Ristar (1995)

Preliminary: Hmmm good responsive controls, great colors, Sonic vibe music and Look without the annoying gameplay (so far). Hoping this keeps up. I love the dancing asparaguses lol I love asparagus .

This music is kinda wild, I almost thought it was glitching for a second.

Day 1

It's pretty rare that I choose to explore unnecessary/optional areas of a platformer just for points/to see what's there, but this first level is getting me to. Something about exploring the mechanics feels very approachable. It helps there is no time limit, and the Sound/Look are so good. It's particularly fun exploring this pole I can spin around and fly to different platforms. I know Sonic had similar things, but I could never get into its mechancis and pop out enemy placement. So far, this steers clear of that vibe.

Nice I wound up in some bonus area. I wont go for high score but neat to discover it. (And I wound up getting the bonus treasure anyway)

Nice I finished the first area. I like the Mario-esque height bonus at end built around those poles. Neat "world map" area between levels too. And the settings/colors continue to shine. When I watched a playthrough it looked too busy, as my screenshtos are likely to make you think too, but in reality it plays well and isn't as crowded as screenshots/videos make it seem

Ugh with Stage 2 comes the telltale Sega/Sonic-influenced pop out enemy placement >.< At least it's very apparent and isn't complete contrary to the fast-pace sell of Sonic, wihch is what frustrated me about it in Sonic. Instaed, this game is more take your time and explore with the music and Look to support that. Plus the swinging to stumble upon different spaces.

The game is full of sunset/twilight colors in the background. A GREAT tune between areas with the first true boss finished as I go to the next uh Star? Area? Not sure exactly what the plot was even tho I watched the intro video lol (and I just read the plot differs between Japanese and worldwide versions)

Nice, pleasant surprise that the water level isn't too frustrating so far. And the mechanics are fluid and comfortable. The tune is great like the last song, tho no Aquatic Ambience :-p

The backgrounds and tunes continue to be simpyl stellar. Something about the ability to repeatedly grab/pull a boss or miniboss, or even the walls etc, reminds me of Bonk. The first Bonk was so exciting for me once I got the Turbografx Turbo feature down and learned the art of the perpetual bonk. This is giving a similar feel.

Day 2

I love the encouragement of swinging along/moving fast in this fire world so far (via the level design). I still wish I had a run ability, but this makes up for it. And the design properly reflects the lack of run (and so far, hasn't done sprite slowdown etc.)

Wow so the music clearly was central to the development and even design. A world devoted to music? A building the tune or something? I may finally have to turn to a guide, haven't so far, but if this gets confusing I may have to. At least, if it is a puzzle, it's centered on music--the cornerpiece of my life!

I love the twilight color futuristic city in the background. Kind of a silly design to this area, but I get it and it spices up thje gameplay without resorting to the usual annoying shmup segment in a platformer or cart on tracks etc.

Ok this is getting really hard and I'm starting to use savestates, er, rely on savestates. Or I'm just really tired tonight it was a bit of a rough Christmas eve. I am proud to say I've been able to climb walls, realizing that my first time was luck way back and that you have to grab out at your highest point each time to successfully climb that way.

Lol the amount of dancing that both Ristar and the enemies do. And the beautiful Look and song of the ice area (which I'm doing surprisiugnly well with the mechanics of) Freon

I used the salmon flying up to reach a hard to reach spot. Really enjoying that element of the game: approachable enough mechanics that have some much deeper and eventually intuitive quirks to explore.

Nice speaking of, stumbled upon another bonus area while doing just that. Nice! And I managed to get the Bonus Chest! That was no joke. And wow this Freon boss is really hard. I thought I was ingenious being behind it and bonking it a bunch, but turns out you gotta use the flaming hot pizza. But I got through it! Luckily the death mechanic is quite forgiving so I didn't have to abuse savestates.

Well teh difficult makes sense. Seems there is only one more proper planet, then the truly final area. Nice. Good length imo.

Day 3

Yea there is absolutely no way I would've gotten through this late game without savestates lol. Good thing the music is still incredible. And good they saved very high difficulty for late game.

