History VideoGame / Ristar

* BandLand: Planet Sonata, which is made of giant musical instruments and inhabited by sapient musical instruments and CoolShades-wearing avians.

* DoesNotLikeSpam: The Japanese manual states Ristar dislikes bitter food

Despite being frequently listed as such, it isn't known if Sonic Team was responsible for the development of the game. Many of the game's staff members have previously worked on other projects such as ''VideoGame/SonicCD'' and ''VideoGame/KnucklesChaotix'', with Hiroshi Kubota being the only staff member of the original ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'' credited in the game. Many of the game's staff would go on to contribute to games that would officially bare the Sonic Team branding, such as ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams'' ''VideoGame/BurningRangers'' and ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure''.

''Ristar'' (known as ''Ristar the Shooting Star'' in Japanese) is a quirky little Creator/{{Sega}} {{platform game}} about a (literal) star-man on a mission to free his solar system from the clutches of a [[SpacePirates space pirate]] appropriately named Greedy. It boasts lush graphics that do as much as they possibly can with the Mega Drive/Genesis's capability, an excellent soundtrack, and innovative gameplay mechanics: Ristar has stretchy arms like rubber bands, and he uses these to perform a host of actions, including latching onto surfaces at any angle, slingshotting himself into enemies, and grabbing, swinging around, and flying off of poles. ''Ristar'' made an appearance on both the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and the UsefulNotes/GameGear, as well being re-released for later platforms, such as the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole.

* AscendedExtra: ''Ristar'' itself became this when it was rescued from obscurity and made an unlockable game in ''Sonic Mega Collection''. The character became this in the ''VideoGame/SegaSuperstars'' series where he went from making a blink and you miss it cameo in the Death Egg to being the flag waver in the second racing game, replacing [=NiGHTS=].

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The star handles. The trick is they can send you very far if you're spinning really fast, but then it's harder to time it for the angle you want.
* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: Ohsat, the end boss of Planet Undertow.

* AllThereInTheManual: The planet's Ristar visits and all some personality quirks about Ristar and the enemies he faces

** When Ristar takes a hit with one hit point left, the final star falls off the health meter and hits him on the head, killing him. Planet Sonata supplies two musical examples. The first stage on that planet starts with suspiciously minimalistic-sounding background music, and as you proceed through the level you wake up sleeping birds who sing, and by doing this you gradually create the stage's true background music. Also, while the boss of Sonata, Auweck, is singing, the background music becomes distorted.
** The game loves the music distortion effect so much that one of the cheat passwords allows you to unlock this effect for ''all'' the songs in the sound test.

''Ristar'' (known as ''Ristar the Shooting Star'' in Japanese) is a quirky little Creator/{{Sega}} {{platform game}} by Creator/SonicTeam about a (literal) star-man on a mission to free his solar system from the clutches of a [[SpacePirates space pirate]] appropriately named Greedy. It boasts lush graphics that do as much as they possibly can with the Mega Drive/Genesis's capability, an excellent soundtrack, and innovative gameplay mechanics: Ristar has stretchy arms like rubber bands, and he uses these to perform a host of actions, including latching onto surfaces at any angle, slingshotting himself into enemies, and grabbing, swinging around, and flying off of poles. ''Ristar'' made an appearance on both the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and the UsefulNotes/GameGear, as well being re-released for later platforms, such as the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the manual, it mentions that Planet Rewope/Automaton is where the research into the Black Hole technology is being conducted by Inonis and Uranim. Come to the final boss at Castle Greedy, and Greedy is using a black hole to suck you in

* OneUp: Collecting 100 stars or 30,000 points will give you an extra life.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Probably unintentional, but depending on how you look at it, Ristar's signature attack of headbutting into his foes can look a little bit like a KissOfDeath, or possibly even like something a bit more... intimate.

* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Ristar is a little round ball with cylindrical limbs, WhiteGloves, a star-shaped yellow face, and huge eyes. And his voice is a childlike squeak. Additionally, as noted above, the English version of the game gives him his angry/serious eyebrows at all times. For some, this may backfire and make him look even cuter.

* AscendedExtra: ''Ristar'' itself became this when it was rescued from obscurity and made an unlockable game in ''Sonic Mega Collection''. The character became this in the ''VideoGame/SegaSuperstars'' series where he went from making a blink and you miss it cameo in the Death Egg to being the flag waver in the second racing game.

* BubblyClouds: The first section of the Game Gear-exclusive Planet Terra takes place on giant clouds and [[EverythingsBetterWithRainbows rainbows]] in the sky, [[NoExportForYou but only in the Japanese version]], [[DubNameChange where it is instead called Planet Fanturn]]. Non-Japanese releases drop this section and has you start the planet out in its GangplankGalleon, instead, making the entire level shorter as a result.

* GangplankGalleon: Planet Terra in the Game Gear version takes place on a pirate ship. In the Japanese version, this is the second half of Planet Fanturn, as the first half takes place in BubblyClouds ([[NoExportForYou which can't be played outside of the Japanese version for some reason]]).

If that funny little yellow thing in the picture looks familiar, it should. ''Ristar'' derives from the same original character model (a kind of rabbit thing with prehensile ears) as Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog, before he became a hedgehog. If you pay attention to the game's art style and soundtrack, you can see some other similarities to the ''Sonic'' series besides the protagonist's appearance. Although this game never took off the way its estranged relative did (it didn't even get a sequel), it's still widely considered to be an excellent game.

** Ristar ended up getting this treatment in a single game even more than Kirby himself has across his whole series. The cute and cuddly alien was edited to look like a scowling badass in pursuit of revenge in the U.S./PAL versions. He's still pretty cheerful in the cover art and title screen, but his sprite is much more aggressive: Ristar's angry eyebrows, originally only present in the boss fights, are always present in the English version, and look ''even angrier'' when he confronts a boss. Several enemies were exited to have meaner expressions, too.

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Ristar, with all of his similarities [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} to the Nintendo character]] [[TropeNamer of which this trope was named after]], ended up getting this treatment in a single game even more than Kirby himself has across several of his own games.
** Ristar's angry eyebrows, originally only present in the boss fights, are always present in the English version, and actually look ''even meaner'' than when he faces a boss. Several enemies have meaner expressions, too.

* NoExportForYou: ''Very'' {{downplayed}}. The first half of Planet Terra (Fanturn) is not accessible outside of the Japanese Game Gear version, making the second level much shorter than most others.

%%* IdleAnimation: One for each world.

* IdleAnimation: One for each world.

* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Ristar can be seen as Creator/{{Sega}}'s equivalent to Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s Franchise/{{Kirby}}. Both Ristar and Kirby are small, spherical {{Badass Adorable}}s that are associated with stars, and are capable of traveling to different planets with ease. Both characters have even gotten [[AmericanKirbyIsHardcore slightly modified to look tougher and meaner in the Western releases of their games to in an attempt to downplay their cuteness]].

''Ristar'' (known as ''Ristar the Shooting Star'' in Japanese) is a quirky little Creator/{{Sega}} {{platform game}} by Creator/SonicTeam about a (literal) star-man on a mission to free his solar system from the clutches of a [[SpacePirates space pirate]] appropriately named Greedy. It boasts lush graphics that do as much as they possibly can with the Mega Drive/Genesis's capability, an excellent soundtrack, and innovative gameplay mechanics: Ristar has stretchy arms like rubber bands, and he uses these to perform a host of actions, including latching onto surfaces at any angle, slingshotting himself into enemies, and grabbing, swinging around, and flying off of poles. ''Ristar'' made an appearance on both the Sega Mega Drive and the Game Gear, and more recently has shown up on the Wii Virtual Console.