Ristar
From Sega Retro
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| System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear, Virtual Console, Steam | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Sega | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer: (team at Sega responsible for some Sega Game Toshokan games), Sonic Team (to what extent?) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre: Action | ||||||||||||||||||||
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CERO
Missing Parameter! |
Ristar, released as Ristar: the shooting star (リスター・ザ・シューティングスター) in Japan, is a platform game developed by Sonic Team released for the Sega Mega Drive and the Sega Game Gear. It was a late era Mega Drive game and therefore never got much exposure compared to similar platform games released for the same consoles.
It was re-released in 2002 (JP, NA) / 2003 (EU) as part of the Sonic Mega Collection on the Nintendo GameCube and in 2004 (JP, NA) / 2005 (EU) as part of the Sonic Mega Collection Plus on the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. To play Ristar in the GC edition, you must play Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Flicky, Blue Sphere, and Knuckles in Sonic 2 30 times each; in the PS2/Xbox edition, you must play them 20 times each.
Contents
Storyline
In Ristar, we follow the story of a far away solar system, Valdi, that was corrupted by an evil tyrant called Greedy. Greedy forced the leaders of each of the seven planets the system is composed of to work for him, enslaved the people and kidnapped Ristar's father. Desperate, they make a plea for help. It is answered by Ristar, a tiny humanoid yellow star with long, elastic arms. To free the population and liberate his father, Ristar must fight Greedy's minions throughout every planet, restore the leaders and eventually fight Greedy himself.
Gameplay
Ristar, unlike Sonic, can't look up nor down and can only jump about his own height (
or 
). Ristar's main ability, then, are his arms. To kill enemies, you must grab them with Ristar's stretchy arms with 
and after releasing Ristar will headbutt the enemy. This is the only way to eliminate enemies as jumping on them will not work. Ristar's arms can also be used to ride spinners (these are used to move from one location to another without having to walk), climb walls, swing across poles and even find bonuses (health points, 1UPs, etc.) by stretching them into tiny breaches in walls. (You may also find them by headbutting certain sections of certain walls.)
Ristar is very different from Sonic in one aspect, however, and that is Ristar's ability to explore worlds underwater without needing to breathe. He can also swim underwater with ease.
The game has a simple health system: the player starts with 4 or 2 stars (depending on the difficulty selected), the max number of stars is 4. Every time you're hit, you lose one star. There are situations where you'll lose all your health, but these are rare. You may replenish health by getting the star pickups: a yellow star pickup will provide you with 1 star and a blue star pickup 4 stars. Ristar also has a very basic life/continue system: once you lose all of your lives, you'll be taken to a continue screen where you can choose to keep going with the game or give up. You may earn more continues by ending the special stages quickly and more lives by getting the tiny Ristar doll pickup. (Every 30,000 points you earn are also worth 1UP.)
Earning points comes mainly from toppling enemies (generally gives you 100 points) and yellow gems which are worth between 100 and 1000 points, depending on how hard they are to reach.
Levels
Cheat Codes
Ristar allows you to input codes in the options menu, which can result in different styles of play, among other things. If a code is not 6 letters long like SUPER, then any character can be added after the password and it will still work. SUPERB is a very common example.
| Code | What happens? | JP Only? |
|---|---|---|
| MUSEUM | Boss Rush mode. | No |
| MIEMIE | Hidden items' grab points are shown with a blue star. | No |
| MASTER | Text that hints towards a sequel is shown. | Yes |
| MAGURO | Onchi Music mode and credits music in sound test. | No |
| MACCHA | Mentions Miyake color. The final boss stage palette changes to a golden yellow. | Yes |
| ILOVEU | Stage select. | No |
| HETAP | Reverses the High Score in Demo Mode. It becomes a Worst Score of 9,999,900 points. | No |
| FEEL | ILOVEU, MIEMIE and CANDY active all at once. | No |
| DOFEEL | Time Attack mode. | No |
| CANDY | Invincibility. | Yes |
| AGES | Copyright info is displayed. | No |
| AAAAAA | No Continue limit. | Yes |
| STAR | A shooting star goes across the background. | Yes |
| SUPER | Super Hard mode. | No |
| VALDI | Shows the Solar System. | Yes |
| XXXXXX | Clears/deactivates all current passwords. | No |
JP version secrets
The JP version of Ristar was not only released with a different title but with secret characters, among other things. One of the most well-known secrets was the intro: you can see a huge green star being—supposedly Ristar's father/mother just before Ristar is awakened by the plea of help from the populace. Actually, the green being is known as Oruto, who has a cluster of stars. She selected Ristar to fight Greedy. The ending was also different since you don't see Ristar running to his father's arms.
