Ristar: The shooting Star (MD, 1995)
Graphics-9.5 Sound-8.5 Control-8.5 Challenge-7
Level Design-8 Frustration-7 Fun-8 Originality-7
Overall Score-8.5
+
Some innovative gameplay (climb by grabbing and bouncing into walls, minor puzzles, object interaction, flight by swinging mechanic, spinning wheel)
Charming characters
Good replay value
Good bonus levels that test your mastery of various moves
Mostly good bosses (large and detailed sprites)
Great art direction, excellent use of the sound chip (except for the voices) and color palette (overall)
Hidden items
Pretty forgiving checkpoints
Unlockables
Difficulty options
+/-
Plenty of 1-ups
Invincibility time while bouncing off of something with the grab move and for a small period within the swimming move
Small delay before you’re able to grab something again after coming out of a swinging move
-
Some tedious sections (music planet, ice planet)
Slow paced overall (slow walking speed - game gear version has a speed/invincibility power up)
Some gameplay ideas are underdeveloped (you can skip using the trap bait on the fire planet, the ‘anti-grav shoes’ segment is rather short)
Hit detection isn't perfect (forgiving)
Some trial & error (a couple of leaps of faith, some boss patterns, some enemy patterns)
The spinning wheel looks out of place
Somewhat weak explosions, some scratchy samples
Comment:
A late release for the system that most people (including me, at the time) missed out on. Ristar seems like a slower, more kiddy version of Sonic at first, and it kind of is, but if you give it a fair chance you'll find a pretty different and high quality platformer with a fun to use grab/climb/headbutt ability for the hero. The higher difficulties are definitely challenging too, so if you're one of those brawny hardcore gamers, you still need to play Ristar. Give the GG version a shot as well.
Level Design-8 Frustration-7 Fun-8 Originality-7
Overall Score-8.5
+
Some innovative gameplay (climb by grabbing and bouncing into walls, minor puzzles, object interaction, flight by swinging mechanic, spinning wheel)
Charming characters
Good replay value
Good bonus levels that test your mastery of various moves
Mostly good bosses (large and detailed sprites)
Great art direction, excellent use of the sound chip (except for the voices) and color palette (overall)
Hidden items
Pretty forgiving checkpoints
Unlockables
Difficulty options
+/-
Plenty of 1-ups
Invincibility time while bouncing off of something with the grab move and for a small period within the swimming move
Small delay before you’re able to grab something again after coming out of a swinging move
-
Some tedious sections (music planet, ice planet)
Slow paced overall (slow walking speed - game gear version has a speed/invincibility power up)
Some gameplay ideas are underdeveloped (you can skip using the trap bait on the fire planet, the ‘anti-grav shoes’ segment is rather short)
Hit detection isn't perfect (forgiving)
Some trial & error (a couple of leaps of faith, some boss patterns, some enemy patterns)
The spinning wheel looks out of place
Somewhat weak explosions, some scratchy samples
Comment:
A late release for the system that most people (including me, at the time) missed out on. Ristar seems like a slower, more kiddy version of Sonic at first, and it kind of is, but if you give it a fair chance you'll find a pretty different and high quality platformer with a fun to use grab/climb/headbutt ability for the hero. The higher difficulties are definitely challenging too, so if you're one of those brawny hardcore gamers, you still need to play Ristar. Give the GG version a shot as well.