Ristar

For the Sega Game Gear game, see Ristar (Game Gear).

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Ristar
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, Steam, Android, iOS
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega CS M2
Sound driver: SMPS 68000 (modified)
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Official in-game languages: English Français Deutsch Español
Release Date RRP Code JP 1995-02-17 ¥6,8006,800 G-4126 US 1995-02-16 1555 EU 1995-02-17 1555-50 DE 1995-02-17 DM 129.00129.00 1555-50 PT 1995 MDJ1555 UK 1995-02-17 £44.9944.99 1555-50 BR 1995 046550 KR 1995 GM95001JG JP ▼ 2006-12-02 600pts600 US ▼ 2006-12-04 800pts800 EU ▼ 2006-12-15 800pts800 DE ▼ 2006-12-15 800pts800 AU ▼ 2006-12 800pts800 US ▼ 2010-09-13 $2.992.99 34312 EU ▼ 2010-09-13 €2.492.49 34312 UK ▼ 2010-09-13 £1.991.99 34312 AU ▼ 2010-09-13 $3.493.49 34312 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 34312 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34312 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 34312 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 34312 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 34312 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34312 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 34312 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 34312 US ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-08-09 FREEfree EU ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-08-09 FREEfree DE ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-08-09 FREEfree AU ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-08-09 FREEfree US ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-08-09 FREEfree 4+ EU ▼ (Sega Forever) 2017-08-09 FREEfree 4+

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 Sega released for the Sega Mega Drive. It was a late era Mega Drive game and therefore never got much exposure compared to similar platform games released for the same consoles.

Story

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 The Shooting Star, 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.

In the Japanese version of the game, the story is different. Ristar's father is never mentioned, and instead the plea for help is answered by the Star Goddess, Oruto, who creates Ristar to fight Greedy and restore happiness to the Valdi system.

Gameplay

At first glance, Ristar has basic platforming skills as he can jump about his own height with or (by default), and cannot look up or down. Ristar's main ability, and the core mechanic of the game, are his stretchy arms. To kill enemies, the player must grab them with Ristar's 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 for many other purposes, such as climbing walls, swinging across poles and even finding bonuses (health points, 1UPs, etc.) by stretching them into tiny breaches in walls (the player may also find them by headbutting certain sections of certain walls). A very important aspect of this ability is to ride Star Handles to perform a Meteor Strike, which is used to move from one location to another without having to walk as well as take out enemies. While performing a Meteor Strike, Ristar can change his direction mid-flight on Normal difficulty, but cannot on harder difficulties.

In levels with water, Ristar has the ability to explore underwater without needing to breathe. He can also swim underwater with ease in all eight cardinal directions, and can use his arms to swim faster with or . His grabbing ability is just as effective underwater as it is on dry land.

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 Ristar is hit, the player will lose one star. There are situations where they'll lose all their health, but these are rare. The player may replenish health by collecting items. Ristar also has a very basic life/continue system: once the player loses all of their lives, they'll be taken to a continue screen where they can choose to keep going with the game or give up. The player may earn more continues by clearing the Bonus Stages quickly.

Earning points comes mainly from toppling enemies (generally awards 100 points) and Yellow Jewels. At the end of an area, the player can use a Star Handle to exit the area with as much altitude as possible for a bonus of up to 20,100 points. After defeating a boss, the player is awarded points based on secrets found, and how much the player takes damage (the fewer times they are hit, the better the bonus). Extra lives are awarded for very 30,000 points earned.

Items

	Little Star / 1UP
	Awards the player an extra life.
	Little Star (grey)
	Appears only in Round 3-1. Can be used as a decoy to set off traps safely.
	Restore Star / Life Item (ライフアイテム) (yellow)
	Restores one star to Ristar's health.
	Restore Star / Life Item (ライフアイテム) (blue)
	Restores up to three stars to Ristar's health.
	Yellow Jewel / Score Item (スコアアイテム)
	Worth between 100 and 1,600 points, depending on how hard it is to reach.
	Star Handle
	Ristar can swing from these to perform Meteor Strikes. Hold or depending on which direction Ristar is swinging in, then release .

Rounds

Note: the level names were changed when brought to the West.

