Like I said in my Sin & Punishment video, a good tell for if I really like a game is if I decide I want to replay it again immediately after finishing it for the first time. Ristar is one of those games. It's one of the tightest and most well-designed platformers I've ever played, taking a simple concept, stretching it out as far as it'll go, and bowing out right before it begins to wear out its welcome. It's a crying shame it never got as big as Sonic, because I'd easily rank among Sega's best works.
Ristar's development is actually pretty interesting. It originally spawned from a prototype from back when Sega was trying to come up with a mascot to rival Mario, only to be workshopped into its own unique game by many of the developers who later come to work on Nights Into Dreams (and thus become the Sonic Team we all know today). Compared to Sonic, Ristar is a far more slow-paced and deliberate platformer, almost a complete and utter contrast in terms of pacing. Unfortunately, Ristar didn't just fall short as a rival to Mario, he didn't even come close to reaching Sonic's popularity due to releasing so late in the Genesis's lifespan. By then, everyone's eyes was on the Saturn. Thankfully, Ristar has become a pretty big cult classic, and a very well-deserved one at that.
The main concept of Ristar is that you play as the titular star and have the ability to grab in eight directions. You can grab onto pretty much anything, from walls to switches to chests to enemies. You can grab objects and carry them around, or you can bash your head into them to do some sort of context-sensitive action like taking out enemies. The game really makes the most of this grabbing mechanic, from picking up and tossing snowballs, to hanging onto floating enemies and swinging from them, to a level-long escort mission where you carry around metronomes, to swinging up and around poles. Despite Ristar's slow walking speed, you can also see a lot of that Sonic-esque speed in Ristar through this grab mechanic. There are a lot of ways to gain speed and take shortcuts, from bouncing yourself up walls by repeatedly grabbing them, to well-timed swings across groups of enemies, to spinning yourself around the star handles and shooting off so far the camera can't even catch up, to sliding around on the ice. There's a great sense of flow to Ristar's gameplay, you never really stop moving.
On top of that, the level design explores this mechanic perfectly. Like with Crash 4 in my last post, Ristar's level design does an incredible job at fully exploring the grab mechanic to the fullest. Each major area has a ton of memorable setpieces and gimmicks that constantly have you finding new ways to grab onto stuff, from clambering up tree trunks, to swimming around underwater finding switches, to using pulleys to move yourself up and down, to carrying around statues to trick traps, to the aforementioned snowball fight and escort mission, to a music world with rhythm-based obstacles, to a maze filled with single-room challenges, some of which even using the background. Every single level in Ristar is an absolute blast, and the difficulty curve is pretty much perfect, slowly amping up the complexity over time while also knowing when to give you some time to breath. I love how the final world is laid out. Level 6-1 is easily the hardest in the game, testing you on everything you'd learned and even flat-out requiring you to use that bouncing up walls trick I mentioned, while Level 6-2 is easier but way more setpiece-heavy, as a primer to get you excited for the final boss.
Speaking of which, the bosses in Ristar are immaculate. This has to be one of my favorite boss lineups ever, definitely one of my favorites of its console generation, that's for sure. They all have a wide array of well-telegraphed attacks, multiple phases, and often very inventive concepts. The first two fights are pretty standard stuff, but then the third boss is a mole you fight in freefall, and the fourth boss is a tone-deaf bird you have to knock off its stand, and the fifth boss is defeated by feeding it spicy food! They're all so fun, and the final boss fight against Greedy ends the game on an incredibly high note. Greedy's boss fight is a brutal three-phase gauntlet with half a dozen attacks ranging from black holes to lasers. It's fast-paced, frantic, tough as nails, but immensely satisfying to take down.
While Ristar is, like with many Genesis games, pretty short, it's also chock-full of replayability. All twelve major levels have a hidden bonus stage that will net you an item upon beating it. I highly recommend going after these bonus stages because not only will they make you fully explore each and every stage, but the bonus stages themselves further expand on each stage's unique gimmicks. On top of that, getting all the items will unveil a bunch of passwords that unlock more modes including alternate difficulties, a Time Attack mode where you race against Sega themselves to beat all the bonus stages as fast as possible, a Boss Rush mode, and my personal favorite, a sound test where you can hear all of the game's music sung by the aforementioned tone-deaf bird. It's hilarious, and I love it. There's also a bunch of hidden passwords the game doesn't tell you about, ranging from perks like invincibility and infinite continues, to assorted visual easter eggs like a sequel tease... which sadly never got followed up on...
Presentation-wise, Ristar is incredible, easily one of the best-looking Genesis games. All the characters from Ristar to the enemies to the bosses are packed full of charming animations, and the environments are lush, detailed, colorful, and imaginative. Ristar's color palette in particular is really unique, primarily employing purples to emphasize the game's space theming. And don't even get me started on how drop-dead beautiful the backgrounds are, especially on Planet Freon. And of course, there's the music. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that Ristar's music is incredible, it's a Sega game after all, but this might genuinely be my favorite soundtrack on the Genesis. Tomoko Sasaki, who's also responsible for the music for Nights Into Dreams, strikes a perfect balance of uplifting melodies and groovy basslines that suits the Genesis's hardware perfectly. The music in Ristar feels like such a big part of its identity, there's a particular vibe to a lot of the music here, and some tracks are even incorporated into the gameplay at points. There's the obvious music world, but I also have to mention how perfectly the final boss's third phase is timed to his boss theme. There are so many incredible tracks in Ristar, but the highlights are definitely Shooting Ristar, Splash Down, Busy Flare, Crying World, Crazy Kings, Greedy Game, and my personal favorite, the absolutely beautiful Ring Rink.
Ristar is as close to perfect as a game could ever get, in my opinion. Everything about it clicks together perfectly. The movement is simple to understand, but has a high skill ceiling and is utilized in inventive ways constantly throughout the game. The level design is consistently creative, memorable, well-paced, and perfectly balanced, always remaining tough but fair. The boss fights are always satisfying, challenging, complex, and rewarding to take down. It's short but immensely replayable, and the production values that went into its visuals and music are nothing short of astonishing. The only complaint I could possible have about Ristar is that I just want more of it, damn it!
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