The Stafi series is one of those series that should have made its way beyond Japanese borders a long time ago. In Densetsu no Stafi 4 you take control of Stafi and his sister Sappie in a quest to rid the sea of evil. To do this you must traverse nine worlds of four platform levels each that are filled with all kinds of baddies and lots of clever puzzles. If you’re looking for a fun platforming romp for your DS then look no further as Stafi 4, while not the best in the series, is a worthwhile play for fans of the genre.

When you first start a game of Stafi 4 you’ll be shown a world map on the bottom screen and an unnecessary 3D rotating representation of the current world on the top screen. The world maps of Stafi 4 consist mainly of icons of creatures and places you can visit along with a special icon in the bottom right of the screen which lets you enter the next level. The regular icons that you need to visit to progress to the next platforming level are highlighted and once selected will almost always present cutscenes that progress the simple story. Once you’ve visited enough of these mostly non-interactive story segments you’ll be able to select that special level icon and get on with your platforming.

As you might expect the platforming is where the real fun lies. As Stafi and Sappie you can glide through water, run across dry land, jump great distances, spin to attack, and learn a ton of new more advanced moves as you progress through the game. As you bounce around the levels of Stafi 4 you’ll notice a pattern of nearly the same goal every time. You basically move from room to room, unlocking passageways as necessary, and eventually find some item that some animal requested on the world map.

Along the way enemies will try to hurt you, emphasize the try, with their terribly ineffective attacks that barely take a sliver off your enormous health bar. Though if you do have any trouble with low life that’s not really a problem either as there are save points in nearly every other room. And these save points aren’t just checkpoints; they’re actual hard saves that will be restored if you turn your DS on and off. Once you’ve actually reached and acquired the item you’ve been looking for, there’s even a statue nearby that will teleport you to the beginning of the level so you can exit extremely fast. To say that the developers have made the regular platforming levels easy is a pretty big understatement as everything mentioned above holds your hand extra tight as you make your way through the game.