Ristar is celebrating its 30-year anniversary in the present day, February 16, 2025. Beneath, we make the case that regardless of Sonic’s breakout movie star, Ristar actually deserved to be the face of Sega.
It is honest to say that Mario will seemingly all the time sit on the throne as probably the most iconic online game mascot of all time, however Sonic the Hedgehog definitely gave him a run for his a reimbursement within the ’90s. The lovable ‘tude and blistering pace of the Blue Blur made him a cultural determine par excellence within the days of the Tremendous Nintendo and Sega Genesis, and you’ll even argue that his signature velocity outlined the concept of that Sega console within the common gamer’s thoughts. That mentioned, Genesis fanatics are nicely conscious that Sonic is not even the perfect platform star on his personal console. That honor belongs to Ristar, who Sonic kneecapped like a coward 30 years in the past so he may keep on the treadmill of manufacturing endlessly mediocre spin-offs with no substance or new concepts.
Okay, that could be a bit harsh to Sonic–it’s not his fault that Sega has dropped the ball together with his video games since roughly the flip of the century, with a number of notable exceptions. However whereas Sonic’s signature pace and delightful pastel aesthetics by no means fairly made the transition to 3D, mechanics-focused indie platformers much like Ristar have continued to search out an viewers, from the gravity flip of VVVVVV to the no-jump gimmick of Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom. On this means, Ristar was a swinging star-man forward of his time, and it is unlucky that Sega did not notice that.
For many who aren’t acquainted, Ristar is a brief however candy platforming traditional launched by Sega within the waning days of the Genesis in 1995. You employ the lovable mascot’s stretchy arms to seize enemies, climb ladders, swing from bar to bar, and propel your self by way of its many colourful worlds. The sport options a wide range of artistic boss fights that culminate with a decisive battle with the cloaked Kaiser Grasping, who has kidnapped Ristar’s father and brought him prisoner.
You’d determine {that a} first-party Sega recreation of this high quality would at the least get a sequel, and that statement will get on the coronary heart of Ristar’s largest drawback: timing. When Sega requested its employees to create a Mario-slaying mascot, Sonic received the day, however there have been loads of concepts left on the drafting desk. One in every of them was “Really feel the Rabbit,” a proto-Sonic archetype that was spun out right into a goofy-looking cartoon character that finally turned Ristar. By the point the sport really got here out, crucial and industrial eyes had been on the cutting-edge Sega Saturn, which left our dextrous star pal within the lurch.
After I evaluate traditional video games like the unique Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy and Ristar, I feel it is instructive to have a look at the gameplay “verbs” which might be obtainable to the participant. Primarily, what do you really do within the recreation? It is simple to benefit from the model and circulate of the unique Sonic trilogy, however when it comes to verb rely, they’re fairly underwhelming: each button is leap, and your roll is sweet, however not significantly helpful. This can be a huge a part of why Sonic struggled with the transition to the third dimension: apart from working and leaping, you do not do an entire lot in his video games.
Against this, Ristar closely depends on its one distinctive mechanic within the type of the seize, however the recreation maximizes it. You may ship these stretchy arms out in eight instructions, which makes for participating fight and better enemy selection. One in every of your character’s fundamental strikes is the flexibility to climb any wall vertically with the best timing, which is troublesome to grasp however oh-so-satisfying if you lastly pull it off. It options one other memorable mechanic within the type of glowing poles that you just swing round to achieve momentum, then shoot off within the route of your selection. Ristar is invincible in the course of the preliminary surge of pace, however turns into weak when he slows down, so it’s a must to goal him nicely to keep away from taking pointless hits.
Each Sonic and Ristar function clever degree design, however I’d give our star pal the sting in that class. Ristar’s phases merely brim with creativity; from the pulsing underwater sections of Undertow to the metronome puzzles of the musical planet Sonata, each one of many recreation’s ranges options new twists and mechanics so that you can wrap your stretchy mitts round. Ristar has a core factor that the Blue Blur solely actually found out in Sonic 3: secrets and techniques with significant rewards. Every degree has a hidden treasure that you just entry by way of a teleport pole hidden someplace within the setting; provided that Ristar’s phases are usually multipathed and require vertical considering, it is unlikely you may discover all of them in your first playthrough.
Ristar’s unlucky timing may need value it industrial success, but it surely did give it one key benefit: It received probably the most mileage doable out of its console. It is probably the most full audiovisual expertise on the Genesis, that includes a powerful orchestral soundtrack that rivals something on SNES, lovely spritework, and boss designs that really feel ripped straight out of an amazing Saturday morning cartoon. It is a feast for the senses you will not overlook, particularly the extremely memorable degree transition sequences, the place Ristar blasts from planet to planet in a mesmerizing gentle present whereas considered one of my all-time favourite online game tracks performs.
The final word argument in favor of Ristar over Sonic is probably the obvious: When’s the final time you actually loved a Sonic recreation? Positive, Sonic was an amazing piece of selling, but it surely took lower than a decade for the cracks in his facade to point out. When speculating as to what a 3D Ristar recreation may need regarded like, let’s contemplate the standard grappling hook, maybe probably the most ubiquitous gameplay mechanic of the previous 10 years. It is simple to think about an exploration-focused Ristar with loads of climbing and grappling, much like what we see in Jusant, and even Sonic Frontiers. After all, in in the present day’s indie market, there’s loads of room for Sega to jump-start a Ristar reinvention within the 2D aircraft, however this appears comparatively unlikely at this juncture. Nonetheless, remasters are fairly trendy lately, and it is undoubtedly a main candidate for nostalgic Genesis followers.
Sonic could also be an indelible piece of ’90s popular culture, however I am unable to assist however marvel what would’ve occurred if Sega had put just a little extra juice behind a sure cute star relatively than narrowly specializing in its golden goose. We’ll by no means know if Ristar had the identical potential to cross over into popular culture, however so far as I am involved, there isn’t any doubt as to what the higher recreation is, and that is actually what issues.