<div class="bobtransform" style="transform:scale(1,); transform-origin:0% 0%; !important;"> <div style="width:200px; height:px;"> 200px	Round 1 - Planet Flora/Neer
	Planet Flora is the first level of Ristar, and is a generic grassland/jungle trope, with lots of vegetation similar to the flora found in Sonic games. It is pretty easy and mainly about getting used to the controls. The second area includes a darker jungle setting. Riho, the boss of Flora, is also easy to defeat. He will be possessing the planet's elder, making him attack Ristar with wind spells. Ristar has to attack the elder multiple times to shake Riho off so he can attack him.
<div class="bobtransform" style="transform:scale(1,); transform-origin:0% 0%; !important;"> <div style="width:200px; height:px;"> 200px	Round 2 - Planet Undertow/Leatow
	Planet Undertow is the aquatic ruin level where nasty fish foes are abound. This planet gives the player the opportunity to try out Ristar's underwater swimming abilities, though they should be aware that it's rather tricky to grab things here. The background in the first area, like in Planet Flora, is a bit lighter than in the second area, which is made of a totally submerged series of tunnels filled with enemies that must be defeated in order to move on, with little to no sections of dry land. The boss here is Ohsat, a hammerhead shark who mainly resides in the background to hammer pillars, and periodically swim to the foreground to attack. This is when the player can attack him.
<div class="bobtransform" style="transform:scale(1,); transform-origin:0% 0%; !important;"> <div style="width:200px; height:px;"> 200px	Round 3 - Planet Scorch/Onaclove
	Planet Scorch follows the archetype of the fiery industrial world and is considerably harder than the previous planets. The second the player lands on the planet they'll face a rain of flaming meteors which only goes away a few seconds after. Scorch also requires a high level of mastery of all the basic skills (jumping and grabbing). There's a mini-boss involving a memory game at the end of the first area. The second area has lift systems that will require the use of Ristar's arms to operate, and sections where mooks will detonate bombs and destroy the terrain. The boss is Adahan, a mole inside a robotic exoskeleton. His attacks will involve using his claws to attack Ristar directly or to send sand waves at him. After inflicting a certain number of hits, he will destroy the ground and have Ristar fall down a long shaft, taking the fight to freefall.
<div class="bobtransform" style="transform:scale(1,); transform-origin:0% 0%; !important;"> <div style="width:200px; height:px;"> 200px	Round 4 - Planet Sonata/Neuos
	Planet Sonata is considered by many players the most creative stage in Ristar—even one of the most original stage to ever appear in a platform game at that time. Sonata revolves solely around music and the level is vastly decorated in a musical theme: grabbing poles are flutes and, handholds are trumpets and enemies even launch dangerous musical notes at the player. The first area (which takes in a strangely futuristic background) is made of four sections and in each of these sections there's a very singular objective: deliver metronomes to the songbirds in order to advance through the level. The mini-boss consists of toppling three mechanical bird heads. The second area is much more related to disco/dance, especially the background music, though apparently it takes place in some kind of dark castle or chamber. Awaueck, a giant hawk, is Sonata's boss. It will take out the bird that is singing on the perch and fill the theater with its dreadful tone-deaf singing. The player must knock it off the perch in order to attack it, while watching out for its divebomb and feather attacks.
<div class="bobtransform" style="transform:scale(1,); transform-origin:0% 0%; !important;"> <div style="width:200px; height:px;"> 200px	Round 5 - Planet Freon/Elykiki
	Planet Freon is an ice planet. The first area is child's play, with lots of spinners and slippery floors. Throughout all of this area, Ristar will be closely followed by a strange alien who he'll fight at the end in a peculiar snowball fight. The second area is nowhere as easy and consists mostly of swimming around in near-frozen water. In the boss area, the strange alien who stalked Ristar during the first area will actually aid him in defeating Itamor—this is done by hurling bowls of hot soup provided by him into Itamor's mouth. Itamor attacks by tossing frozen treats at Ristar, and will periodically freeze him solid with his icy breath, then proceed to suck him up and chew on him.
<div class="bobtransform" style="transform:scale(1,); transform-origin:0% 0%; !important;"> <div style="width:200px; height:px;"> 200px	Round 6 - Planet Automaton/Rewope
	Planet Automaton, a mechanical world populated by robots, is a mixed bag: the first area is incredibly challenging with many spikes to swing over, and a section with no gravity that the player must swim through—it is also somewhat similar to mechanical levels in Sonic games like Scrap Brain Zone and Metropolis Zone. The second area is far less difficult, and instead involves the player finding crystals to power teleporters that will transport them to different rooms, each with their own puzzles to solve. Automaton's boss is Uranim, who will attack with various fighting moves and projectiles offered to him by Inonis, Greedy's right-hand man. Attacking him enough times will make him collapse, and the player will then have to avoid Inonis' claw and make it attack Uranim to inflict damage.
<div class="bobtransform" style="transform:scale(1,); transform-origin:0% 0%; !important;"> <div style="width:200px; height:px;"> 200px	Round 7 - Castle Greedy
	Castle Greedy is where the last fight with Greedy happens, although the player will still have to go through another mini-boss before him inside his spaceship.
	Bonus Stages
	In Bonus Stages, found by locating special Star Handles in each area of a Round, the player will have one minute to attain a treasure chest and collect its treasure; the first Bonus Stage is very easy and consists of only one Star Handle, but they eventually get more and more bothersome. The player only has one try for each Bonus Stage. Also, completing them very rapidly will award the player one free continue. The items in the treasure chests are useless themselves, but if the player collects enough of them, they will reveal secret passwords at the end of the game.

