List of glitches in the Nintendo DS games

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Only in Japan!
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This article is related to a game, manga series or other media that has not been released outside Japan. The coverage here may differ from what it would be in an official translation.

This article lists various glitches that appear in Densetsu no Starfy 4 and The Legendary Starfy.

In Densetsu no Starfy 4 and The Legendary Starfy

Below are a list of glitches in both Densetsu no Starfy 4 and The Legendary Starfy.

Sleep Mode bug

This bug works with both the Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite, but not with a Nintendo 3DS or Nintendo 3DS XL.

After closing the Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite into Sleep Mode, if the player quickly ejects the Game Card and reinserts it, it will activate a glitch when the player opens the Nintendo DS from Sleep Mode. If the player is too slow to reinsert the Game Card, the Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite will power off and the player will have to try the bug again.

After the glitch is activated, the game will freeze when it attempts to load new data. This typically happens when entering a door.

The Sleep Mode bug on a Nintendo DS Lite

In Densetsu no Starfy 4

Below are a list of glitches in Densetsu no Starfy 4.

Disappearing Kigurumi in Old Tower

This bug involves the Kigurumi disappearing. It is known to work in Area 1 of Old Tower. The player must go to room 17 (the upper-right most room on the map). In order to get to this room, the player must have solved the Tobira Majin riddle, so that he/she can go past Tobira Majin.

In room 17, there is a Kigurumi lying on the ground. As Starly, if the player Wall Jumps up the east-most wall until reaching about the first ledge, it will cause the Kigurumi to disappear until Starfy or Starly exit the room and enter again.

Video of the disappearing Kigurumi glitch

Getting in front of Kabutomushi

In front of a blue Kabutomushi

Somehow, it is possible to get in front of a blue Kabutomushi; i.e. one that has had its Otafukusou defeated. Normally the player cannot pass it and can only use it to Wall Jump. The glitch can be fixed by Entering a Door and going back through it.

Getting past a Kabutomushi without Otafukusou

There is a Kabutomushi in Area 4 of Hidden Village of Koimaro that can be climbed without defeating its relevant Otafukusou.

This Kabutomushi can be bypassed on map 4 (bottom-right corner of the room). The player must have Starly Wall Jump on the green floor below the Kabutomushi, then Wall Jump on the adjacent green wall. If done correctly, Starly should bounce off Kabutomushi and land on the branch. This is a fairly useless exploit though, as its Otafukusou can be accessed by swimming around to it in the same room.

Skipping the Kabutomushi on map 4

Another Kabutomushi can be bypassed with Starly in the middle of map 5 - a long vertical room, but this does not cause a sequence break because Starfy can use the Air Jump to get past it anyway.

Jumping across the water

In Thousand Year Hill, there are floating pools of water. If Starfy or Starly touch the bottom edge of the water and move across it, it appears that Starfy or Starly are 'jumping' across the water, though the sprite seems to 'flicker' quickly between the jumping sprite and another sprite which depicts Starfy or Starly with their legs closely together. If the player holds the A button while moving across the water, the sprites will flicker less often.

This glitch appears to have been fixed in The Legendary Starfy as jumping into the bottom edge of a floating pool of water (as they appear in Sogwood Forest) will not make Starfy enter it.

Starfy 'jumping' across the water in Thousand Year Hill (Stage 7-1)

Mermaid animation bug

The Mermaid animation bug occurs in one Area of Flourishing Desert (Stage 6-4). In the sixth room, there are two Mermaids, one of which is only accessible in the room above, but is still visible. If the player saves at the first Mermaid, then quickly moves Starfy towards the second Mermaid, it will animate for a while with buggy graphics.

Depending on Starfy's position on the screen different things can happen. If Starfy is standing a little to the left of the second Mermaid, (in the middle of the third pillar and beyond) it will come back into its shell and the graphics will return back to normal. If Starfy is standing to the right of the third pillar, the graphics remain glitchy. Pausing and returning to the game will fix the graphics.

Video of the Mermaid animation bug

Pearl overflow glitch

The Pearl overflow glitch occurs in one Area of Flourishing Desert (Stage 6-3). The player must have defeated Degil at least once in order for the rare enemy Kaimo to appear in the first room.

The Pearl overflow glitch happens when Starfy or Starly hit the enemy Kaimo with a Star Spin and it releases too many Pearls. Kaimo is programmed to always return the right amount of Pearls even if this is theoretically too much for the game to handle at once. If Kaimo steals a large number of pearls, this will cause the game to lag slightly when too many big Pearls are released on to the screen. Under the right circumstances, it is possible to corrupt the screen and/or freeze the game when the game attempts to give out an excessive amount of Pearls.

The enemy Pearl Dragon can also steal Starfy and Starly's Pearls. If too many Pearls are released when Starfy or Starly hit a Pearl Dragon, a slowdown can be noticed, however it appears to be impossible to freeze the game with a Pearl Dragon.

The Pearl overflow glitch shown with Kaimo, and the lag caused by a Pearl Dragon
A corrupted screen shown after the game attempted to load 135 (15x9) Pearls at once.

Rotating spikes glitch

The right-most set of spikes have merged into the left-most set of spikes

The rotating spikes glitch causes two sets of rotating spikes to merge into one. It occurs in Old Tower (Stage 8-2). In map 14 (bottom-right corner) there are two sets of rotating spikes past two Wiggybacks. If the player opens the Pause Menu when both sets of rotating spikes are on the screen, it will cause the right-most set of spikes to merge into the left-most spike set when the menu is closed.

