Is Ristar Worth Remembering?

 As I combed through the Sega Genesis Classics Collection on my Switch, I say a large number of titles that started and ended their runs on the console. Some like Gunstar Heroes, Streets Of Rage, And Golden Axe would get a few more entries but some ended their stories on the console where they began. One title that caught my eye was Ristar, though getting many ports and added to many collections over the years including this one. This series has only seen one entry, released right before SEGA was transitioning to the 32X, many say this game was swept under the new consoles release to catch notice, should it be remembered? Let's find out.

This game has you in control a star with arms and legs who must defend the galaxy from evil space pirates named Ristar. You go from planet to planet doing a stage or two, defeating a mini boss, and then facing the main boss before moving on. You can take a few hits that can be replenished and you can get a score based on a few different factors, and with the version I played there was also saving and a rewind function. Ristars main abilities are slowly walking, jumping, but mostly reaching and grabbing. By doing the last part of the list he can swing around, climb walls, grab and throw enimies, launch himself into enimies, swim better, and much more, and this mechanic is what the game is built around. You walk super slow, and your jump is super weighed down, the game expects you to focus mostly on traversing via grabbing most things, whether it be a part of the stage or the enimies. Due to that the game is designed around it in a mixed bag state, some stages really work well with the reaching and grabbing but others not so much. 

Some stages spam enimies that are tricky to deal with, and the pace can feel very sluggish as you try to traverse the stages. Some hazards are found off stage and many of the stages with their gimmicks whether it be swimming, a trampoline or a sliding section, or in later stages both with enimies galore many stages feel very slow and full of trail and error. The game is short but it feels like a slog very quickly, though visually appealing, the gameplay can be fun at times but is also all over the place. 

The music was a mixed bag as well, with some pieces being energetic fun and others being rather forgettable. The stages are the same, they look very nice but they all kind of blend in together, they are all bright and colorful and sometimes have only slight differences despite being different worlds. This game sounds okay but looks pretty good for the time it was made in but it also really weighed down by the gameplay issues.

In the end I had an okay time, and if you have a collection with this game you could give it a try, it is not a super long game if you find yourself curious to find out, but this gameplay is very slow and sometimes boring. It is either full of trial and error, fun, or slowly advancing through nice environments but ones that can overstay their welcomes. The length is short and long at the same time so I do recommend using save states and not trying to play all the way through this one in one sitting despite not being the longest game. This mascot might do well with a full HD remake or modern take with the same ideas, there are some fun ideas here just not executed the best, but if Alex Kidd can come back who knows, maybe this stare will be given a chance to shine once again someday.

Final Score: 2.5/5 (Middle Of The Road, Fair Amount Of Good And Bad)