Ristar (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Ristar, the weird little star man that just can't stand still. I'm not sure why he's got to hold his hand out in that pose though.

An evil alien force, with a purple cape, floating in front of a purple background so you can't see the edges. They should be showing more respect to their villain's cape, it adds a lot to their menacing silhouette.

Wow, is this a planet of Ristar worshippers? Whatever they're doing, they seem too distracted to notice their poor friend is being harassed by Slimer in the foreground.

Yeah, they do look pretty desperate.

The call goes out into space until it reaches a weirdly symmetrical nebula...

The regular hero has already failed and been captured, but I'm sure that's nothing to be worried about. Hero jr should be capable of taking over from here. Probably.

Round 1, planet Forest Level.

I'm getting a definite Sonic the Hedgehog 2 vibe from this screen. Actually no, I know what it reminds me of now. Knuckles' Chaotix.

Ristar's no good at jumping on anyone, in fact he's pretty crap at jumping in general, but he's great at headbutting enemies into submission.

Holding the button down grabs the enemy and holds him in place, then releasing pulls him straight onto Ristar's solid forehead, to be sent flying off bouncing around the screen.

Like Kirby, Japanese Ristar seems much happier than the western version. No doubt their marketing people did studies that proved that westerners are more likely to give them money for games with angry looking heroes. Though he's grinning like an idiot all over the box art so I have no idea any more.

Apparently this guy was inspired by one of the original concepts for what became Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm definitely noticing a bit of a Sonic feel to the game so far. It's much slower paced though.

At least the little Ristar in the bottom left corner's still happy.

Ristar may suck at jumping, but he's great at swinging and climbing ladders. I managed to keep swinging across this tree until I reached the ledge at the top.

Come down here you little bastard! I've got to be careful here because I've only got the one hit point star left. Okay, maybe if I walk up the hill a little bit...

Ow, you son of a bitch! The final hit point star crashes down onto his head to add concussion to injury, and Ristar is out.

Okay, new plan: Ignore the owl.

Ristar can use these poles to swing around and get height. If he gets enough speed going before letting go he becomes an unstoppable bouncing bullet, destroying everything in his path. The trick is letting go at the right time to get him going in the right direction.

Mid boss! Or maybe not, the snake seems to be ignoring me. He just keeps slithering from hole to hole.

I'd be happy enough to leave him to it, but I'm locked in until he's dead so I'm going to have to find a way to kill the poor bastard.

Oh, I had to grab him a few times... kind of obvious now. I get the feeling that most problems in this game are going to be solved by grabbing things.

Well I messed that up. Now I'm totally open for a counter-attack.

Damn jumping lizards. I thought they were part of the foreground at the start of the level, and got a lizard in the face as a reward for my ignorance.

Uh, how am I supposed to grab the chest if I can't get to the ledge? That chest's either got a gem or a hit point in it and I want it. There must be some trick to this, something obvious I'm missing...

The solution was grabbing. The solution is always grabbing.


Though if I'm not fast enough to grab down when I'm falling there's a real risk of him landing on an enemy off screen, and losing a hit point. Blind jumps are not Ristar's friend.

That's a cool touch. I punched a tree down by accident, and Ristar's just as surprised about it as I am. It's nice to see or hear a character react to things occasionally, it adds a bit more life to the guy.

While I was walking through the woods one day, I found a pole that took me to a bonus stage. And in the bonus stage... was another pole. All I have to do is fling myself into the air high enough to reach the mysterious treasure.

I just hope it's not a bloody Chaos Emerald style item I need six of to get the good ending. (Damn you Sonic the Hedgehog!)
 

Two levels then a boss fight, another similarity to the Sonic games. This looks like the guy who summoned me here in the intro. I guess he's one of the possessed leaders now.

I'm just going to keep jumping up and grabbing at his ankles until that I manage to get that thing off his back. Then I'm going to headbutt him to death.

Planet Forest Level is liberated, forever! Ristar spins on a pole to build up enough momentum to fling himself towards the next planet in a very slick transition.

Now we're on Egyptian world I guess, also known as Planet... Undertow? What?

It was a cunning trick. It looked like a desert level, but it turns out to be mostly underwater. Fortunately Ristar is able to survive in the vacuum of space, so being underwater isn't much of a problem for him. He could stay down here all day.

Or at least he could if all these enemies would just stop trying to kill him. This level is filled with enemy generators and doors that block my path until every creature is defeated. Plus these things, which shoot spiky things from their shell. Fortunately they drop a hit point when they die, which is always appreciated.

As water levels go, this is pretty bearable.

There's a fan at the end of this underwater tunnel, so when the debris starts speeding past I need to grab hold of something or else I'll get washed away. I need to make my way forward section by section, from handholds to handholds, until I can grab the fan and wreck it.

It probably would have been easier if I'd remembered that I can make Ristar swim faster by holding the jump button.

Boss fight 2! This evil hammerhead's full of tricks, like summoning fish, knocking down rocks, or scattering these weird little bombs all across the screen. I need to keep hitting him as he races past, to knock out the plugs one by one and lower the water level.

This looks pretty nice in motion, with the background swaying and the waves on the surface, but the effect is ruined in a screenshot. I had to merge two frames to get the transparency to show up.

World 3: Planet Scorch, is a lava level. Unfortunately.

I did find a cool little Ristar statue though. I was hoping it'd be an extra life, but I have no idea what it does so I'm going to just take it with me.

And then those cunning little bastards caught me in a trap. Of course it was little effort to break out using my grab move.

Then they caught me in another cage 10 seconds later and fried me with fire jets. Cunning little bastards.


This is a pretty decent game actually. The graphics and animation are great, it's slick and well designed, Ristar moves around well, it's got variety, the music is... well, it's okay. I wouldn't call it a top tier platformer, not yet, but it did well enough to earn one of my shiny stars.