Why is Ristar always overlooked?

[Jasper061992]

Well, i did try the game on the emulator some time back. Only the first level, but i found it very enjoyable to the point of me asking, why is this game so overlooked? Even the game on ebay is quite expensive. Is it also rare?

[WildWillyWilson]

Never played it but looking forward to getting it, the Japanese version is quite rare and expensive I know that much.

[NeoVamp]

I paid very little for my complete copy, but its indeed one of the best games on the console.

The use of the limited Sega color palette is amazing.

[TmEE]

This is an incredibly awesome game, I'm so happy I finally got a complete copy of it :D

AFAIK, Sega never made any real effort to show public the game exists, so nobody really knew about it, and it seems to be a bit uncommon and not too cheap game so its another reason why people pass on it I guess.

[Pulstar]

i8VUkBoCJro

I think it was one of those games that performed better in PAL territories but I can't be sure just how well it sold. Also it has one of my favourite 16-bit tracks! Very nice score.

[Jasper061992]

i8VUkBoCJro

I think it was one of those games that performed better in PAL territories but I can't be sure just how well it sold. Also it has one of my favourite 16-bit tracks! Very nice score.

It definitely has that Sonic feel to it. Specially with the title card of each level. Not surprised as it was developed by Sonic Team.


I saw an eBay bundle with Ristar (Label on cart was scratched off!!) Kid Chameleon and Gouls and Ghosts. I was going to buy it, but i damn forgot!! The bundle was only £7.99! :(

[Alianger]

I guess people dismissed it as a cutesy Sonic clone. The 1995 release date is another factor to consider.

Awesome game, payed only about 60 kronor for it and it turned out to be one of my favourite games for the console.

[Keiosquad2]

Wasn't the American release castrated from the Japanese release? I remember hearing that we didn't get the full game....

[Henry Spencer]

Nah, it's the same game. There are a couple of changes here and there. Ristar having different expressions when not moving, slightly different ending, that sort of thing.

[The Coop]

Fantastic game from start to finish. I owned a cart-only copy for years until something in the cart broke. I lucked out, and found a new copy of it at a now dead mail order site, so I not only got my game back, it was complete to boot.

Shame Sega never really pushed this game. It could have easily drawn more people to the Genesis. Then maybe we'd have gotten a sequel.

[Jasper061992]

Fantastic game from start to finish. I owned a cart-only copy for years until something in the cart broke. I lucked out, and found a new copy of it at a now dead mail order site, so I not only got my game back, it was complete to boot.

Shame Sega never really pushed this game. It could have easily drawn more people to the Genesis. Then maybe we'd have gotten a sequel.

I believe this game has massive potential for a sequel. Then again Sega may find a way to fuck it up somehow. :daze:

[Aarzak]

Personally I think the game's overrated. I went and got a CIB copy of it after GameFan beamed about it in their retro review of it in one of their last issues. This was back in 2001. I never could get into it past the first three levels. Yes the graphics are nice, but nothing mind-blowing. The music is meh, and sounds like its stretching the Genesis sound hardware thin (same case as with Sonic 3 & Knuckles). The sfx, especially the "voice" samples, are bad.

Sega ran just ONE ad for the game, during the timeframe in which it came out (February/March 1995), which made it to some gaming mags, and that was it. Unless it was a big first-party release (i.e Sonic, Virtua Racing, Streets of Rage 3, Phantasy Star IV, X-Perts), all of Sega's first-party releases between 1993-1995 got little to no publicity, or just one ad at most.

[Jasper061992]

Personally I think the game's overrated. I went and got a CIB copy of it after GameFan beamed about it in their retro review of it in one of their last issues. This was back in 2001. I never could get into it past the first three levels. Yes the graphics are nice, but nothing mind-blowing. The music is meh, and sounds like its stretching the Genesis sound hardware thin (same case as with Sonic 3 & Knuckles). The sfx, especially the "voice" samples, are bad.

Sega ran just ONE ad for the game, during the timeframe in which it came out (February/March 1995), which made it to some gaming mags, and that was it. Unless it was a big first-party release (i.e Sonic, Virtua Racing, Streets of Rage 3, Phantasy Star IV, X-Perts), all of Sega's first-party releases between 1993-1995 got little to no publicity, or just one ad at most.

Overrated? Word on the street it seems underrated. Although i only played one level in it, the game just has a charm that is more ignored than Overpraised.

I disagree.