Connections with Sonic
Ristar's gameplay alone has garnered it lots of comparisons to the early Sonic games. The most significant link between Ristar and Sonic is the fact that Ristar was built on the Sonic 1 engine, including the level engine and music engine. Another strong link to Sonic was the prototype design of Ristar, named Feel — the character had a striking resemblance to Sonic, being a spherical yellow and black "rabbit," and even had identical shoes. Ristar also performed cameos along with other Sega characters in Shenmue, Segagaga and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
Production Credits
Mega Drive Version
- Staff -
Game Planner: Akira Nishino, Takeshi Niimura
Chief Designer: Takumi Miyake
Character Designer: Yuji Uekawa
Planet Designers: Koki Mogi, Kazuyuki Iwasawa, Mikiharu Ooiwa
Character Voice: Eriko Hanada
Music Composer: Tomoko Sasaki
Sound Programmers: Hiroshi Kubota, Junya Kozakai
Boss Programmer: Hiromasa Kaneko
Player Programmer: Shigeru Yoshida
Enemy Programmer: Naomi Hirai
Effect Programmer: Takuya Matsumoto
Project Director: Atsuhiko Nakamura
Art Director: Yukio Sato
Manual Director: Hiroyuki Mitsui
Manual Designer: Yukiko Yahagi
Manual Writer: Chieko Nakamura
Test Players: Norihiro Sekine, Haruyuki Hashimoto, Hideki Yokaichiya
Special Thanks to: Osamu Hori, Kenji Morita, Naofumi Hataya, Masashi Ogata, Naoko Hamada, Toshiko Arisaka, Rica Terajima, Ryoichi Hasegawa
Producers: Hiroshi Aso, Makoto Oshitani, Yoji Ishii, Minoru Kanari
- SOA Staff -
Producer: Rhonda Van
Assistant Producer: Erik Wahlberg
Marketing Product Manager: Pamela Kelly
Lead Tester: Marc Dawson
Assistant Lead Tester: Lance Nelson
Presented by: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
- Notes: Osamu Hori may have either been the lead programmer or his code on Honoo no Toukyuuji: Dodge Danpei was used as a basis for Ristar's (Pyramid Magic needs to be checked).
Game Gear Version
Game Planner: Nencoo Gutoku
System Programmer: Alice Kagamino
Ristar Programmer: Mika Muraoka
Boss Programmer: Haruo Nakajima
Enemy Programmer: Ezachan
Effect Programmer: Masami Tezuka
Demo Programmer: Hanamogera.D
Character Designer: Francis.N, Pixy Monty
Planet Designer: Mauo.S, General Kusumi
Music Composer: LKJ.Chikayo, Tomoko Sasaki
Sound Programmer: Kazune Hiiragi
Project Director: Capt.Jinguji
Art Director: Nencoo Gutoku
Lead Tester: Matt Underwood
Assistant Lead Testers: Carey Camacho, David Dodge
Special Thanks to: Nag, Bryan.M, Wadachi, Tarachan, Chikyuchan, Tamachan, Nana Kusunoki, Ristar MD Staff and Genesis Staff
Producer: Rhonda Van
Assistant Producer: Erik Wahlberg
Marketing: Chrissy Huneke Kremer
Presented by: ©Sega 1995
Promotional Material
- Ristar MD-GG US PrintAdvert.jpg
US print advert
Physical Scans
Mega Drive
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79 |
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| Based on 38 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, US |
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 Cover
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 Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, EU |
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 Cover
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 Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, JP |
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 Cover
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  Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, BR |
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 Cover
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| Mega Drive, KR |
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Game Gear
| Sega Retro Average | ||||
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 |
N/A |
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| Based on 0 reviews | |
| Game Gear, US |
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   Cover
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 Cart |
| Game Gear, EU |
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  Cover
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 Cart |
| Game Gear, JP |
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   Cover
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External Links
- Sega of Japan Virtual Console page (Japanese)
- Ristar on Steam
- Ristar on GameFAQs
- Ristar Cluster fansite
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