"Fun, innovative, and inventive."

Ristar is one of the most inventive and fun platformers I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. The simple, sleek gameplay works well thanks to the fine work from Sega, who did their best to make sure that the game was both fun to play, and a great game on top of that. Ristar is easily one of the most unique characters, and games, that Sega has created in the past decade. Come on, how can you not love a game starring a character in the shape of a star?

The aforementioned unique gameplay features the usual jumping around platforms and stuff, but with a huge, innovative twist in the core mechanic of it all involving you having to use Ristar’s super-flexible arms to defeat enemies, climb things, and grab power-ups. Now this feature might not sound too exciting, but if you ever get a chance to play the game, and get used to the feature, it can be quite enjoyable. The grabbing feature is the lifeblood of the gameplay. Without it, you would be unable to make it though any part of the game beyond platforming sections. As such, this feature needs to be implemented well, and in a manner that is easy for the player to use.

Sega has accomplished this goal quite nicely thanks to the rock-solid controls, which allow grabbing of things in eight directions, which is quite helpful when there is an enemy facing you diagonally. As you progress through the game, and make use of this feature, you will probably become drawn into the game. The characters, the bosses, the levels, all of it helps to give the game a certain charm. The game never seems to take itself all that seriously, which I love. The fantastic controls make it possible for you to navigate through the game with relative ease, as they are quite responsive and don’t require any fancy button presses to use. Hell, the game in and of itself only needs two buttons, one for jumping, and one for grabbing, along with the d-pad. Despite this seeming limitation, the game’s controls do have a nice amount of depth to them. I wish more developers would put as much care into the controls as Sega did, sadly, many don’t. This game is a shining example of a simple, efficient control scheme, the responsiveness is just icing on the cake.

The graphics in Ristar are just as well done as the controls are. Everything is bathed in detail in this game, from Ristar, to the most insignificant enemy. Every character, every foreground, and especially every background, features plenty of color and shading to really envelop you in the game. The characters are packed with animation, while the foregrounds feature numerous colors and shading to add an illusion of depth to the game. The backgrounds are the pinnacle of graphical excellence in this game for me. They are just filled with layers and layers of color and detail. Little things like trees and clouds can be made out in the backgrounds, along with twinkling stars, and other nice atmospheric touches that help add a bit of charm to the game. This charm makes the game even more fun to play through.

The sound in the game is, sadly, its weakest point, and even it isn’t all that bad. The music is a bit too generic for my liking. Sure it’s cheery and fits the fun nature of the game well, but it just seems to lack any real heart. The music isn’t really used to further anything besides boss battles, and even then it’s a bit iffy. Thankfully, the great, cartonny sound effects help things out a bit in the sound department. Everything is given an exaggerated sound effect, so expect an unrealistic “bonk” sound effect when Ristar slams an enemy into him, among other goofy sound effects. These things really help reinforce how fun this game truly is.

Ristar is packed with replay value thanks to the game being extremely fun to play through, and for the many little touches you will probably miss during your first play through the game. Despite being harder than most plat formers of its day, even on the normal setting, Ristar never stops being fun. During your first play through the game, you might spend all of your time just trying to beat the game, which is fine. After that, you might want to tackle the game on the hard difficulty setting, which should test the mettle of even the most seasoned gamer. Or, you can choose to just play it at your own leisure again, and maybe focus on things you may have missed, like the details in the backgrounds. You can mix these things up, or do whatever, it’s your call, anything you can do to further your enjoyment of a game is fantastic. This game gives you quite a bit to work with, so hopefully it won’t go to waste.

At the end of the day, Ristar provides a fun, challenging game that can be played and enjoyed on numerous levels. If you want something as a quick fix, this game should do the trick. If you want something you can sink your teeth into, this game will fit the bill quite nicely. The sharp controls, detailed graphics, and fantastic sound effects really help drive home the fun in the game, with the music being the only real let-down in the game.

For owners of the Nomad, this game is fantastic for it. The screen doesn’t really cause any problems, which is nice, and the sound and control are still left intact. I would recommend taking a slower pace on the game when using the Nomad though, just to avoid having problems with the screen interfering with your ability to judge where your enemies are in relation to Ristar. If you can’t track down a Genesis copy of the game, feel free to check the port of the game on the Sonic Mega Collection disc on the GameCube. It’s a perfect rendition, which is nice. Of course, it can’t be played on the Nomad, which is why I’ll always give the Genesis version of the game the nod ahead of the GC port.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/03, Updated 07/01/03