Console: Mega Drive / Genesis
Cost: 800 Wii Points
Coming from the makers of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, this little game had a lot to live up to when it was released back in 1995. Overshadowed by its more popular sister series, and not helped by its release late in the console's lifetime just a few months before the Playstation and the Saturn were released, this game never achieved great fame and had to settle for being a cult hit. Ironically, Ristar was one of the designs considered for what would later become Sonic.
Unlike the Sonic series, gameplay here is slower and more relaxed, moving at a more leisurely pace. This makes it a little trickier than the Sonic games, as the slower speed means you have to be more cautious. You play as an anthropomorphic shooting star named Ristar, who is able to extend his arms in 8 directions in order to grab items, ladders, and even walls. This is also his method attack of attack- enemies are destroyed by grabbing them and then letting go, causing them to fly off the screen. Ristar is also a surprisingly good swimmer compared to most platform heroes, and is also able to hold his breath indefinitely. As is normal for platformers, Ristar has a health meter (in form of stars) and will lose a life if that meter drops to 0. The control system is simplistic- you only need to jump, grab and move around- so the game works well with any controller.
The plot is the usual 16-bit platformer nonsense: An evil space pirate named Greedy has taken control of the Valdi system, brainwashed its leaders and kidnapped its famous hero. It's up to the hero's son Ristar to defeat Greedy and free the system from his tyranny. Ristar travels to six different themed worlds, each with two stages and a boss. The level design in this game is superb, with each world quite varied from the last. The levels are structured a bit similarly to those in Sonic 3 / Sonic and Knuckles, with plenty of traps, multiple routes through each stage and secret areas scattered all over the place. There are also bonus stages which involve reaching a treasure within the time limit. Each world ends with a boss fight, and there's a mini-boss at the end of the first stage of each world as well. A few of the bosses are actually rather imaginative- for example, one battle takes the form of a snowball fight!
Graphically Ristar is quite bright and colourful. There's a few neat little effects such as birds flying past, and the level of detail is impressive. Even the backgrounds are nice and scenic. It's an excellent example of what the Mega Drive was capable of when pushed hard enough. The audio is also quite respectable, as you'd expect from Sega, and suits the game well. Ristar's voice might be just a bit too cute for some though...
Ristar is an enjoyable platformer, and is well designed and presented, but it doesn't stand out from the crowd in any particular way. One might be tempted to label this as a "kiddy's game", but if you can look past that label you might like this game (it's probably a little too tough for younger gamers anyway). This is one you might want to consider if you're a fan of the genre.
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Lifespan: 6/10
Rating: 7/10
