Good old Ristar. One of the few non-Sonic games made by Sonic Team before Sega acquired Puyo Puyo and had them develop new games for that series (Of course, Sonic Team have also made a few other non-Sonic, non-Puyo games since that acquisition, such as Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg). I never knew Ristar was called Dexstar during development. I assume his prototype name refers to his dexterity and the many things he can literally get his hands on in the game. Back when Sonic the Hedgehog was being conceived, one idea that the designers had was of a rabbit that could use its ears to pick up and throw objects. If I remember correctly, they tried re-exploring that idea when they started working on Ristar and came up with a preliminary character called Feel, who had Ristar's colours and proportions but his face was much more "rabbit-shaped" than star-shaped (Only two long points extending upwards to look like rabbit ears instead of Ristar's five points). It's possible that the idea of picking up and throwing items (and enemies) evolved into the various arm-related abilities that Ristar has in the final game. It's interesting that the English version tweaks the story slightly and adds narration in the opening where there wasn't any in the Japanese version (Quite the opposite of what happened with some other games of the time when they were localised, i.e. any scenes with narration and/or dialogue were either shortened or removed entirely, like Jerry Boy/Smart Ball and Dynamite Headdy), and I find it funny that the localisers decided to make Ristar and some other characters look "hardcore" by giving them angry eyes and replacing Ristar's smile with a scowl. I'm not sure why the Game Gear version added a load of ring-/coin-like Stars to collect other than to give the player more lives. That version isn't really any harder than the 16-bit version. Fun fact: The characters, enemies and bosses in Ristar were designed by the same guy who designed and illustrated the major Sonic characters in the Sonic Adventure, Advance and Rush games.
If this game got on the Saturn, it would have a sequel by now..... Or they can do one right now. The game is starting to get more popular, so an HD remake would be great!
Oh man i forgot about the gamegear version. I played it on some compilation disc before cant remember which. Maybe one of the sonic collections? Gamegear version is super impressive given the hardware. This game on all versions is incredible. The graphics dont just look good, the color is INSANE. I was just playing it on the genesis mini 2 on my qled tv. While the mini doesnt have hdr, the qled still improves sdr and i was just blown away by the color in space. Truly amazing.
@@Soulintent95 I don't remember any collection having the game gear version. unless they hid it in the ultimate genesis collection but I don't remember that having any game gear games.
Es muy buen juego, a finales ya de la época de las 16bit, ese año salio la psx. Decir que la animación del personaje es la misma , en version JP y USA, unicamente cuando el protagonista está parado, en USA tiene gesto enfadado, y JP sonriente, eso es así, porque Japon, perdió la II guerra mundial, y demuestran su sumisión al gran imperio yanqui. POr dios, son estrategias de marketing, nada más, ya en japon por mediados de los 90, comenzaron a tener la piel de mantequilla y se ofendían por tonterías. Pero solo responde a estrategias de marketing. Gran video nen.
@@tomasjurogutierrez2294 si nos ponemos minuciosos, entonces tienes razón que el 3 de diciembre del 1994 salió en JAPON, pero en el resto del mundo... Diciembre, ultimos mes del año. Fue lanzado en Japón el 3 de diciembre de 1994, en América del Norte el 9 de septiembre de 1995, en Europa el 29 de septiembre de 1995 y en Australia el 15 de noviembre de 1995. Como consola de quinta generación, PlayStation compitió principalmente con Nintendo 64 y el Sega Saturn.
The prototype is really interesting, how they originally wanted to call him Dexstar. I don't know which one I prefer really, the prototype has a nice and encouraging opening screen throwing in the "Lets get energized!" slogan at the bottom. Really cool.
@@reillywalker195 The same thing happened with at least one game that was exclusively released on a Nintendo console. When Whirlo was brought out of Japan, the main character's sprite was modified to have a perpetually angry-looking face, even when said character is supposed to be friendly or polite in some of the cutscenes.
Back then, since the US had a very strong market and Japan really wanted to make sure their games would appeal, they often would convert the characters to appear angerier or tougher when they were otherwise "Cutesy". Though comparing the graphics, it seems to only affect Ristar's idle animations as he still seems to glare when he walks, but it did work in making Ristar appear stronger....despite being an infant. XD KIrby was the same often protrayed as more mature and tougher until the 2000s where they merged the canons and revealed he's really more like an infant.
@Enriquito445 you didn't have to respond then I have ristar and the game isn't just what people said it would be the mechanics just isn't fun and not fast it's very slow pace game you can't even jump on top of enemies which I don't like
