Ristar vs Sparkster
Table of Contents
Intro
Let’s talk about Sonic the Hedgehog. True, nowadays he’s not that special. He’s pathetic even. Nowadays, he’s more known for Internet cringe than any of his games. But back in the 90’s it was a different story. He had hype. He was the Mario-killer, he was the Bart Simpson of the video game world, he was on Nick Arcade.
He was so big he became the mold for video game characters to come. Everyone had to be a little guy with attitude. Remember Gex the Gecko? Bubsy the Bobcat? Jazz the Jackrabbit?
And today we’re going to have the two greatest Sonic clones fight each other, both near and dear to my inner 90’s kid.
It’s Sparkster the Opossum vs Ristar the Star!
What, you didn’t know Stars are living creatures?
You never saw Andromeda?
I can’t blame you. Farscape was better…
Also, for those keeping up with Capeworld Stories (and you are, righttttt?), Thrust sounds like Sparkster’s rocket pack when she flies and Tanya sounds like Ristar’s meteor strike move when she flies. That’s some bonus lore for the hardcore fans. I love each and every one of you.
Ristar
“Play with me?”
“Come on!”
Click here for a playthrough of Ristar.
In the far-off Valdi system, the space pirate Kaiser Greedy unleashes a swarm of black orbs which invade the inhabited planets of the solar system, possessing the champions and leaders of the planets.
Do you remember Digimon? Digimon used that plot allllll the time.
As Greedy’s forces tear apart the planet Flora, it’s inhabitants send a desperate plea to the stars for someone, anyone, to save them.
Here is where the Japanese and International versions diverge. In the Japanese version, the plea is heard by Oruto, Ristar’s mother, who summons her son who is napping in a capsule in a green ocean somewhere out in space. Weird, but it’s probably really comfy to nap in a glowing space ocean. In the International version, the plea is heard directly by Ristar. What’s more, Ristar’s nameless dad replaces Oruto and is somehow kidnapped by Greedy prior to the game starting. We never get a good look at Ristar’s dad. We only get to see his hands in the ending and going by them he’s way closer to actually being star-sized than his son.
Regardless of how the story starts, it plays out the same way. Ristar goes from planet-to-planet beating the evil out of their leaders (literally beating the black orbs of evil out of them) and restoring order using his elatsic arms.
What? You don’t think elastic arms are star themed? You think Ristar should have light or fire powers or something? Well, keep in mind that after grabbing an foe or object, Ristar shoots himself forward like a rubber band…or like a shooting star, you might say!
Is his name pronounced “wrist-er,” as in the character’s grab mechanic, or is it pronounced “rye-star?” I’ve looked around the internet, and I haven’t been able to find a satisfactory answer. I’m going to go with “rye-star” because it just plain sounds better. “Wrist-er” sounds like something on a late-night informercial, like some kind of tchotchke you put on your arm to prevent muscle strain. And hey, the dude’s a star, okay? He’s not an “er.”
Released in 1995, Ristar got a bad break. The Genesis was nearing the end of its life. People overlooked Ristar not because it wasn’t good, much to the contrary, it’s in the top-five Genesis games easily, but because they were busy looking forward to the next generation of consoles.
The origin of Ristar goes all the way back to when Sega brainstormed their Mario-killing mascot. One of their ideas was a rabbit character who could stretch their ears to grab enemies and pick up objects, but they decided the concept was too experimental and went with something simpler–a character who could curl into a ball to collide into enemies.
And that’s why this timeline has Sonic the Hedgehog and the timeline-next-door has Rapid the Rabbit.
Sega liked the rabbit concept too much to abandon it entirely, so they put a pin in it and waited. Eventually, the concept evolved into Feel, a character with stretching arms. You can think of Feel as Ristar’s Kal-L.
Feel was kind of…lacking in the design department. I mean, what is he? But you can see how it wasn’t that much of a stretch (ha!) to turn him into Ristar. Really all they did was add some angles to his face to turn him into a star.
I love this game. Am I biased? Am I wearing nostalgia glasses? Yeah. I got some great memories of renting Ristar from Blockbuster.
But in this case, the nostalgia is justified. Ristar still holds up. It’s pacing is perfect. Each planet has two levels and then a boss. Gimmicks are introduced and then moved past before they can become stale. The main gimmick of the reaching out and Feel-ing enemies and objects is used to its fullest potential. You’ll be extending arms to fight, traverse gaps, steal objects, catch rides, reach hard-to-get treasures, shake trees, ground pound, etc, etc. No mechanic is wasted. Even the idle animation is used to defeat a mini-boss at one point. The bosses are colorful and memorable. The music kicks so much ass. I said it before and I’ll say it again–Ristar is in the top-five greatest Genesis games. It’s in the top-five greatest Genesis games easily.
