Game:

Ristar (1995)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 3:56:29

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Ristar, released as Ristar the Shooting Star in Japan, is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear and Sega Master System in 1995. A Sega Mega-CD and 32X game of the same name and genre, Ristar, was also released, which shared similar themes while possessing different level design and gameplay mechanics.

The game stars an anthropomorphic cartoon star who uses his hands and long, stretchable arms to both move and combat enemies. Reception for the game has been generally positive, but the game's initial release was overshadowed due to the imminent ending of the Genesis's lifecycle and the succession of the Sega Saturn and other fifth generation video game consoles. While never receiving any sequels, Sega has re-released the game a number of times digitally and on Sega-themed compilations, and has occasionally given Ristar himself cameos in other Sega properties.

A number of small changes were made in localizing the version released for English speaking countries. In all versions of the game, the events take place in the Valdi System, where an evil space pirate, Kaiser Greedy, has used mind control to make the planets' leaders obey him. In the Japanese version, the inhabitants of Planet Neer (Flora in the English-language version) pray for a hero before Greedy's mind control minion, Rhio, snatches the planet elder. 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 the brainwashed leaders of each world in the galaxy to restore peace to the galaxy. In the English-language version, Oruto is omitted altogether. Instead, Ristar has a father figure, the Legendary Hero, who is a shooting star that protects the Valdi System. Rather than Oruto awakening Ristar, the Legendary Hero was kidnapped by Greedy, and it is up to Ristar to rescue his father as well. The story was altered slightly; in the Japanese version, a Star Goddess, Oruto, summons Ristar's help, where in the English version, Oruto is omitted completely, and Ristar's father, a "Legendary Hero", is referenced instead. The boss of the ice themed level, Itamor, was changed from a large cat robot to an ice monster. In the game, Ristar must grab hot dishes of food, and throw it in Itamor's mouth. In Japan, it was considered clever to use hot food to defeat a cat, due to a Japanese culture reference regarding a "cat-tongue" not liking hot food. In English-speaking regions, that reference is non-existent, so it was changed to a cold ice monster being defeated by being melted by hot food. The rest of the changes were very minor edits in effort to appeal to western audiences, such as minor graphical changes to make Ristar and other character's faces look more serious, renaming levels to names more descriptive of their looks, and adding a few non-interactive scenes to show more continuity in the game, such as a skiing sequence before level 5, or putting on anti-gravity shoes to explain why Ristar is floating in level 6. The Japanese version of the game ends with Greedy, and two underlings, Iounus and Uranium, stranded on a deserted planet, with a picture of Ristar appearing in the space, while Greedy simply stares at it. The ending scene shown in the English shows Ristar being re-united with his father once again.

Played on Hard difficulty. There is a password-unlocked extra difficulty mode, SUPER or SUPERB. It is like Hard but all hidden items are replaced with enemies (which is why I didn’t play on it), so the player doesn’t usually get any extra hit points and no extra lives.

In this longplay, I find all treasure and try to collect all hidden items, including those respawning within a reasonable range after I visit a bonus stage. I also take my time to show animations, explore levels, and demonstrate all bosses’ abilities, however, I forgot to show that you can switch the lights on at the end of Level 1-2 by bumping into treetops. After beating the game, I show the passwords as well as continue and game over screens.

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