RISTAR

'''Ristar''' ('''Ristar the Shooting Star''' in Japan) is a platform game published and developed by Sega for the Sega Genesis in 1995.
The game stars a cartoonish humanoid star who uses his hands to both move and combat enemies. It was originally released on the Sega Genesis, and was also included as an unlockable game in ''Sonic Mega Collection'' for the GameCube in 2002, in 2004 on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 and in 2006 on the PC as part of ''Sonic Mega Collection Plus''. A Game Gear version which features different levels to the Genesis versions was also released. The game is also available on ''Sega Genesis Collection'' for PS2 and PlayStation Portable and, as of December 4th 2006, it is available on Wii's Virtual Console service. [1]

Contents

History

Story

Gameplay

References

External links

History

''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:
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. After some changes in the main character, that game eventually became what is now known as ''Ristar''.

Story

The game takes place in the seven-planet Valdi System (also known as the "Vadji" System according to the back of the European box). The Legendary Hero is a shooting star that protects this galaxy. An evil space pirate, Kaiser Greedy, has kidnapped him and made the planets' leaders obey him. The inhabitants of Planet Neer (Flora outside Japan) pray for a hero before Greedy's mind control snatches them. The desperate prayers reach the nebula of the Star Goddess, Oruto. She awakens one of her children, Ristar, with the sole purpose of granting the wishes of the innocent people. He must stop Greedy and rescue the Legendary Hero – who is also Ristar's father.

Gameplay

Controlling Ristar is fairly simple. He is unable to jump as high as most platformer protagonists do, but his jumps have a bit more hang time, meaning he stays in the air longer. By pressing the grab button, Ristar will stretch his hands forward, grabbing whatever is ahead of him. The player can make his hands go in any one of eight directions by combining the attack with any direction on the control pad, except downward while on the ground. When Ristar grabs an enemy, he will continue to hold it until the button is released, causing him to collide with the enemy and destroy them. He can also grab walls and obstacles this way and it is possible, albeit time-consuming, to climb walls by continually grabbing diagonally up a wall.
Ristar's health is shown as four stars in the upper-right corner of the screen. Taking damage removes one star. When all four are gone, the last star falls on Ristar's head and he loses a life. Stars can be found throughout the levels, which replenish his health. These and other items must be picked up manually with Ristar's attack. A gold star restores one hit point, while a blue star refills health completely. A tiny icon of Ristar adds an extra life to the total.
During levels, horizontal poles facing the player will sometimes be seen and when grabbed, they may be spun on to gain momentum and shoot off toward the edge of the screen. The player may control Ristar's speed and direction with the control pad. If he has enough momentum, Ristar will begin to fly with a trail of stars behind him (called a "Shooting Star"). During these flights, any enemies that are touched will be destroyed and regular hazards will not deal any damage. Since Ristar flies at a high speed and rebounds easily, it can be difficult to control his flight and on Hard and Super difficulties, his flight cannot be controlled at all. When Ristar loses enough momentum, he will cease flight and drop to the ground. At the end of all regular levels, there is one last pole for Ristar to fly from. This allows the player to gain a great amount of altitude and the higher Ristar is when he leaves the screen, the more bonus points are added on to the player's score.
Each regular level also contains one special pole that Ristar can grab onto. Grabbing this makes him automatically spin and launch himself off the top of screen into a bonus stage. These bonus stages involve getting through an obstacle course in order to reach a treasure within a given time limit. Their difficulty increases as the game progresses.

References

External links

★ Sonic The Hedgehog Database: ''Feel'' - screenshots of the ''Feel'' prototype