The fundamentals aren’t only great, but the game has polish. In an age where games are almost expected to be shipped unfinished, its refreshing to see a game made by people that clearly gave a damn. Ristar makes little clouds of stardust when he jumps, his idle animation changes by the planet, and when you get to the final boss he has a little spy camera follow you as you climb his tower just because that’s a very cool supervillain thing to do. And Ristar’s got a great personality. It’s subtle, but it’s there. He’s got a little attitude like Sonic, because of course he does, he’s a Sonic clone, but he tones it down. He’s more playful than cocky. One of his idle animations has him make a snowman. “Come on!” and “Play with me?” are his quotes. He’s the good kid to Sonic’s bad kid.
Fun character, fun game.
Now go play it, you zoomer!
But What About The Other Game?
Okay, time for some deep lore.
Ristar was released on both the Genesis and the Game Gear, and for you zoomers out there the Game Gear was Sega’s version of the Game Boy.
Click here for a playthrough of the Game Gear version.
In the Game Gear version, there are two different levels–a pirate ship themed planet where you fight a tapir at the end (I don’t get the theme either) and an ice planet where you fight Reader Rabbit at the end (I think these were worlds left on the cutting room floor when they made the Genesis version).
There’s no scene where Ristar headbutts a planet or anything like that. If you want to get the Ristar experience, you can skip the Game Gear version, and if you want to debate Ristar in who-would-win fights, you can skip the Game Gear version.
Just skip it.
Ristar Cameos
Time has not been kind to Ristar. It seems that out of all their characters, Sega wants to bury Ristar the most. Are they ashamed because he underperformed? It’s not fair. Ristar had one chance and blew it not because he didn’t have a good game but because he was released just as the Genesis was on its way out.
Sonic keeps getting games even when they continue to flop, so if he can keep getting chances, why can’t Ristar have just one more?
Ristar never had a sequel. He appeared as collectible gachapon toy in Shenmue I and II along with fellow hyper-obscure Sega characters like Rent-a-Hero and Bonanza Bros. When Sega decided to make their own Mario Kart clone in 2012 with Sega All-Star Racing, a lot of characters got in: Ecco the Dolphin, the Crazy Taxi Guy, the Red Sonja Clone from Golden Axe…
But not Ristar.
They put in Banjo-Kazooie. They put in Ralph from Wreck-it-Ralph. They put in fucking Yogcast and Danica Patrick.
But not Ristar.
People were understandably pissed by the snub and after some heat, Sega put in Ristar…as a cameo. In a DLC race track. He waves at you as you go by, his little heart no doubt shattering in his little chest.
People were still pissed, so in the sequel they put him in…as the flag waver.
People get pissed when their favorite character gets announced for Smash as a costume. Imagine if your favorite character was announced as the ring girl.
Sega why? Why Sega? I’m not saying I expect Sega to push for him to get in the next Smash Bros, but we shouldn’t have to wish on a star for the little guy to get some respect.
Ristar’s Powers and Abilities
Starchild
Ristar is a starchild, but not a starchild like this or like that. He can survive the rigors of outer space and doesn’t need air to breathe, making his water levels as fun as Sonic’s are frustrating. Strangely, lava hurts him and ice is painful for him to touch, making him recoil when he tries to grab it, even though temperatures in outer space get much hotter than lava and much colder than ice.
Videogame physics. Go figure.
Stretching Arms
Ristar’s bread-and-butter is an 8-way grab using elastic arms. When he grabs something, he holds on as long as you keep the button pressed down, meaning you can psychologically torture your victims as they await what happens when you let go of the button–a headbutt tackle that can make enemies bounce across the screen like one of those rubber balls thrown by a kid with no sense of motor control.
It’s incredibly satisfying.
Meteor Strike
Ristar’s “super-move” is accomplished by grabbing “star wheels” scattered across the stage and making rotations to build momentum. Build up enough momentum and Ristar will rocket forth as a shooting star powerful enough to break through rock and reach places Ristar wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach.
Who left all this gym equipment lying around? Probably the same guy that put ramps and rings everywhere in Sonic’s world. Probably the same guy that left a pommel horse in the village of the crazies.
God bless that guy.
Ristar’s Stats
Ristar’s Strength
–Ristar’s maximum number of hitpoints is 4, which only makes him slightly more durable than poor Pulseman.
–That being said, the little guy is durable enough to fling himself across planets like he’s Tom Strange.
