Although there had always been plans to bring the series to North America, the reason why the series stayed in Japan until the announcement of the fifth game was because Nintendo of America had declared the series to be "too Japanese". Nintendo of America has also considered bringing the other four games to North America in some form as well as expanding the series to the Wii, depending on "fan response".
Commercials The animated television commercials loosely take place in the plot of whatever title is being advertised, as well as its gameplay. The settings and actions were slightly different compared to the ones in the titles they advertised. For instance, in
the first The Legendary Starfy title, Starfy was walking inside the Tenkai Palace while carrying some stuff, including the Magic Jar holding the antagonist, Ogura, until Starfy tripped and dropped the stuff he was carrying, while the Magic Jar fell into the ocean below the Tenkai Palace. But in one of the commercials for the first title of the series, Starfy was walking outside of Tenkai Palace while only carrying the Magic Jar, until he tripped and fell in the ocean along with the Magic Jar. Except for
Densetsu no Starfy 3, its commercial is the only one in
The Legendary Starfy series that has a different setting. Instead of taking place anywhere in the game, the commercial takes place in a
sushi bar, where the characters are standing on plates while being moved around on a
conveyor belt. In the Japanese commercials for
Densetsu no Starfy 4 and
Densetsu no Starfy Taiketsu! Daīru Kaizokudan go back to the way the commercials for the first two titles of the series were, by making them loosely based on the plots of whatever is being advertised. While
Densetsu no Starfy Taiketsu! Daīru Kaizokudan was being planned for release in
North America as
The Legendary Starfy, a new live-action English commercial for it takes place on a boat "The Falling Star", where an old man and his grandson, fishing, talk about catching a giant squid, the grandson is worried, until the old man assures his grandson that he doesn't have to worry, because he has Starfy. Starfy then pops out of the sea. This is the first North American commercial, airing on May 25, 2009.
Merchandise During the release of each game in the series, there have been many kinds of merchandise related to the series released in Japanese retail stores, like plush dolls, pencils, birthday balloons and playing cards. Nintendo also officially produced a manga version of the
Densetsu no Starfy series and later,
Densetsu no Starfy R with
Shogakukan.
CD soundtracks from the
Starfy series were also released. The one used to promote the first
The Legendary Starfy game was sung by
BECKY. Kazuki Saya sung to promote
Densetsu no Starfy 2. The J-pop group
Perfume became the first group to sing the theme song, which was used to promote
Densetsu no Starfy 3 during the credits of the Japanese television show
Oha-Sta. Despite that being made, it wasn't released in retail stores. In the commercials for
Densetsu no Starfy 3, Perfume's song titled
Vitamin Drop, was the only song played in a
Starfy series commercial that isn't related to the series. Another J-pop group
Cute recorded the theme song to promote
Densetsu no Starfy 4.
The Legendary Starfy, unlike other games in the series, was never promoted with a vocal song nor a CD album by a J-pop singer nor group. == Manga ==