Passwords

Ristar allows the player 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.

The game reveals four, six-letter passwords after the ending depending on how many treasures the player has collected. Super Hard password gets revealed if the player beats the game on Hard difficulty no matter how many treasures they have.

Code	Effect
MAGURO	"ONCHI". Onchi Music mode and credits music in sound test.
MUSEUM	"BOSS". Boss Rush mode.
ILOVEU	"RD.SEL". Stage select.
DOFEEL	"ATTACK". Time Attack mode for bonus stages.
SUPER	Super Hard mode.

There a number of hidden passwords too.

History

Connections with Sonic the Hedgehog

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 the Hedgehog 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.

Legacy

Ristar 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 GameCube edition, the player must play Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Flicky, Blue Sphere, and Knuckles in Sonic 2 30 times each; in the Plus edition, they must be played 20 times each.

Versions

Version history

Main article: Ristar/Changelog.

System	Version	Size	Date	Comment	Ref	Icon
	0000040000010000010000000000004.1.1	57MB	202001092020-01-09				(info) (57.27 MB)
	0000020000000000010000000000002.0.1	46MB	201905222019-05-22				(info) (45.92 MB)
	0000020000000000000000000000002.0.0	45MB	201901312019-01-31				(info) (45.1 MB)
	0000010000020000020000000000001.2.2	44MB	201810312018-10-31				(info) (44.42 MB)
	0000010000020000010000000000001.2.1	43MB	201808062018-08-06				(info) (42.68 MB)
	0000010000010000010000000000001.1.1	49MB	201709262017-09-26				(info) (48.82 MB)
	0000010000010000000000000000001.1.0	49MB	201709052017-09-05				(info) (48.81 MB)
	0000010000000000000000000000001.0.0	53MB	201708092017-08-09				(info) (52.79 MB)
	0000040000010000010000000000004.1.1	144.9MB	202001092020-01-09
	0000020000000000020000000000002.0.2	151.6MB	201906032019-06-03
	0000020000000000010000000000002.0.1		201905222019-05-22
	0000020000000000000000000000002.0.0	143.4MB	201901312019-01-31
	0000010000020000020000000000001.2.2	139.8MB	201810312018-10-31
	0000010000020000010000000000001.2.1	133.5MB	201808062018-08-06
	0000010000010000020000000000001.1.2	179MB	201709252017-09-25
	0000010000010000010000000000001.1.1	179MB	201709052017-09-05
	0000010000000000000000000000001.0	190MB	201708092017-08-09

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Ristar	Ristar
English (US)	Ristar	Ristar
Japanese	リスター・ザ・シューティングスター	Ristar The Shooting Star

Downloadable content

Title and description	Links	Releases
Remove non-SEGA adverts		US 2017-08-09 $1.991.99 UK 2017-08-09 £1.991.99 EU 2017-08-09 €2.292.29 AU 2017-08-09 $2.992.99 US 2017-08-09 $1.991.99 UK 2017-08-09 £1.991.99 EU 2017-08-09 €2.292.29 AU 2017-08-09 $2.992.99

Production credits

- 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.