–Ristar’s bread-and-butter is a headbutt move, though given that he’s all-head, it’s more like a full-body slam. Hm…maybe I should’ve had him fight Pac-Man…anyway, this headbutt is strong enough to beat up a giant shark, a giant robot, a giant bird, and a tiny mole in giant power armor.
–How hard can Ristar grip things? He was able to resist the pull of Greedy’s black holes by grabbing a minion and holding on. Am I suggesting Ristar is able to resist a real-life black hole? Of course not, this is a Swan-wank free blog! If it was like a real-life black hole Greedy’s entire castle would have been sucked into it. All I’m saying is that Ristar’s got some serious grip strength.
–How hard can Ristar headbutt? Pretty damn hard. He finishes off the boss Itamor by headbutting him so hard he goes flying and crashes into his floating castle in the background. The castle is hit so hard that it falls into the ocean below and sinks. Itamor must have hit its flotation ring.
Ristar’s Speed
–Ristar is pretty slow for a platformer character. This was an intentional design decision as you’re suppose to rely on your arms to maneuver around a level. If Ristar operated like Mario/Sonic and moved around a level by building up speed to make jumps of varying force, it would’ve take a lot of utility out of his big gimmick.
–Through the use of special end-of-level star handles, Ristar is able to pull off a meteor strike so powerful he uses it to travel from planet-to-planet. Note that he only gets these star handles at the end of a level, meaning he’s not going to get one against Sparkster. He’s not going to be able to hit Sparkster like an FTL railgun. Ristar doesn’t beat his bosses by plowing through them on his way through the stratosphere and its only fair he fight Sparkster like he fights his bosses.
Sparkster
“WHA!?!?!”
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…you’ve heard this before, but now add furries.
No wait. No. Nevermind. You don’t have to “add” furries. Not anymore.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away on the planet Elhorn, the great ruler El Zephyrus, first monarch of the Zephyrus Kingdom, sealed away the ultimate weapon of the evil Devotindos Empire, an enormous warship called the Pig Star (and you thought I was just being cheeky with the Star Wars joke?).
Generations pass. The world is at peace with the Pig Star sitting inert in outer space, and this peace is maintained by Zephyrus’ rocket knights. The greatest of the rocket knights, their leader, their Rom if you would, is Sparkster.
He sounds like he should look like Ristar, doesn’t he? Like you can see it–Ristar but the star points are crinkled a little to look like lightning bolts. That’s a real Sparkster.
Sparkster’s appointment to head rocket knight wasn’t without drama. It pissed off rival rocket knight Axel Gear, whose name is really too cool for a little Opossum dude to have, so much that he did to Sparkster’s master Mifune Sanjuro what Epstein didn’t do to himself. Sparkster didn’t execute Axel for this, but instead banished him from the kingdom.
Damn Sparkster, tone down the chivalry. King Arthur was going to burn Guinevere at the stake for cheating on him and Axel killed your master. The usual response to that in fiction is not banishment.
Banishing Axel Gear would prove to be a huge mistake.
Axel went to the Devontindos Empire and became the #1 minion to their leader Emperor Devilgus. He tells Devilgus that the royal family of Zephyrus knows how to lift the seal placed on the Pig Star (why would you ever create a magic seal that can be lifted? What, were they thinking about refurbishing the Pig Star as the Opossum Star?). Devilgus sends an army led by Axel to raid Zephyrus, kidnap princess Sherry, and force her to tell them how to unlock the Pig Star!
Sparkster has to chase Axel down Double Dragon style and save the princess before she can spill the beans. Of course, you arrive just as they find out she herself is the key and use her to unlock the Pig Star.
What? People don’t put a Death Star in a game for you not to fight it!
I love this game. Am I biased? Am I wearing nostalgia glasses? Yeah. I got some great memories of renting Rocket Knight Adventures from Blockbuster.
Remember Blockbuster?
But in this case, the nostalgia is justified. Rocket Knight Adventures still holds up. It’s pacing is perfect.
Wait…did I say all this already?
Yeah. Rocket Knight Adventures is another easy pick for top-five Sega Genesis games. If I had to sum up what makes the game great in a word it would be frantic. The game is frantic in the best possible sense of the word. Set pieces and gimmicks go by at a breakneck speed. Have you ever found yourself hating a game because it stays way too long on a gimmick you don’t like? Say an ice level where you slide around all over the place? Rocket Knight Adventures has so much energy and so much creativity in its scenes that you don’t have to worry about getting bogged down on a bad gimmick. If you don’t like one gimmick, it’ll soon be replaced by something new.
