strangely i’ve been playing the game for years but only beat it on the day of this review and in a single sitting lol. i’ve always loved this game ever since i played it way back in 2015 for the first time and since then ive always been striving to beat it at least once. now i can officially say i completed ristar.

game’s got some p cool ideas and mechanics. i like how fundamentally it’s comparative to sonic but in practice it’s vastly different. you have a somewhat limited toolbox but what makes the game fun and interesting is the levels’ usage of said tools. it’s an ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ mentality. shit controls and feels really good especially when you know what you’re doing.
artistically this game’s got style tenfold. love the different locales and their atmosphere only complimented by their music. the lush green world is accompanied by an upbeat track, the ancient water world is accompanied by a mellow soft beat. shit like this is all over and contextualizes things p nicely.
this was a joy to play all the way through, but maybe i’m biased cuz i’ve been playing this one for so long idk. one of my fav platformers. special thanks to radicalraisin for gifting an original copy to me.