Ristar (Sega Mega Drive Game Review)

Ahh, Ristar. The underated Mega Drive gem that came late into the console's life cycle.

I played living hell out of this game and still regret that I lost it. Had it complete in box. Pal version of course. Often my go to game to test new mega drive game, when I would just enter stage select code => Last Boss => and speed kill it.

Pal cover arts for Mega Drive and even for Genesis, are often not too bad compered to Japanese versions. Unlike NES covers for example. 😀

Speaking of cover art, here are the 3 versions, side by side.

COVER ART COMPARISON

I have to regrettably admit that the Japanese version looks worst. 

Speaking of regional differences, here is the great SegaRetro link that shows many of the differences.

Regional rom differences

Ristar, released as Ristar The Shooting Star (リスター・ザ・シューティングスター) in Japan, is a Sega Mega Drive action platform game developed by Sega CS and published by Sega. Released in early 1995 to positive reviews, it was one of the final first-party Sega games released for the aging 16-bit platform.

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Story

Story is set in far away Solar system called Valdi. 

Valdi corrupted by an evil tyrant called Greedy. Ooooh the plot thickens.
Greedy forced the leaders of each of the seven planets the system is composed of to work for him, enslaved the people and kidnapped Ristar's father. 
So they made a cry out for help. And of course there is a young Ristar, yellow star with incredibly flexible limbs, to help. He hears everything.

In Japanese version, Ristar's father is never mentioned, and instead the cry out for help is answered by the Star Goddess, Oruto, who creates Ristar to fight Greedy and restore happiness to the Valdi system.
Again, I like the USA/PAL version more. It is the version I grew up with.

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Gameplay

Ristar has basic platforming skills as he can jump about his own height with A or C (by default), and cannot look up or down. Even though created by Sonic Team, build on Sonic The Hedgehog engine and despite the fact that Sonic was the prototype design of Ristar, named Feel — the character had a striking resemblance to Sonic, being a spherical yellow and black "rabbit," and even had identical shoes, it plays at much slower pace, which I honestly like. My main annoyance about Sonic games is that fast spin ball like movement, and then clumsy implementation of slow paced platforming.

Ristar Development

Ristar's main ability, and the core mechanic of the game, are his stretchy arms. To kill enemies, the player must grab them with Ristar's arms with B, and after releasing B Ristar will headbutt the enemy. This is the only way to eliminate enemies as jumping on them will not work. Ristar's arms can also be used for many other purposes, such as climbing walls, swinging across poles and even finding bonuses (health points, 1UPs, etc.) by stretching them into tiny breaches in walls (the player may also find them by headbutting certain sections of certain walls). A very important aspect of this ability is to ride Star Handles to perform a Meteor Strike, which is used to move from one location to another without having to walk as well as take out enemies. While performing a Meteor Strike, Ristar can change his direction mid-flight on Normal difficulty, but cannot on harder difficulties.

Certain sections have wall ladders or ceiling bars for Ristar to climb with. While climbing a ladder, Ristar can use Up or Down to move, A or C to jump off, or B to spin as a means of avoiding damage. While hanging from ceiling bars, he can move with Left or Right and let go with A or C. In levels with water, Ristar has the ability to explore underwater without needing to breathe. He can also swim underwater with ease in all eight cardinal directions, and can use his arms to swim faster with A or C. His grabbing ability is just as effective underwater as it is on dry land.

The game has a simple health system: the player starts with 4 or 2 stars (depending on the difficulty selected), the max number of stars is 4. Every time Ristar is hit, the player will lose one star, and a life is lost if all stars are gone. There are situations where they'll instantly lose all their health, but these are rare. The player may replenish health by collecting items. Ristar also has a very basic life/continue system: once the player loses all of their lives, they'll be taken to a continue screen where they can choose to keep going with the game or give up. The player may earn more continues by clearing the Bonus Stages quickly.

Earning points comes mainly from toppling enemies (generally awards 100 points) and Yellow Jewels. At the end of an area, the player can use a Star Handle to exit the area with as much altitude as possible for a bonus of up to 20,100 points. After defeating a boss, the player is awarded points based on secrets found, and how much the player takes damage (the fewer times they are hit, the better the bonus). Extra lives are awarded for every 30,000 points earned.