Video of the rotating spikes glitch

Woktopus fire glitches

If while using the Propeller Bit Starfy or Starly hits a fireball from a Woktopus with a carrot missile the 'hit' sound effect will be heard and the fireball will not turn into a flame as it touches a surface and will continue moving along it, until touching spikes or stopping near the left or right edge of the screen. The fireball will remain there until Starfy or Starly move it off the screen or when the room is reloaded (loading the Pause Menu and exiting does not count).

If a Woktopus flame is hit the 'hit' sound effect will play and the flame will remain there until moving it off the screen or when the room is reloaded (loading the Pause Menu and exiting does not count). This behavior is abnormal because normally flames should disappear after a short period of time. It is even possible to hit the fireball on the frame it is transforming into a flame, i.e. when a flame can be seen with a ball inside it that is on top of a large circular section of fire. Hitting it causes the 'hit' sound effect to play as before, and it can only be removed by the aforementioned methods.

Video of the Woktopus fire glitches

In The Legendary Starfy

Below are a list of glitches in The Legendary Starfy.

Corrupted save file glitch

This glitch has been confirmed on an emulator only and was documented by Kurabupenguin on TASVideos. Like in Densetsu no Starfy, if the player resets the game at a specific time while a save file is being created, the save file will become corrupted. This allows the player to access a Stage 10-null that may freeze the game, or a save file that doesn't freeze the game with all stages unlocked. This allows the player to complete the game quickly. Side effects of the glitch may include having a glitched Touch Screen feature and the corruption of the Gluglug Lagoon intro and Mega Mashtooth battle.

Video of a TAS using the corrupted save file glitch in The Legendary Starfy to beat the game quickly

Fast Sand Tracer music bug

When less than 30 seconds are remaining in the minigame Sand Tracer, the music will change to a fast version of the tune. If the player pauses the game and chooses 'Quit' after the fast version has started playing, the fast Sand Tracer tune will not stop and will play alongside the Minigames tune (the player is brought to the minigames selection screen as expected). The fast Sand Tracer music will still be playing if the player chooses to play all but one minigame or goes back to the "Play by Yourself", "Play with a Friend <Local Wireless>" and "Play with a Friend <DS Download Play>" screen. The music will stop if the player chooses Dumpling Master, returns to Moe's Case, returns to the File Selection screen, or enters the results screen, where in all four cases the expected music will replace the fast Sand Tracer music. Alternatively, powering off the game or soft-resetting will fix the music.

This bug does not occur with the fast versions of Depth Chargers, Fishing Derby or Dumpling Master.

Video demonstration of the bug

Getting Note 42 without Super Bugawk

In The Legendary Starfy, getting the forty-second note on Skydye Heights (Stage 6-4), known as "Ruby's Diary - "Still Looking"", typically requires Starfy as Roostar to jump on a Stangler, reach a platform and then use Super Bugawk on the Lurchin to lift Starfy to the treasure chest.

As the platform is rather high, this typically requires the upgraded Roostar first to flutter higher in the air. The Super Bugawk is expected to enable the Stangler to lift Starfy higher, but due to an oversight, the player can alternatively get the note by continuously jumping in the air on top of the Stangler and performing Bugawk. This allows the Stangler to rise slightly each time. If the player lets the Stangler rise very high, Starfy should be able to make it to the treasure chest simply by jumping.

Getting Note 42 without the upgraded Roostar

Moe's Sniffer glitch

Moe's Sniffer doesn't activate for the initial Roostar Transforming Stone, although it does for other Transforming Stones.

Musical pause glitch (Sogwood Forest)

This is a simple musical oversight in Sogwood Forest's area 3 (Stage 4-3, The Papes Chase). When Papes is chasing Starfy at the end of the level, the music playing is Something Happens. After Papes falls off of the slope and the conversation between Moe, Bunston and Starfy ends, the music will revert back to the normal Sogwood Forest theme. Pausing and unpausing the game will cause Something Happens to start playing again.


Demonstration of the glitch

Musical pause glitch (Skydye Heights)

If the player pauses and unpauses the game during the "Juggle This" Side Quest in Skydye Heights (Stage 6-3), the music may revert from Sub-Event to Skydye Heights. This glitch was documented by Nicholas.

Demonstration of the glitch

Skydye Heights Moe's siblings quiz glitch

A Moe's siblings quiz appears in Skydye Heights's area 3 ("The Star Spin Goes Ultra" (Japanese: そうそく!スピンアッタクレベル3).

In the Japanese version of The Legendary Starfy, solving it changes the music to Sogwood Forest until the player leaves the room. This may suggest that code to change the music to Sogwood Forest was copied over from the Moe's sibling quiz in Sogwood Forest, but unchanged.

In the North American version of The Legendary Starfy, this curiosity does not occur, and the music changes to Skydye Heights.

Video of both the glitch and the behavior in the North American version

Snowmen building animation glitch

This glitch is also known as 'black snowmen' by an individual who uploaded a video of it on Youtube, but the video is now unavailable. Prior to clearing the area, at the start of Chillydip Cove's area 4 (stage 3-4) if Starfy defeats a snowman, then runs up to about the top of the slope (but not to trigger the conversation with Puplion) and then returns to where the snowmen are, then the building animation may become glitchy, showing a snowman without a body in the second frame, and then a messed up 'black snowman' in the third frame. If Starfy defeats the snowmen again, the glitched up animation will happen for sure. This glitch does not work if the player returns to stage 3-4 after clearing it, probably because two extra snowmen appear where Bunston, Moe and Puplion used to be.

If the player creates a Suspend Save when a snowman has a glitchy animation frame, it will change to the equivalent normal animation frame when the game is reloaded, and Starfy will have to defeat a snowman/run up the hill again to get the glitch to work. Saving at the Mermaid's shell and resetting the game will also force Starfy to perform the full steps of this glitch to get it to work again.

Demonstration of the glitch

See also