Starmie has been featured on a number of merchandise, such as a
plush, figurines, accessories, a pillow, painted ,
card sleeves, and clothing. During a collaboration between
Pokémon Centers and Star Jewelry, a number of items were designed which featured Starmie on them. In Japan, a
pokéfuta depicting Starmie was installed in an area of
Toyohashi in July 2022. In 2016, to capture the rising popularity of
Pokémon GO, an
Auckland-based
jeweller created a promotion in-which customers who have caught Starmie in-game would receive a free gemstone. According to a
document leak published by
WikiLeaks, a
hacking program named after Starmie was allegedly developed by the
CIA for the purpose of exploiting
Android devices that use the
operating system versions
Android 4.0 to
4.3, such as the
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, the
Galaxy Note and the
Epic 4G Touch, to gain
remote access in order to collect
user data. Starmie has received positive reception from both critics and fans, appearing in many best Pokémon rankings; Alex Lucard from the
Beckett Pokémon Unofficial Collector magazine noting that its typing and ability to learn powerful attacks made it a well-rounded member of any team. Alex Olney, Jon Cartwright and Zion Grassl remarked during a video for
Nintendo Life that it was an improvement over Staryu due to finding Starmie more intimidating.
Inside Games Suenaga praised Starmie's return in
Sword and
Shields DLC, describing it as one of their favourite Pokémon from the first generation and being an ace at combat; Suenaga even ran a full team of
shiny Starmie each with a different moveset. During a study published in the journal
Language Arts, professor
Vivian Maria Vasquez observed how players believed Starmie to be an enigma, citing it's unthreatening appearance contradicting its ability to have some of the best moves in the games. Vasquez also noted how, despite being genderless, Starmie garnered a reputation for being a "girl's Pokémon" because of its appearance as a "starry jewel." Critics commented on Starmie's role as an early game challenge in the first generation games as Misty's ace. Starmie's high speed stat and use of attacks such as Bubble Beam as reasons why many younger players had particular trouble beating it, with
IGN describing Misty's Starmie as "an absolute pain" to fight. Critics noted that players that chose
Charmander as their starter would have a harder time beating it compared to players that chose
Bulbasaur, Writing for
Magmix, author Sootball saw the fight as an example how basic knowledge about Pokémon mechanics such as Technical Machines (TMs) and type matchups are essential during early game, noting that for younger players who brute force through the game with just strong move "Misty's Starmie will likely seem too strong, like a world champion."
Competitive play Starmie gained particular attention for its combat abilities, where it was noted as both a strong and fast Pokémon among the selection during the earlier games in the series. Between 1997 and 1998, Starmie had been used to win official regional tournaments as well as the finals tournament "Nintendo Cup '97", prompting it to be banned alongside other Pokémon from use in "Nintendo Cup '99" following the addition of new rules to promote other Pokémon to have more exposure. As of 2024, Starmie is ranked in the top tier of competitive player for the first generation according to competitive Pokémon fan site
Smogon. In
IGNs "PokémonoftheDayChick" series of articles, Starmie was noted as being very versatile due to having a variety of different combat strategies for any situation in the first and second generations due to being able to learn many good offensive and defensive moves. When covering specific movesets for Starmie to use, the "
DeathStar" moveset was brought up as being infamous within the Pokémon community, and described as being "nigh unparalleled if you're in the market for a world class annoyer" due to being able to both paralyse and confuse opponents. However, when it came to Starmie's physical design, the author found it hard to attach to due to its lack of a face. They continued that due to Starmie being able to learn the move "Blizzard", it alongside other Pokémon that could use the move such as
Tauros were used abundantly at tournaments, causing Dragon-type Pokémon to become unable to be used at a competitive level due to their weakness to Ice-type moves. Writing for
USA Todays
For the Win website, Cian Maher described Starmie as one of the best designed Psychic-type Pokémon in the series due to it having impressive Speed and Special Attacks stats for its type. Maher further recalled the "DeathStar" strategy, referred to in the article as "Death Starmie", reminiscing that "it doesn't even need a Psychic move" to be considered the best of all Psychic-types. Conversely,
Screen Rants Scott Baird believed that Starmie and its pre-evolution were poorly designed in
Gold and
Silver, pointing out that they are programmed to learn moves that either do not work properly or cannot be obtained due to being genderless. Baird speculates that this was likely an oversight during development, noting that the programmed moves were likely a holdover from a previous in-development build that was leaked where the pair were originally gendered. In
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, the "Starmie ex" card was seen as a strong card within the game's
meta during the first few weeks. Often used in a deck alongside the Misty card and another Water-type Pokémon card, such as "
Lapras ex" or "
Articuno ex", the "Starmie ex" card was considered a powerful card due to its ability to be easily set up as well as being able to do high amounts of damage without using a lot of energy; outlets such as
IGN,
Nintendo Life and
TheGamer listed the card as one of the strongest cards in the game, with the latter two noting it had little weakness outside of electric attacks. Starmie's card became quickly hated in the game's community due to believing it had too many strengths. By March 2025, Starmie's position had fallen slightly in the meta, with players speculating this to be due to lower health points and the introduction of more affordable Water-type Pokémon cards, however, the card is still considered to be a high tier.
Mega Evolution ''|Starmie's Mega Evolution form was the subject of discussion by critics and memes by fans Mega Starmie's design received a mixed reception from both critics and Pokémon fans, with some fans supportive of the design and finding it funny and silly, whereas others believed it ruined Starmie's design and took over from Mega
Dragonite as the worst Mega design in
Z-A.
TheGamer executive editor Rebecca Phillips believed Mega Starmie to be the best Mega form in
Z-A, finding that part of its appeal came from evoking the
uncanny valley and that its "bizarre, humanoid design gives it a little oomph." Conversely, writing for
Polygon Giovanni Colantonio declared Mega Starmie to be
Z-As worst Mega form, describing it as a "body horror monstrosity" designed by
David Cronenberg. Also writing for
Polygon, Patricia Hernandez joked that Mega Starmie looked silly and "had the vibe of a meme or a
shitpost", although commented it was quite strong due to its high stats. In a later article for
Kotaku, Shepard admitted that although he initially hated the design, Mega Starmie became a crucial part of his team during his playthrough because of its increased movement speed. Olivia Richman from
The Escapist heavily criticized the design as being indicative of Game Freak being lazy and adding that people should feel bad for buying
Z-A. Richman questioned why the developers ignored its ability to float, calling the movement animations "stupid as hell" and that "Game Freak should feel bad." such as by depicting Mega Starmie with buff legs; Its status as a meme was even alluded to by The Pokémon Company. On
April Fools' Day 2026, The Official Pokemon YouTube channel broadcast a 10 hour livestream of Mega Starmie running through a psychedelic environment with upbeat music playing in the background, with Tea Pudding from
Inside Games attributing the livestream as a promotion of the Mega Starmie ex trading card. Other artists used the opportunity to create alternate designs of Starmie's mega form, in particular leaning into the space aspect of Starmie, with journalists such as Richman and Coulson thinking they were an improvement over the original and were disappointed the fans design could not become a reality. or by comparing / fusing Starmie with the demons Decarabia and Kaiwan from the
Persona and
Shin Megami Tensei series. Fans have also compared the design to the Starmen from
EarthBound, Matt Bassil of
Wargamer noted that these aspects allowed the card to deal with other top tiers, resulting in the card being used to win competitions as well as reach many second and third place finishes. ==References==