[Knuckle Duster]

He probably means that for being an obscure title, the praise it does get is unjustified compared to other titles in the genre.

It's easy to use the term 'overrated' in the wrong context when obscure titles are being discussed.

[shinobimusashi]

for some reason i always turn to ristar if im in the mood for some late night gaming maybe the music but its definetely a top genesis title in my opinion and one of the best platformers of all time

[Aarzak]

Personally, I found that "Last Battle" to be a better game overall than "Ristar". The former game? Now THAT's underrated.

:D

[GriskaGyoran]

What I enjoy is that there is usually a gameplay gimmick in the begining. Like now there is this ONE amazing cutscene or this ONE amazing interaction between the character and the game. However this game has plenty of these interactions throughout the levels and I enjoy that in this game.

[Karakasa-Obake]

Personally, I found that "Last Battle" to be a better game overall than "Ristar". The former game? Now THAT's underrated.

:D

Last Battle is...good for an early Genesis game. I can tell you like it though*points at username*.
Different strokes for different blokes though, right?
I'm more of a platformer guy myself.

[17daysolderthannes]

Ristar developed from an idea originally put forward during design talks for the character who would later become Sonic the Hedgehog. Yuji Naka, head of Sonic Team, recalled in 1992:

"At first we used a character that looked like a rabbit with ears that could extend and pick up objects. As the game got faster and faster, we needed to come up with a special characteristic to give our character some power over his enemies. I remembered a character I had thought about years ago who could roll himself into a ball and slam into enemies. Hedgehogs can roll themselves into a ball, so we decided to go from a rabbit to a hedgehog.[1]"

Some years later, the game starring that rabbit-type character was developed separately from Sonic, and eventually evolved into a prototype called Feel. The rabbit resemblance in Feel was already phased out and the character no longer used his ears, but his arms (though there is an enemy rabbit that uses its ears to attack in the first level). After some changes in the main character, and going through several names (including "Volt"), that game eventually became what is now known as Ristar. The name also went through further changes during development of the Western versions, going from Ristar the Shooting Star to Dexstar, and finally to Ristar.


This is why it seems so much like a Sonic game. I can only imagine that the under-hype was a combination of a late release (Saturn was probably out at the time) and such an abundance of platformers already in the market. Had it been released alongside Sonic back in 91, I think we'd recall it as being quintessentially Genesis like Sonic, Streets of Rage, Vectorman, etc.

[Mark Robert]

I don't like Ristar all that much either. It's not a bad game per se just a tad bit underwhelming. I guess it all comes down to personal preference.

[Aarzak]

This is why it seems so much like a Sonic game. I can only imagine that the under-hype was a combination of a late release (Saturn was probably out at the time) and such an abundance of platformers already in the market. Had it been released alongside Sonic back in 91, I think we'd recall it as being quintessentially Genesis like Sonic, Streets of Rage, Vectorman, etc.

It came out in February 1995. By then, everyone was fixated on fighting games, the upcoming next-gen consoles, and/or "Donkey Kong Country". There wasn't much of anything notable on the Genesis camp like DKX was for SNES. Hell, I think that, for most of early 1995 (before developers started jumping ship en masse in mid-1995) there was more attention on the 32X than on the Genesis. Still, Sega managed to release a nice stream of Genesis games in the early part of that year (Ristar, Phantasy Star IV, X-Men 2).

Not just that, but the traditional 2D platformer had become a saturated genre by then. There was TOO MANY of them that came out in the wake of Sonic's success. Hell, even the Sonic series itself grew tiresome by the time S&K was released. Both S3 & S&K combined didn't even sell half of what Sonic 2 sold. So, along with the lack of promotion, that is why Ristar fell inbetween the cracks and didn't sell 8 million copies like DKC.

[shinobimusashi]

i thought ps4 came out in 94(us)

[tomaitheous]

Wiki says it came out in February 1995 in N/A and nearly a year later in EU. If it had come out in 1994, I would have gotten it. I didn't buy or play much games in 1995.

As far as Ristar. Not really my type of game, I guess. It's cool and really nice optimization for Genesis colors, but the game itself doesn't really click for me. Feels a bit generic and/or a bit non-japanese in play/design.

[Aarzak]

i thought ps4 came out in 94(us)

PS4 (which ironically I've never played past the first 10 minutes) came out in February 1995, well over a year after its original Japanese release date. The translation work on that one must've been the best thing since sliced bread, considering how long it took to come out in the U.S and its initial WTF $99 price tag.