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Ristar has some of the most spectacular and varied bosses I’ve ever experienced in a sidescrolling platformer. Though they aren’t all hits (such as Scorch’s somewhat irritating Simon Say’s sub boss) the five bosses below will remain some of the most memorable experiences I’ve had on the Genesis (and Game Gear), Ristar’s rogues gallery has some star players that are worth highlighting
While Vectorman‘s variety helps it to stand apart, there are instances were BlueSky Software missteps. Certain mini-levels, which take on the form of scrollable boss fights, rely heavily on trial and error, switching up the gameplay suddenly and giving you little chance to figure out exactly what you’re expected to do as these fairly unforgiving sections eat up your lives.
One of the selling points for Comix Zone was always its art style. While there were plenty of games based on comic book IPs, none of them really embraced the feel of a comic book’s panel layout the way Comix Zone did.
You know the development team tried their best when the race starts and Ristar is cheerfully waving the flag. Each of the courses is a visual treat that will certainly make gamers smile. The various transformations that take place in real time make it even more exciting to look at.
The character’s got “SEGA Mascot” written all over him, right down to the way he grooves to his music as he soars in his spaceship at the start of Vectorman 2. His character design’s also inspired, his body looking like it consists of tiny spheres being magically held together. This allows him to transform into pretty much anything, and the possibilities for this in a 3D game are so endless that I’m amazed nobody’s tried it yet.
“I had way more pressure on me working on Kid Chameleon,” Steve Woita recalls, “because the game was unknown at the time, so we had to prove to marketing and everybody else that we thought we had a good game our hands. It’s always extremely difficult to do an original game idea and hardly any of them make it to the market place, so there was extra pressure because nobody outside of our development group knew what we were doing and if it would sell.”
Sega : What would your ideal VectorMan game look and feel like today?Rich Karpp : I’d be torn between wanting a 2D throwback to the original games (but with modern conveniences), similar to Sonic Mania, and wanting a more modern 3D game like the latest Ratchet & Clank game. In either case, the game would have to run at 60FPS, feature improved animation blending and IK, and have some unique special effects to set it apart. Also, it would have to have more effort put into its story; I find myself drawn to games with more narrative content these days.
“One of the OCD characteristics of my personality is I never give up! When I was trying to convince Sega about Ecco the Dolphin it took me years to get them to bite. There are some challenges I need to overcome but eventually, there will be a new Ecco!"
A game has three key aspects: the graphics, the music, and “playability.” The success of a game is almost guaranteed thanks to trifecta. If all three elements are of good quality, or better yet, of excellent quality, the game will have an important impact. None of them should overshadow the others, or the game will not be successful.
”As our discussions progressed, we realized if this is a STG game, we’ve got to have options! But traditional Gradius-style options really tied us into using robots in the setting… Somewhere along the way, someone came up with the image of a girl leading a host of weird beasts into battle, and we all thought this was a really cool idea, and the game gradually took shape into the fantasy game it is today.”
Sega-16: You were recently involved with an indie game called FX Unit Yuki: Henshin Engine that was released for the PC-Engine, Genesis, and Dreamcast. How did that come about?Chris Tang : I did the writing for (Secret character from Strike Blazinger) Valiya’s story campaign which called upon some of the skills from my work at Capcom where I would rewrite dialogue into “idea chunks” that would flow well and fit into character-limited spaces and not have awkward dashes and sentence breaks. It’s something that’s not thought of or done too often in modern games since limited screen space isn’t such an issue anymore, but I think that condensing ideas effectively is a great writing skill to practice in any situation.
Smash TV is probably the main influence in terms of the game flow, but the controls are more like Shock Troopers’, and the overall feel/theme was influenced by Mercs, Outzone, The Chaos Engine, and Alien Syndrome. You’ll probably notice elements from other titles though such as Granada, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Alien Breed, Robotron, Contra, Doom, Resident Evil, Skeleton Krew and many more.
