Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Switch 2 and Steam Deck Full Game Impressions

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection brings yet another Mega Man sub-series I hadn't played before to modern platforms. Ahead of its launch later this month, I had a chance to sample the full game across my PC handhelds and Switch consoles to see how they feel as a newcomer, and also how the collection as a whole feels with its bonus content and quality of life improvements. As someone who only got into the games beginning with the 3DS collection, it has been quite an experience playing through the many new and old games, but the Battle Network games have been my favorites so far. When I found out that the Mega Man Star Force games followed those, I was even more curious about this collection. 

For the purposes of this preview, I can't go into detail and show everything in the gallery, but I can cover the general feel of the collection and how it plays across handhelds. I say handhelds because I've been playing the Mega Man games mainly on Switch in recent years with the Battle Network Collection being the only one I played across Switch and Steam Deck. Since the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection features Nintendo DS games and 3D elements, I was curious to see how they would look and feel on modern displays as well. 

In terms of accessibility and general features, Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection has a set of difficulty sliders and assist options. The latter lets you toggle a speed boost and adjust encounter rate (none, low, standard, high, maximum) while the former lets you adjust damage, rewards, enable full HP recovery after battles, Battle Network content, enable guaranteed escape from regular battle, enable a display for EX/V2 bosses to make them easier to find, and more. These are available in the game settings menu which also features the screen layout option.

By default the layout dynamically adjusts based on the gameplay with the lower screen on the bottom right. You can adjust this position and the size while also using a Tate Mode (vertical orientation) setup, but the lack of touchscreen support for the collection is disappointing right now. There is also a general settings menu that lets you adjust the graphics for the collection across the original/high resolution game visuals, updated/original character icons, and also updated/original Battle cards. I prefer the original look without any filter applied so I stuck to the original and it scaled well on my handhelds. 

While I have access to the full Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection release, I wanted to focus on covering the many features and bonus content included here in addition to platform-specific impressions. I'll save my thoughts on the games included for coverage closer to launch. Speaking of the bonus content, the gallery mode included features artwork from the individual games, special artwork used in various promotional content, Battle Card illustrations, Bonus Card illustrations, Awards (in-game achievements), and also a music player. The music player also lets you create a custom playlist of favorites for use in the game. You can play the original tracks and the new arranged ones here.

Before getting into the platform-specific impressions, there are a few elements in Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection that I hope to see addressed by launch or in patches. The first is the speed boost assist option. When enabled, scrolling isn't as smooth as during normal movement. You move faster, but the camera doesn't move correctly making it not feel as smooth as it should. The second thing is the font. Just like the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, the font used for text boxes isn't great. I wish there was a pixel font option, but we might have to rely on PC mods for that. The final issue is that I wish the games all had better filtering because there is a bit of shimmering or flicker during movement on all platforms. This is less noticeable outside the Switch platforms though, but I got used to it. It isn't a major issue, but it was worth bringing up in case Capcom can address it somehow before or soon after launch.

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Switch 2 impressions

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is a Switch 1 game running on Switch 2 via backward compatibility. As such, it still has the same limitations as the Switch release which is it is capped to 1080p docked and while there are some elements that look crisp on the handheld screen, it still doesn't render at a native 1080p like some Switch 1 games do throughout. This isn't a huge issue, but it would've been nice if Capcom optimized it so that it could be at least 1080p throughout when played handheld on Switch 2. I didn't run into any performance issues in the collection on Switch 2 with every menu and transition being very snappy. Hopefully Capcom does a native Switch 2 upgrade for this as it would be perfect when rendered at native 1080p handheld and at a higher resolution when docked. 

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Switch 1 impressions

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection on Switch 1 takes a lot longer to load compared to the Switch version played on Switch 2, but it looks great otherwise on the Switch OLED screen. I didn't notice any performance issues while playing the opening moments of a few games I tested so far. 

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Steam Deck and PC impressions

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is Steam Deck Verified already, but there are a few things to keep in mind when playing it on Deck. The first is you need to be online for the initial setup because of the DRM. The second is only if you have an OLED Steam Deck. Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is capped at 60fps across the board and you will need to set your Steam Deck OLED to 60hz so you get proper scrolling. If you leave it at 90hz, it doesn't feel as smooth. This is not a problem on the Steam Deck LCD. If you play on Steam Deck docked, keep in mind that the game locks you out of some display and graphics options on Steam Deck. You will need to use the "SteamDeck=0 %command%" launch option (without the "") to access window mode and other settings. Barring that, Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection looks and plays perfectly on Steam Deck. Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection also works out of the box on ROG Ally as expected with a faster initial load than Steam Deck. 

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection load times compared across PC, Switch 2, Switch, and Steam Deck

For testing load times, I measured the time taken to load the game's title screen from the console or PC dashboard and also the time taken to load a save file. I had Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection installed on the internal storage on Switch 2, the SD card on my Switch OLED, the internal storage on Steam Deck, and the internal storage on ROG Ally. The load times below are all in seconds.

While every version takes a bit longer than I expected for the initial load with all the splash screens and logos despite mashing confirm, the Switch version on Switch 2 is noticeably faster for the initial load compared to both PC handhelds and the Switch 1 version on Switch which is the slowest overall. While I didn't spend much time with the PS5 version to check out the various games, I was able to try it out for the purpose of this load time comparison. The native PS5 release is the fastest across the board. 

So far, Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is shaping up to be a great follow-up to the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection I enjoyed. While I'm not sure how much time I will spend with every single game in this collection given the overlap between versions, I am glad to see Capcom cover all bases here so far. If you were hoping for a good portable experience with Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection, I recommend playing the Switch version on Switch 2 or Steam version on PC handhelds over playing it on a Switch 1 if you have the option. Load times aside, the games look great on the Switch OLED screen. I look forward to playing more and even checking out the other platforms when I can closer to launch.

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection launches on March 27, 2026 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC (Steam).