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Prerelease:Densetsu no Stafy
This page details pre-release information and/or media for Densetsu no Stafy.
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Before its release on Game Boy Advance, Densetsu no Stafy was originally not a Game Boy Advance game, as it was developed through the Game Boy and Game Boy Color before being finalised on the Game Boy Advance. Once the game transitioned to the Game Boy Advance, there were a number of game elements in early Game Boy Advance versions that differed from the final game as well.
1995-1998
The game began as a series of tests on the Game Boy for an action game involving lifting or pushing a balloon (which later was planned to be a bubble containing an unspecified Nintendo character).
Eventually, plans changed to move the character instead, which lead to the starfish-like character (which became Starfy) being conceived. A starfish was not the only consideration, as a jellyfish was another idea at some point.
1998-2000
The game became Densetsu no Stafy for Game Boy Color, and was shown at Nintendo Space World 2000 near Tokyo at the Makuhari Messe (幕張メッセ) exhibit on August 25, 2000. Videos of this version are available here: (recording of Densetsu no Stafy at the event), and (Nintendo Space World 2000 mini-site QuickTime movie)
Compared with the final game, there are a number of non-port related differences.
- The official character artwork for Nintendo Space World 2000 is notably different, for example Starfy's shape is curved more loosely/less straight, his feet are more cusped into the ground, and his eyes are fully black. Then for Nintendo Space World 2001 there was another set of character designs, until the third and final set when the games were released. They can be seen in early official archived websites, and publications like the Nintendo Spaceworld Official Guidebooks and Game Boy Encyclopedia 2001 by Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha.
- The character Kyorosuke (キョロスケ), who is known in The Legendary Starfy as "Moe" was originally known as Kyororon (キョロロン).
- On the Stage Select list, the おまけ (extra) option was missing, and "PUSH SELECT" was written in English rather than the final's セレクトボタン (Select-Button). Additionally, the text リスト (list) is missing, but there may be some difficult to read text that is meant to say "List" in English.
- A debug menu was public knowledge, which might have been an early version of the unused debug menu in the final game. This was according to a GameSpot article, however the link is now unfortunately dead and may not have been re-archived.
- With the exception of Moe's, early artwork of Starfy and Old Man Lobber (ラブじいさん, Rob-jiisan) from this version was never used again.
- Starfy appears to have had a neutral position pose which was left unused in the final game, as documented here.
2001-2002 and Release
The game (now 60% complete according to the Nintendo Spaceworld Official Guidebook) was shown again at Nintendo Space World at the same exhibit, on August 24, 2001.
New official artwork was made for Starfy, Old Man Lobber, Mermaid and Ruby (ハデヒラリ, Hadehirari), but like the Game Boy Color demo, this was changed for the final release. Additionally, Moe's artwork was reused from the Game Boy Color demo.
A Sayori Abe manga for the game was serialised for the Shogaku San Nensei magazine from April 2002-December 2002, meaning some information about the game must have been covered in this series of the manga before its official release.
On July 13, 2002, the game was shown again at World Hobby Fair (a little under two months before the official release), with promotional arts and unreleased stuffed toys of Moe and Old Man Lobber on the wall.