The final area continued to have an absolutely amazing Look, great floor and background, tho I didn't get a screenshot of it. This final boss area is pretty neat too, decent music tho not as good as most of the game's music

Ugh woops for somer eason I have to repeat phases of the final boss a bunch. I must be doing something wrong. I'll try one more time but may have to resort to a guide. Oh turns out I died frmo the black hole lol I thought it was just sucking me to the next phase... And I screwed myself again by bopping away all the enemies I could've clung to.

Nice, what a fun game start to finish

Oh... not much of an ending lol. Good colors for the credits. And good music, tho I was hoping for something more sentimental it still was endlessly entertaining much like the game . Oh cute here is the sentimental music with the true credits, nice. And a true ending with him findign dad, tho I read the Japanese plot is different.

Look: 9.5/10 Everything I look for in an action platformer. If it had a more sentimental and twilight-y ending, it easily would have been a 10. And still could be with time.

Sound: 9.5/10 Really should be a 9 but something about this felt fresh. I feel like music had felt stagnant for a while as I was getting pumped for the PS1 drum n bass era. And this feels like a bridge between the Sonic funk and PS1 drum n bass era. Or something. I just liked it lol

Play: 10/10 Love love love no time limits, actually letting you explore and rewarding you for it rather than discouraging with either time limit or score decrease for a long time etc. If you want me to explore--encourage it! I loved feeling proud of getting complex mechanics down intuitively. I never really had to turn to a guide and just got to enjoy the game. I was swinging, climbing walls with jumps, figuring out when I was immune vs not, all on my own and intuitively. On future replays, this may drop down, due to some delays in combo grabs (though that surely was intentional), but for now, I dunno. I guess I'm just in a good mood. Maybe it's the Christmas spirit lol.

Feel: 9/10 With a stronger plot, better world map sequence, and stronger ending (as cute as it was), this could easily be a 10. Especially with how enemies are basically friends or whatever? And the snowball fight was cute. Etc

Attachment: 9/10 Yep

Overall: 9.4/10

Completion: Main Story. Several Bonus Areas but not all

Playtime: 3h 45m

2D Platformer - A star-shaped hero named Ristar embarks on a journey to defend the galaxy from the evil space tyrant, Kaiser Greedy.

PROS:

++ Ristar's signature arms. Unique movement & combat mechanic. Ristar has extendable arms that he uses to fight and climb, and it sets him apart from other mascots.

++ Solid mascot. Had the potential to be a good mascot and franchise for Sega.

++ Catchy music. Music was catchy in most parts of the game

++ Great style and design.

CONS:

-- Inconsistent grabbing. The direction of where Ristar is grabbing can be very inconsistent, especially in a diagonal direction. At times, this made combat and platforming frustrating.

-- Level 6-1. Part of 6-1 was confusing and I had no clue where to go.

Unexpectedly delightful! Ristar charmed me through its entirety... a rare quality for a 16-bit mascot platformer, especially on Genesis! I'm sad this didn't spawn a franchise... I suspect there's an alternate reality where Ristar is to Sega what Kirby is to Nintendo.

My only gripes are that I never quite got a handle on the swinging mechanic (I found I was more successful if I started spinning, paused, then un-paused), and I never would have completed the game without the Genesis Classics rewind feature (though that's true of most games of this era for me).

Being that there's another cute and colorful mascot on the Genesis, Ristar is ultimately going to be sized up against the blue blur. Blue blur he is not, but Ristar still remains a fun and colorful game that's worth a shot.

Fighting through six planets (and a final boss) and protecting the Valdi system, Ristar has two actions: jump and grab. The grab is the most utilized one, using grabs to bounce off of enemies, climb and scale up objects, activate switches, swing from cranks, and carry objects. Some parts of the design in the game feel a bit gimmicky (guess that placement of enemies) and the grab is a bit tricky to pull off at times, but there are some cool things that the game is able to pull off, including an adorable snowball fight.

