Ristar

Ristar is Sonic Team's forgotten child — and perhaps their most beautiful. Born from a concept originally meant to become Sonic (a character using extendable arms to grab), Ristar arrived in 1995 when the world was already looking elsewhere: PlayStation and Saturn were on the market, the Mega Drive was declining. It was a commercial tragedy and an artistic triumph. The gameplay mechanic was unique: Ristar didn't jump on enemies but grabbed them with elastic arms, slammed them, clung to walls and poles to launch into the air. Each planet had a completely different visual and mechanical theme — water, music, ice, fire — with bosses requiring specific grab-based strategies. Graphics were among the most beautiful ever seen on Mega Drive: saturated colors, fluid animations, multi-layer parallax creating impossible depth. Naofumi Hataya's soundtrack mixed jazz, funk and world music with a variety few era games could boast. Ristar deserved Sonic's success. It didn't get it because it arrived at the funeral of the console hosting it.