Note: 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).

Digital manuals

• 

  Steam manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Ristar/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

NL flyer

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #23: "February/March 1995" (199x-xx-xx)
also published in:

• GamePro (US) #68: "March 1995" (1995-xx-xx)
• Sega Visions (US) #24: "May 1995" (1995-xx-xx)

Artwork

• 
• 

  Sega Forever icon

• 
• 

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication Score Source Beep! MegaDrive (readers) (JP) 83 Consoles + (FR) 89 Computer & Video Games (UK) 83 79 Famitsu (JP) 73 №323, p39 GameFan (US) 93 Game Players (US) 79 GamesMaster (UK) 57 №26, p40/41 73 №77 Games World: The Magazine (UK) 83 №9, p12 Joypad (FR) 89 Mega (UK) 82 №28, p32-35 Mega Force (FR) 92 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 84 Next Generation (US) 60 Player One (FR) 90 Sega Force (SE) 73 Sega Power (UK) 74 №64, p50/51 Sega Pro (UK) 90 №41, p40/41 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) 75 Sonic the Comic (UK) 86 №46, p11 VideoGames (US) 80

	80
Based on 22 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 50 Consoles + (FR) 89 Cool Gamer (RU) 70 Computer & Video Games (UK) 83 Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U 67 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 73 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 93 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 79 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 80 GamesMaster (UK) PAL 73 Games World: The Magazine (UK) PAL 83 Joypad (FR) PAL 85 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 81 Mega (UK) PAL 82 Mega Force (FR) PAL 92 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 84 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 84 Next Generation (US) NTSC-U 50 Player One (FR) 90 Play Time (DE) 83 Power Up! (UK) 84 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 69 Sega Magazine (UK) PAL 87 Sega Power (UK) PAL 74 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 90 Sega Force (SE) 73 Sega Mega Drive Review (RU) 72 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 75 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 83 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 86 Super Juegos (ES) 93 Todo Sega (ES) 92 Top Consoles (FR) 65 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 83 Última Generación (ES) 72 Video Games (DE) PAL 72 VideoGames (US) 80

	79
Based on 37 reviews

Ristar

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, FR (Blister pack)
Cover

Mega Drive, PT

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, KR
Cover

Mega Drive, KR (alt)
Cover

Mega Drive, CZ
Cart Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 6511aa61 MD5 ecf9d0bac130fed7b6a54a67d7b27df7 SHA-1 1d15ff596dd4f3b2c1212a2e0c6e2b72f62c001e	2MB	1994-09	Cartridge (US/EU)
✔	CRC32 ce464f0e MD5 376f344f8ef5a4f8365867c9e94efb3e SHA-1 a4dd8dc0b673afe7372ba9c05c8d6090302dcf4e	2MB	1994-09	Cartridge (JP)
✔	CRC32 7c5c7a0a MD5 ed51ed819a7521f512c38146ebf0c30f SHA-1 d887378bed61a5be60664d3fe6559f78cc95d119	2MB	1994-07-01	CD-R disc				Page
✔	CRC32 6becccc9 MD5 1a85211604a4ad278fdc511e20534a0d SHA-1 85b82470e5395e96e01a7339c81b60832ea3ab1a	2MB	1994-07-18	CD-R disc				Page
✔	CRC32 4371f046 MD5 bcd30ad949ac4fb71bd74cf6ed96ea9a SHA-1 078846cd7a6f86c6fe71c95b1d13e89e66bd9b25	2MB	1994-08-12	CD-R disc				Page
✔	CRC32 d0c74fdd MD5 0cdf27d24a6b65e255e0d660a47eda53 SHA-1 a54553ffa55fbdfc43cfb61af10ca0a79683ec75	2MB	1994-08-26	CD-R disc				Page

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
• Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU
• Ristar on Steam
• Ristar on Google Play
• Ristar on iTunes: US, UK
• Ristar Cluster fansite (archived)