The game isn't as action packed or contains the most memorable music, but does this game sure shine in the graphics department. WHEW. Featuring a gorgeous display of colors and mesmerizing backgrounds, Ristar is beautiful to look at. This comes in handy since compared to other cough blue blur similar games on the Genesis, Ristar is a slow mover, with a hard hit in some spikes lying around for players who don't carefully look at (and sometimes memorize their surroundings).

There's only room for one beloved mascot on the Genesis, but Ristar should definitely get a few points for making a gorgeous looking game with a neat little mechanic with enough gimmicks to last you a good couple of hours.

About the Game:

I'd never heard of Ristar before, which makes sense given that it didn't release until very end of the Genesis' life cycle. In 1995 I was well over the Sega console, sinking hours upon hours into my newly acquired love of JRPG's on the SNES. It seems I was missing out.

Back when Sega was busy creating the mascot we'd come to know as Sonic the Hedgehog, another idea was left on the cutting room floor: a rabbit who'd grab enemies with its ears. Years late, that concept would be turned into Ristar, a bipedal star person keen on grabbing hold of enemies and smashing his face into them. Lacking the speed and jumping ability of Sonic, the entire game revolves around Ristar's grappling ability, and what a game it is!

Gameplay:

As stated, Ristar can't jump high or run fast or curl into a spinning blue death ball, but he can use his arms to grab hold of things from a distance. You grab on to walls and ladders, hand bars, switches, beams and anything else that looks grab-able, including the game's many enemies and bosses. You primary, and only, means of attack is to grab hold of an enemy and smash your face into them. This starts out pretty easy, until the little monsters start developing defensive mechanisms like spikes and flamethrowers that must be avoided and attacked around.

Bosses all mostly follow the same pattern as well. Avoid their attacks until you see an opening to grab and smash. What I was not expecting was the level of difficulty the game would ramp up to. While stages were manageable (not easy, but manageable) the bosses were typically in a whole other league. Almost all of the game's eight or so bosses took me multiple attempts before I finally got the pattern figured out AND got fast enough to handle it while still getting attacks in. Stress is mitigated by ample lives and continues, but death came for me often.

That's not to say I'm complaining about the difficulty, I actually think it's pretty perfect. The game will keep you on your toes from start to finish, but never feels insurmountable. Add to that the several minibosses and how each stage has a unique feel and playstyle to it, tight controls and many secrets that are actually fun to find, and you have a recipe for an extremely solid platformer.

Presentation, Music and Sound:

From the outset it's obvious that Ristar looks pretty amazing. Colors are bright, animations are smooth and sprites are detailed and lively. It also has that very distinct "Genesis" style shared with games like Sonic 3. In fact, as far as style goes it looks a lot like Sonic 3, at least at first. It did take a couple stages before I felt like Ristar really found its own identity and no longer came off as "that other platformer from Sega" That's not to say the early stages were slacking though!

Stages were unique and beautiful, and it was exciting to see what was coming next. In fact, that last time I remember feeling really excited to see what theme and mechanics would be waiting for me in the next stage was with a Sonic game! I keep drawing comparisons to Sonic, and that's not stopping when I mention the sounds and music. The music itself is actually pretty fantastic, though i couldn't shake how "Genesis" it felt. I definitely prefer what the SNES is capable of in the sound department over the Genesis, but what they did put together was very enjoyable all the way through.

Sounds are a mixed bag. Some of the more unique sound effects or digitized voices are heavily muted. Everything else seems like it was literally pulled straight from the Sonic games. Like, if you were just listening to someone play this game without seeing the screen, you'd think they were playing Sonic. This wasn't bad per se, but it was very noticeably.

Fun & Relevance:

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit skeptical going into this game. I'm not really a huge fan of Sega's brand of platforming games, as they just don't feel as refined as my preferred Mario's and Mega Man's. Still, Ristar's gameplay, variety and charm managed to win me over with little difficulty. I found myself loving this game from title screen to end credits, even if the final boss did nearly cost me a controller!

It's a real shame that this game launched when it did, as could have really solidified itself as a classic rather than this semi-obscure gem. Even still, Ristar holds its own as easily being one of the best, maybe even the best platformer on the console.

Review:

Gameplay: