Reception
Reception for the game has been largely positive. On release, Famitsu magazine scored the Mega Drive version of the game a 29 out of 40, and rated the Game Gear version a 25 out of 40. While it didn't receive much attention upon its initial release due to Sega's shifting from the Sega Genesis to the Sega Saturn video game consoles, leaving the game behind, it did garner positive reviews in its later re-releases. IGN gave the Virtual Console version an 8 out of 10, praising the game's graphics, music, and gameplay, and closed with saying "platformer fans would do well to give this one a look" Gamespot praised the game as well, especially its graphics, stating, "Visually, the developers made the best of the system's limited color palette and employed every graphical trick they could to make the game look snazzy. Ristar and his enemies have a good variety of animations, but what you'll probably notice the most are the colorful, multilayered backgrounds that constantly flaunt animated details in the form of moving clouds, falling debris, and rampaging creatures that have a habit of hurling things at you from a distance."
Sega Official Magazine gave the game's original release an 87% rating, praising the gameplay, graphics, and music, but complaining that the game lacked some originality and borrowed a lot from other platforming games at the time, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Dynamite Headdy, and Earthworm Jim. Sheffer of the First Battalion gave the game a fairly positive review mentioning it's "quite the hidden gem", and that Sega "truly went the extra mile for the pixel art of this game".
The Game Gear version received even less attention due to the Game Gear system itself struggling in sales. Additionally, it has not received as many re-releases as the Genesis version. However, it has been described as "... not quite as fun or visually interesting as the original version but is still colorful and quite playable. Furthermore, enough new segments and features have been added that it feels significantly distinct from the original Genesis release."
Read more about this topic: Ristar
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