90s Sega icon Ristar is 30 years old and fans are demanding a new game

Dedicated Ristar fans are still holding out for a sequel 30 years later, especially after Sega acknowledged the game’s birthday on its socials.

After years of thoroughly neglecting most of its older franchises, Sega is finally looking to revive some of them in a big way in the coming years, including via new games and various movie adaptations.

Its first Shinobi game since 2011 – Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance – is scheduled to launch this August, while the company has yet to share further details on its various other revivals, which includes new entries for Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, and Virtua Fighter.

Not every retro Sega IP is set to receive the same treatment though, and for this month at least, Sega fans are promoting Ristar as their pick for a game that needs a sequel, in honour of its 30th anniversary.

For anyone unfamiliar with Ristar, it’s a 2D platformer developed and published by Sega for the company’s Mega Drive console in 1995. Its title character is an anthropomorphic yellow star whose defining gimmick was his elastic arms, which he could stretch in eight different directions.

Whereas the Sonic The Hedgehog games are all about speeding and jumping through levels as fast as possible, Ristar’s platforming is more methodical and revolves around using Ristar’s stretchy arms to grab, climb, and swing through levels. Although there are instances where Ristar can propel himself at high speeds for a short time, maintaining momentum by bouncing off the walls and ceiling.

Ristar saw strong reviews back when it came out and holds up very well nowadays. Unfortunately, despite the positive reception, Ristar never saw any sequels or follow-ups besides a Game Gear version that launched around the same time and featured different levels.

This can partially be attributed to how, by the time Ristar released in February 1995, the Mega Drive and Game Gear were on their way out. The Sega Saturn and Sony’s PlayStation were already available, heralding a new era of 3D games that completely overshadowed Ristar, hampering its chances of becoming an ongoing series.

The game has seen numerous re-releases over the years, thanks to various Sega themed compilations, like the Sega Mega Drive Classics collection, and it was one of the first Mega Drive games to be added to the Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack subscription service.

Ristar the character has made the occasional cameo in other Sega games, although his most recent appearance was as the flagman in 2012’s Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, so he’s been MIA for well over a decade at this point.

Even so, Sega must have a soft spot for Ristar because it commissioned a new piece of art to celebrate the game’s 30th anniversary. With over 17,000 likes on X and a further 2,700 likes on Bluesky, it seems lots of people remember Ristar fondly, with many comments on both sites asking for a sequel.

The odds of it happening probably aren’t that high but if Sega’s revival projects prove successful, perhaps the company can be encouraged to drag Ristar out of retirement and give him a modern reimagining.

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