It is a bit on the "short side", but to me and especially as a kid, it compensates with graphics beauty, gameplay and music. There are 7 rounds, each round has 2 stages, last Boss and short bonus stages

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Stages

As soon as the games starts you are greeted with some awesome graphics and awesome music.

Music Composer: Tomoko Sasaki, Naofumi Hataya, Masafumi Ogata
Sound Programmers Hiroshi Kubota, Junya Kozakai
Special Thanks Naofumi Hataya, Masashi Ogata

Since I won't be covering music into details, here is the Ristar soundtrack for you to enjoy:

Round 1 - Planet Flora/Neer in Japanese version

Planet Flora is the first level of Ristar, lots of vegetation similar to the flora found in Sonic games. It is pretty easy and mainly about getting used to the controls, with the first area ending in a mini-boss against a large serpent. The second area includes a darker jungle setting, with trees that Ristar can knock over to form a bridge. The stages are colorful and beautiful.

From Left to Right: Stage 1-1, Stage 1-2, Stage 1 Boss

Round 2 - Planet Undertow/Leatow in Japanese version

Planet Undertow is the aquatic ruin level with fish/squids/frogs etc. as enemies. This planet gives the player the opportunity to try out Ristar's underwater swimming abilities, though they should be aware that it's rather tricky to grab things here. The background in the first area, like in Planet Flora, is a bit lighter than in the second area, which is made of a totally submerged series of tunnels filled with enemies that must be defeated in order to move on, with little to no sections of dry land.

From Left to Right: Stage 2-1, Stage 2-2, Stage 2 Boss

Round 3 - Planet Scorch/Onaclove in Japanese version

Planet Scorch is set into a industrial world and is considerably harder than the previous planets. The second the player lands on the planet they'll face a rain of flaming meteors which only goes away a few seconds after, and traps that will necessitate the use of decoy statues. Scorch also requires a high level of mastery of all the basic skills (jumping and grabbing). There's a mini-boss involving a memory game at the end of the first area. I used to hate this puzzle as a kid. The second area, set within an underground factory, has lift systems that will require the use of Ristar's arms to operate, and sections where mooks will detonate bombs and destroy the terrain. Generally very original stage but not my favorite. The music is good though.

From Left to Right: Stage 3-1, Stage 3-2, Stage 3 Boss

Round 4 - Planet Sonata/Neuos in Japanese version

Planet Sonata is considered by many players the most creative stage in Ristar—even one of the most original stage to ever appear in a platform game at that time. Sonata revolves solely around music and the level is vastly decorated in a musical theme: grabbing poles are flutes and, handholds are trumpets and enemies even launch dangerous musical notes at the player.
It is so cheerful, wholesome, cute.... I love it!!!
The first area (which takes in a strangely futuristic background) is made of four sections and in each of these sections there's a very singular objective: deliver metronomes to the songbirds in order to advance through the level. The mini-boss consists of toppling three mechanical bird heads. The second area takes place in an indoor chamber and is much more related to disco/dance, especially the background music. Timpani drums will bounce Ristar high into the air, and stepping on certain floors will make dancing guitars come to life.

From Left to Right: Stage 4-1, Stage 4-2, Stage 4 Boss

Round 5 - Planet Freon/Elykiki in Japanese version

Planet Freon is an ice planet with icy walls that are too cold for Ristar to grab on to in most cases. The first area is child's play, with lots of spinners and slippery floors. Throughout all of this area, Ristar will be closely followed by a strange alien who he'll fight at the end in a peculiar snowball fight. The second area is nowhere as easy and consists mostly of swimming around in near-frozen water.

From Left to Right: Stage 5-1, Stage 5-2, Stage 5 Boss

Round 6 - Planet Automaton/Rewope in Japanese version

Planet Automaton is a mechanical world populated by robots that serves as Greedy's robot factory in the Western versions, or a gravitationally unstable research facility for artifical black holes in the Japanese version. Its difficulty is a mixed bag: the first area is incredibly challenging with many spikes to swing over, and a section with no gravity that the player must swim through—it is also somewhat similar to mechanical levels in Sonic games like Scrap Brain Zone and Metropolis Zone. The second area is far less difficult, and instead involves the player finding crystals to power teleporters that will transport them to different rooms, each with their own puzzles to solve.

