Why should ristar be the mascot of the Genesis, not the sound

Ristar celebrates its 30th anniversary today (February 16, 2025). Below, we prove that despite Sonic's breakthrough celebrity, Ristar is really worthy of being the face of SEGA.

It is fair to say that Mario is likely to always sit on the throne, the most iconic video game mascot ever, but Sonic the Hedgehog will certainly bring him the effort, which makes him Back to the 90s money. Blue blurred cute'tude and Flister speed makes him a cultural figure in the super Nintendo and Sega Genesis era, and you can even say his signature speed defines the idea of ​​a Sega console in the minds of the average gamer. That said, Genesis Fanatic is clear that Sonic isn't even the best platform star on his own console. This honor belongs to Ristar, who succumbed to triumph like a coward 30 years ago, so he could stay on the treadmill and emerge with endless mediocre derivatives without substance or new ideas.

OK, that's a little harsh on Sonic – it's not his fault that Sega has lost his goal with his game since about the turn of the century, but there are some notable exceptions. But while Sonic's signature speed and beautiful soft aesthetic never completely transitions to 3D, the indie platformer similar to the mechanic is similar to Ristar, from the gravity of VVVVVV to the gravity of the non-jump yellow taxi, thus continuing Attract audiences. In this way, Ristar was a rocking star before his time, and unfortunately Sega didn't realize it.

For those unfamiliar, ristar is a brief but sweet platform classic released by Sega during the fall of Genesis in 1995. Promote yourself through its many colorful worlds. The game features various creative boss battles, with a decisive battle with the invisible Kaiser Greedy, who kidnapped Ristar's father and took him away from the prisoner.

You would think that first-party SEGA games of this quality will get at least a sequel, and that observation is at the heart of Ristar’s biggest problem: timing. Sonic won the day when Sega asked its staff to create a Mario mascot, but there were a lot of ideas left on the drawing table. One of them isFeeling a rabbit“A primitive prototype that is spinning into a silly-looking cartoon character that ends up becoming ristar. By the time the game is actually released, critical and commercial gazes are on the cutting-edge sega Saturn, which keeps our dexterity stars A friend who was wandering around.

When I compare classic games like the original Sonic The Hedgehog Trilogy and Ristar, I think it is illuminating to observe the game “verbs” that are available to players. Essentially, what are you actually doing in the game? It's easy to enjoy the style and flow of the original sound trilogy, but they're very overwhelmed in terms of verb counting: each button jumps and your scrolling is great, but not particularly useful. This is a big part of why Sonic is transitioning to the third dimension: You don't do a lot in his race besides running and jumping.

Ristar, by contrast, relies heavily on one of its unique mechanics, but the game maximizes it. You can extend those stretched arms out eight directions, which makes for a breed of battle and larger enemy. One of the basic moves of your character is the ability to climb up any wall vertically at the right time, which is hard to master, but it's satisfying when you finally pull it away. It has another memorable mechanic who swings in the form of a glowing pole for power and then shoots in the direction you choose. ristar is invincible in the initial velocity surge, but becomes vulnerable when he slows down, so you have to aim at him to avoid unnecessary hits.

Both Sonic and Ristar have excellent level designs, but I will give our celebrity friends the edge in the category. The stage of ristar is just full of creativity. From the pulsating underwater classes to the metronome puzzles of the musical planet sonata, each level of the game has new twists and mechanics for you to wrap your stretch gloves. Ristar has a core element that Blue Blur only really figures out meaningful rewards in Sonic 3. Each level has a hidden treasure that you can enter through a teleport pole hidden somewhere in the environment. Given that the stages of ristar are often multi-artificial and require vertical thinking, it's unlikely that you'll find all of this in the first playback.

Ristar’s unfortunate timing may have cost IT commercial success, but it does give it a key advantage: it gets the most mileage from the console. It's the most complete audio-visual experience in Genesis, with an impressive orchestral soundtrack that matches anything from SNES, beautiful elves work and boss designs that feel straight from a great Saturday morning Stand out of the cartoon. It's a feast of the senses you won't forget, especially the memorable horizontal transition sequence, Ristar explodes from planet to planet in a mesmerizing light show when one of my favorite video game tracks of all time.

The final argument for ristar to support Sonic is perhaps the most obvious: When was the last time you really liked Sonic games? Sure, Sonic is a great marketing, but it took less than a decade for his exterior cracks to show. When guessing the appearance of a 3D Ristar game, let's consider the modest grapple hook, perhaps the most common gaming mechanic in the past 10 years. It's easy to imagine an exploration-centric ristar with a lot of rock climbing and struggles, similar to what we've seen in Jusant or even Sonic Frontiers. Of course, in today's independent market, the Sega has plenty of room to jump on a 2D aircraft to reinvent Ristar, but this seems relatively unlikely at this juncture. Still, the remakes these days are still stylish, and this is definitely a major candidate for nostalgic Genesis fans.

Sonic may be an indelible part of pop culture in the 90s, but I can’t help but ask if Sega put more juice behind some cute star instead of narrowly focusing on its golden goose, that would have happened What. We will never know if ristar has the same potential to enter pop culture, but in my case, there is no doubt what a better game is, which does matter.