Just as the Wii has quickly turned from gaming renaissance to shovelware dump, the DS has been receiving a fair amount of embarrassing titles from developers. Of course there are dozens of must-have titles in its library, but the annoyance in persistent releases of cardboard-boring and licensed trash which accompanies any successful console can become quite prevalent every now and again. Fortunately Capcom knows this, and thank goodness they've got the blue bomber at their side to whip out at any given point if things look grim. It's too bad that the series Mega Man has been picked up from has already been milked dry, and seems to be nearing the same fate of 'ho-hum' that developers so desperately would like to avoid. In the now seventh game in the Battle Network series, spiritual successor Mega Man Star Force tries moving to the DS in order to make new strides in what has become a stale game, but how well does it do?

Taking place hundreds of years after any events in the previous games, the protagonist is an entirely new character with a different story to tell, as shut-away Geo Stellar takes the stage. Having lost his father to the depths of outer space as a young child, the now pre-pubescent Stellar finds himself having a run-in with an alien life form, fusing with said alien and his father's goggles to become Mega Man. The story is as inconsequential as anyone could ask an RPG to be, following the typical rising hero who saves the world and uncovers mysterious secrets about his past, etc. The crux of the game's storyline and gameplay centers on the Wave World which Geo and his FM-ian friend Omega-Xis electromagnetically pulse into or out of - very much like jacking into a network in the Battle Network series.

This alternate universe is of course where battles take place, in order to wipe out the EM viruses inhabiting it. Everything begins with a random dealing of six battle cards. After managing them in place for attacking, recovering, and the like, you'll dash onto the battle grid to duel with whoever you jut picked a fight with. Anyone familiar with the card battles in the previous games will feel largely at home, and unfortunately, that thing I just said. The only real difference is that the battles are on a 3D grid, where Capcom unapologetically shuns the one opportunity they gave themselves to let Star Force shine where the GBA couldn't. The actual battle is only a matter of seconds, played around the basis of well-timed A-button presses and building your Reshuffle Meter to manage a wider variety of attacks. As a newcomer to the series, this was exciting for a bit, but became boring, then uneventful, and finally nothing more than tedious to go through the motions until the game treated me to a quick battle every now and then. The main drive becomes entertaining yourself with investigating exactly how proficient you can become at dispatching enemies and getting S-ranks.

Little touches such as backwards compatibility with the Battle Network games, and surprising touch-screen utilization help remind us that Star Force is a DS game, and not another Battle Network addition. Unfortunately, that and the 3D graphics are about all there is to separate the two, as the painfully old sprites and isometric viewpoint are begging to be fixed. This isn't helped by the DS Lite D-pad's dead zone, which tends to make navigating the world more trying than it should be, and made me wish I could just guide Geo along with the stylus itself. It almost seems as though the underutilization of the touch-screen is one of the factors which hurts this game so much, because there isn't much going on otherwise.

The card-collecting becomes tiring in no time and along with the basis of making friends through the game's BrotherBand system and the filler side-quests, the game itself feels weary by the time you're nearing its 30+ hours of play. The longevity is furthered, although not for the worse, with the Wifi trading/communicating/battle capabilities which aid in the forgiveness you'll be trying to find after mulling through the last ten hours of prolonged gameplay. Along with the gimmick of releasing multiple versions - each outfitting Mega Man with an elemental transformation specific to the version (Dragon/wood, Leo/fire, Pegasus/ice) - the game doesn't do anything new or exciting. It's mediocre as far as videogames go in general, not just for the series.

I felt like a ten year-old throughout most of the playtime, thanks to how both generic and dumbed down the game felt for the most part. Anyone who isn't a diehard fan of the series, or actually that young will probably feel the same. The daunting "20th Anniversary' icon on the game furthers the notion that the Mega Man series has been running for so long, and that there is a certain standard that fans expect the titles to live up to. The Battle Network series has finally become a beaten horse, screaming for a reinvention or retirement, and only one of those can save it from being lobbed into the pile of forgettable shovelware that surrounds the DS library of quality. Star Force Dragon lies on the outskirts of that pile, longing to be a quality title with quite a way to go, managing to be a rental at its very best.