From Left to Right: Stage 6-1, Stage 6-2, Stage 6 Boss

Round 7 - Castle Greedy

Castle Greedy is where the last fight with Greedy happens, although the player will still have to go through a few additional challenges before him inside his spaceship.

From Left to Right: 7-1 Stage, Inonis Boss Fight, Last Boss Kaiser Greedy

Bonus Stages

In Bonus Stages, found by locating special Star Handles in each area of a Round, the player will have one minute to attain a treasure chest and collect its treasure; the first Bonus Stage is very easy and consists of only one Star Handle, but they eventually get more and more bothersome. The player only has one try for each Bonus Stage. Also, completing them very rapidly will award the player one free continue. The items in the treasure chests are useless themselves, but if the player collects enough of them, they will reveal secret passwords at the end of the game.

Passwords I knew as a kid that I discovered completing bonus stages were:


MAGURO => "ONCHI". Onchi Music mode and credits music in sound test.
MUSEUM => "BOSS". Boss Rush mode.
ILOVEU => "RD.SEL". Stage select.
DOFEEL => "ATTACK". Time Attack mode for bonus stages.
SUPER => Super Hard mode. ( I had no ide about this one and following hidden)


And there are some others, hidden passwords

How to beat bosses? Spoilers ahead.

Riho, the boss of Flora, Stage 1, is easy to defeat. He will be possessing the planet's elder, making him attack Ristar with wind spells that will hold Ristar in place and leave him vulnerable, requiring the player to mash the buttons to break free. Ristar has to attack the elder multiple times to shake Riho off so he can attack him.
The boss of Stage 2 is Ohsat, a hammerhead shark who mainly resides in the background to hammer pillars, and periodically swim to the foreground to attack. This is when the player can attack him. Each time Ohsat is attacked, one of the corks in the holes will be knocked loose, draining the water and creating less swimming room for both Ristar and Ohsat.
The boss of Stage 3 is Adahan, a mole inside a robotic exoskeleton. His attacks will involve using his claws to attack Ristar directly or to send sand waves at him. After inflicting a certain number of hits, he will destroy the ground and have Ristar fall down a long shaft, taking the fight to freefall.
Awaueck, a giant hawk, is Sonata's boss (Stage 4). It will take out the bird that is singing on the perch and fill the theater with its dreadful tone-deaf singing. The player must knock it off the perch in order to attack it, while watching out for its divebomb and feather attacks as well as falling ceiling tiles.
In the boss area of Stage 5, the strange alien who stalked Ristar during the first area will actually aid him in defeating Itamor—this is done by hurling bowls of hot soup provided by him into Itamor's mouth. Itamor attacks by tossing frozen treats at Ristar, and will periodically freeze him solid with his icy breath, then proceed to suck him up and chew on him.
Automaton's boss is Uranim (Stage 6), who will attack with various fighting moves and projectiles offered to him by Inonis, Greedy's right-hand man. Attacking him enough times will make him collapse, and the player will then have to avoid Inonis' claw and make it attack Uranim to inflict damage.
(Round 7 Kaiser Greedy Castle) The first is a short climb up through a platforming section, followed by a fight against Inonis in a cycloptic mech armed with a boomerang, turrets and a plasma cannon. Attacking the mech enough times will shut it down and force Inonis to repair it, making him vulnerable to attack. The final battle against Greedy begins with Greedy summoning floating turrets to attack Ristar, then will deal with the little star himself by teleporting around and shooting projectiles from the air. When hit enough times, Greedy will pull his cape back and begin creating black holes that will instantly kill Ristar if he gets sucked into them, as well as firing lightning bolts into the ground. To avoid being sucked in, Ristar will need to hold on to an enemy.

Overall, this is my whole childhood. I adore this game. If you haven't played it, what are you waiting for?! Play it!

It is available on Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online, Steam, Android, iOS.

10/10. No questions asked!