Ristar is one of the many retro games that I didn’t know about until I started paying attention to the internet. This was in the mid 2010s, after I had finished college and moved to Washington, D.C. I found myself with more time on my hands than I had before, and I started collecting retro games again.
I have no idea which video on this game I watched first. It was probably one of those “Top Ten” lists of a hidden gem video. Regardless, I bought this game, tested it, and then set it on a shelf to forget about it. Now that I’ve started blogging a bit more, I decided to revisit this game.
Ristar is a side scroller, which isn’t really a genre that I enjoy anymore. The game was released in 1995, which was late in the Sega Genesis lifecycle. While this isn’t always a kiss of death for a game like this, it didn’t help either.
TLDR: An above average platformer that is fun to play.
Narrative
The story in this game is perfectly fine for this type of game. It does vary depending on the region in which the game was released. This is pretty common for the time.
In North America, you’re fighting against Kaiser Greedy, and Ristar is the son of a legendary hero. You have to save Ristar’s dad and defeat Greedy. At the end of the game, you’re reunited with your father.
In the Japanese version of the game, the mother of stars, Oruto, answers the prayer from the people that Greedy is attacking. She sends Ristar to help them. At the end, Greedy and two of his minions are stranded on a planet, and they stare at Ristar.
Since there isn’t really a sequel to this game, I suppose it doesn’t matter much. The story is just fine. It tells you who the hero is and who the bad guy is. That is really all you need to know when it comes to a story like this.
Gameplay
The gameplay is fine. Ristar isn’t the most innovative platformer, but it does have solid controls, and the gameplay is good. You only need two buttons for this game, which isn’t out of the norm. It does play like a slow version of Sonic the Hedgehog, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
This game is fairly slow. It is a game that encourages the player to wander around and try things. It feels like there are multiple ways to get through each level, which is fun to see.
Your attack is a little odd. Ristar grabs things and then smashes face first into them. I don’t really have a problem with this, especially since your grab attack is used for so many things. The other thing that Ristar can do is jump.
The level design is pretty good. There are multiple ways to get through each level, which encourages some creativity in how you play the game. At the same time, there are some helpful reminders on where you can go and where you can grab things. It is an easy game if you’re paying attention and have decent reaction time.
I feel like I enjoy this more now than I would’ve back in 1995. This isn’t the type of game that I normally play, even back when this was released. I do think it is a fun game, but not one that I’m interested in playing again at this point.
Visuals
This is a really good looking game! Ristar looks good, the levels look great, and the bosses are okay. If there is a weakness in the way this game looks, it has to be the enemies.
Ristar’s character design is basic, but it works for what it is. He’s a weird star man who has white gloves and yellow and white shoes. He almost looks like a 1930s cartoon, or something that would appear in Cuphead. The developers got a lot of facial reactions out of him, which look great.
The graphics in each level look very good! They’re bright and colorful. It looks like they took the levels from one of the Sonic games and made them look a little better. You can tell that by this time, the developers knew how to get the most out of the hardware.
The boss characters are big and detailed. They look better than the regular enemies. There are also some cutscenes between each level. These look quite good.
Overall, this is a very good looking game. I really enjoy the graphics quite a bit, and everything looks bright and fun. This is one of the games that I enjoy simply looking at because the graphics are very good.
Reviews at the Time
The reviews are interesting. Most of them are 8s and 9s, but there are a few in the 7s. There was only one that was in the 5s, but I can’t tell if it was about the Game Gear version or the Genesis/Mega Drive version of the game.
Game Informer had three people review the game. The scores were 8.25, 8.25, and 8.5/10. They said it starts off slow, but picks up as the game goes on. They also said it was somewhere between Dynamite Headdy and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Gamefan had three people review the game, and they really loved it! The scores were 90, 98, and 92/100. It was called “top notch” and “one of the greatest Genesis games ever programmed.”
Mean Machines gave the game an 84/100. The reviewer called it “likeable, if not exactly lovable.”
Even if this was a late release, it got very high scores. Many of the things that they said make a lot of sense. There wasn’t a publication that just hated the game, which is refreshing to see.
8/10. This is one of the games that I like, but it isn’t really something I normally play. I like it more than Gunstar Heroes. The graphics are great, the gameplay is good, and it is a simple game to learn.
Pros
- Good Controls
- Great Graphics
- Easy to Learn
Cons
- A little too basic
- Not enough going on in the game
Conclusion
I’m glad I went back to play this game. It is one that I’ve heard about, but didn’t really play all that much. A big part of this was due to my not really liking the genre and wanting to play an RPG.
Ristar is one of those games that I bought when I thought I wanted to get a full set of Genesis games. At some point, I gave up on that. Probably because I got priced out of some games, and didn’t want to buy every version of Madden that was on the system. I also just lost interest in doing that sort of thing.
This is a very good game. It is one of the games that might end up on my best of list this year, and on a revised favorite Genesis games I’ve played list. We’ll see after I’ve played more games on this system.
If you liked this post, check out my other reviews of Genesis games. Such as Dick Tracy or Gunstar Heroes.