special audio tracks
- Special Options
Before we jump into the Special Options (as everything else is pretty self-explanatory), I’d like to point out something interesting. The audio section includes the soundtracks for Star Force 1, 2, and 3, but it also includes every soundtrack from the Mega Man Battle Network series as well. That’s all 6 base games, as well as Battle Network 5: Double Team, which was on the Nintendo DS vs the Game Boy Advance, and Battle Network 4.5.
I found this to be a really odd choice because there is a Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, which already has these soundtracks on it. There truly wasn’t a need to include them with this collection, and this move just screams that Capcom felt three games’ worth of music wasn’t enough, so they recycled Battle Network’s OSTs to expand their content offerings. I guess it’s nice if you don’t have the MMBN:LC, but this calls something into question…
If you’re going to include the Battle Network soundtrack, then why was Rockman.EXE: Operate Shooting Star excluded from this collection? For those who don’t know, Japan released a version of Mega Man Battle Network 1 that featured a Mega Man Star Force crossover. It never received an English release, so this would have been the PERFECT time to bring the game to the West, but alas, we did not receive it at all. It could have even been included in the Battle Network Legacy Collection, but it wasn’t seen there either (and neither was Mega Man Network Transmission from the Nintendo Gamecube!).
I’m not sure why effort wasn’t put forth to include these elusive titles. If they had, it would have made this collection extra special.
Speaking of special, let’s talk about those Special Options.
Aside from the aforementioned quality filter, you have the option to become an unstoppable force. No… really… if you turn on these settings, you will be unstoppable because one setting will make your Mega Buster deal 500% more damage, another will reduce the damage you take by 100%, and another enable health recovery.
So, if you are someone who just can’t master the battle system and find the game a bit too hard, you can adjust these to different values to make it easier, or just max out all the settings, stand there, and laugh as enemies try their hardest to take you down, but they can’t.
This is also nice if you’ve spent the near-1,400 hours getting 100% in all ten games and don’t want to do it again (like me). The only time I would recommend not going this hard is if you are chasing a 100% completion rate and want to get the V2 cards of the bosses, which require not playing perfectly, but not playing poorly either. You need that 7-10 battle ranking to get the V2, and one-shotting a boss with a single Mega Buster shot won’t get you that (but it will easily get you the V3 version of their card!)
You can also set the encounter rates, allow yourself to escape, and even give indicators for the V2 and EX versions of the bosses, so that they don’t jump out and fight you out of nowhere.
A bit of a letdown; however, the special tracks in the Music section are. There are only four tracks under the Legacy Collection menu, and another four under the DLC menu, for a total of eight. I would have liked to have heard more arrangements of some of the series’s most popular themes, but we’ll have to take what we were given. At least the original Star Force soundtracks still sound great and hold up quite well to this day.
Overall Thoughts
For those who want to know, “yeah, but are the games good?”
Yes… The games are good. Are they as good as the Mega Man Battle Network series? Sadly, I would have to say no, but they are not bad games. They still have a great story, turning Battle Network’s combat into 3D and adding mechanics unique to Star Force was a gamble, but once you get used to it, it’s quite fun… just not as fun as how Battle Network was.
For me, it mostly has to deal with the fact that you are restricted to just three horizontal panels on the back row, whereas in Battle Network, you had a 3×3 grid on your side of the battlefield to work with, giving you more freedom to move around, dodge attacks, and set up your battle chip usage. With Star Force, it’s either dodge left, dodge right, shield, and then hold down to lock on to a target and use your battle card. It’s a step down from Battle Network’s combat system, in that sense. You can shorten your enemy’s battlefield by using cards like Area Eater, though, so you do have some control over things.
But as I said, despite the step down, it’s still fun, and it’s still challenging. The bosses start easy, then ramp up, and you’ll soon realize that they are no pushovers. Just try Burai (Rogue) in Star Force 3 if you don’t believe me.
Now, for the collection, it’s not bad, but it’s not great either. This is a very standard offering from Capcom that we’ve seen time and time again. As I mentioned before, it would have been great to see Operate Shooting Star included, just to give us Westerners something new to play. It would have also fit with the odd choice to include the Battle Network soundtrack. But the collection is just a bunch of artwork and music, and that same oily filter that smooths out the pixels (or attempts to).
The biggest highlight is the HD portraits, battle card artwork, HD menus, and that incredibly sexy text. Also, a personal highlight is the ability to have English text, but Japanese audio. Geo Stelar will always be Subaru Hoshikawa to me… and I will always refer to Luna as Iinchou (class president). Yeah… I am an otaku like that, but I just prefer their Japanese names and voices. Besides, Subaru is in elementary school, so his Japanese voice fits, whereas his English voice sounds like he’s working the konbini between classes, trying to get enough yen for university textbooks.
Another highlight is the online netbattles. Those were always popular from the Battle Network series, and Star Force continued that forward. Here in the Legacy Collection, you can make friends (known as the Brother Band) and set up to 6 cards from your collection as your Brother cards. If you are Brothers with someone, you can use their set of battle cards in-game. Likewise, if they have a card you want, you can trade for it online as well, which can make collecting cards a bit easier.
So, overall, as a collection, this feels average. It was another opportunity for Capcom to do a little something more and make this collection feel special, but it was more of the same that we’ve seen time and time again.
So, whether you’re a seasoned Mega Man aficionado or you’re jumping into the Star Force series for the first time, this collection is one you’ll want to pick up just because of the sheer fun that the games offer. For those who have never played a Legacy Collection from Capcom before, there is enough content and customization here to satisfy you, but for those of us who have been around this block before, we were hoping for something a bit more, but again, we never got it.
Mega Man Star Force: Legacy Collection releases on March 27, 2026, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC
Preview Disclosure Statement: Mega Man Star Force: Legacy Collection was provided to us by Capcom for preview purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
