Battles once again take place on a grid but, while you initially had three rows of space to move around freely on, this time you’re stuck with one and there are no area capture chips to expand your territory. Instead of making use of Battle Chips, you make use of Battle Cards this time but besides the name change, the way you bust viruses are very similar to previous games. Six random cards are selected from the folder of thirty that you’ve picked and following certain rules, you can only pick so many of these cards to fight with. Once the Custom Gauge is full, you’re presented with new cards and you can battle on.


Lock-on to your enemies and close in to attack them.
Apart from Mega Man’s good old buster canon, you now also have a handy shield to use to block off any attacks but it only lasts a few limited seconds. Also new is Warlock’s lock-on ability, allowing you to dash right up towards an enemy before unleashing your weapons of destruction. This doesn’t guarantee a strike though as you still have to time your attacks properly. Otherwise you could end up wasting a card because the enemy struck you first or they dashed out of the way in time. This really helps increase the excitement when you’re stuck with a grid full of fast and dangerous enemies. One wrong move and you could find yourself dying instantly!

Bosses have always had their own special moves but now you will have some too which is the main difference between the three versions of Mega Man Star Force. Once a transformation card pops up in the Custom Panel, you can use it to change into a powered up version of Rockman. Using charged shots from your buster canon, you can then either freeze your enemies in the Pegasus version, cut them with leaves of metal in the Dragon version or, turns up the heat with the Leo version to burn away any enemies in front of you.

In addition to this, there is also a much more powerful area attack called “Star Force Big Bang” which also has characteristics based on whatever version of the game you have. You can only pull off this attack whenever you manage to counter-attack the enemy which isn’t that easy when you’re trying your best to avoid the barrage of projectiles and attacks trying to strike at you.


Counter-attack your enemies to gain “Star Force Burst” attacks.
Organising your battle cards is still done pretty much the same way via folders on your Transfer device. One difference is that although cards can still be purchased at shops just like the chips in the BN series, most of the cards you’ll get can only be obtained by counter-attacking the enemy during Subaru’s normal form.