You’ll go from fighting pigs in chicken walker mechs to pig ninjas that camouflage with the background to a pig tank that fights you on a bridge and then on a waterfall. Then you enter a Gradius side scroller section (because Konami) where you fight a robot dragon as your rocket pack blows spray over a lake (I think this might have been my favorite video game moment ever as a kid. It’s still one of my favorite video game moments as an adult). Then you crash into a castle that’s on fire and you have to climb to the top racing the flames along the way like the first level of TMNT Arcade. And then you fight a giant robot spider.
And this is all just level one.
Frantic in the best sense, just like I said.
And for a Sonic clone, Sparkster is pretty damn charming. He emotes really well. When you use your rocket pack and stop in the air he freaks out as he free-falls. When something startling happens like a pig soldier jumping out of a random present (the game has a great sense of humor) he screams like a little girl. When he ducks he covers his head. He’s a little scared of the bad guys, a little shy of the princess, and his ‘tude manifests less in tapping his foot impatiently like Sonic and more a go-get-em’ eagerness. Just look at his idle animation, he’s so happy just to be an opossum with a rocket pack, and you’re happy to play an opossum with a rocket pack!
Now go and play his game, you zoomer!
But What About The Other Games?
Sparkster’s had three games after Rocket Knight Adventures. The first was the SNES game Sparkster, and though you might think it’s just a port of Rocket Knight Adventures, you’d be wrong. It’s a completely different game with a completely different plot. Instead of fighting pigs, you’re fighting Z-grade Thundercats and their general Lyoness (snicker snicker). Instead of rescuing princess Shelly, you’re rescuing princess Flora. The game isn’t in continuity with Rocket Knight Adventures according to the Internet, so it’s not going to be considered for this match. It’s Sparkster is from the same Earth-2 universe as Feel.
Still, if you want to see a playthrough of the game, click here.
The second game was Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 for the Sega Genesis, and this was an actual sequel, though the Sparkster here plays and acts very differently from the Sparksters in the previous games. This one feels like the alternate continuity version.
Rocket Knight Adventures 2…isn’t a bad game, but it’s not Rocket Knight Adventures. They upped Sparkster’s Sonic-ness with this installment and he feels a lot less unique compared to his previous version. He started as a speedy blue cartoon mammal with a spin attack, but now his helmet’s off and he’s got spiky hair and way more ‘tude. He doesn’t do pratfalls, doesn’t get surprised and scream like a girl, doesn’t cover his head when he ducks, and doesn’t freak out when his rocket pack conks out mid-air.
He also has a golden supermode triggered by collecting 7 magic swords hidden throughout the levels.
Oh yes, this game has chaos emeralds. We’ve gone full-Sonic.
The plot of the game is that Axel Gear is now in the employ of King Gedol and the Gedol Empire (be honest, wouldn’t you name your empire after yourself?). They’re not pigs this time but lizards, but they want the same thing–to absolutely curbstomp the opossums. With the Pig Star off the table, they instead have Axel kidnap princess Cherry, the cousin of princess Sherry, in the hopes that she knows the locations of the other plot device–7 magic swords that grant their owner superpowers.
Yeah, it’s kind of the same plot as the first game but not as good.
Remember how I said that Sparkster no longer freaked out when his rocket pack stops? That’s more than just an ill-made change to characterization, that’s a change to the gameplay–and for the better, actually. The game revamped the rocket pack mechanics. They’re now much more important and much easier to use. The pack charges faster, charges through two levels, and you can chain bursts in mid-air. If you have enough overhead coverage, you can stay airborne indefinitely.
The devs banked heavily on the rocket pack mechanics to the point that your energy beam is taken away to incentivize using the dash attack more. I think they did a great job. The rocket pack if very fun to use, but unfortunately, there’s more wrong with the game than Sparkster’s characterization. The game has far less of the frantic energy of the first. It’s as if the devs focused on perfecting the rocket pack mechanics to the detriment of making sure you had cool levels in which to use the revamped mechanics. There are a few tiring dry spells in the game. For instance, while the airship level in the first game was a high point, the airship level in this game is a drag because it’s way too cramped for you to really cut loose with the new rocket pack mechanics.
And the game has one of the worst collect-100-coins-get-a-prize mechanics I’ve ever seen. If you collect enough gems, you spin a roulette, and prizes include a bomb that materializes right next to you. Imagine Mario but every 100 coins has a chance of spawning a goomba next to you. It would be frustrating, right? The roulette odds change by difficulty levels and at the harder levels the bomb odds are so stacked against you you’re better off avoiding gems altogether.
But you want to know the worst thing about the game?
They replaced the rocket pack sound effect.
They had the perfect rocket pack sound effect and they threw it away. The fools!
I still recommend playing the game, just play it after the first one.
The third game is simply titled Rocket Knight and came out not that long ago in 2010.
I wasn’t a fan.
Characters don’t emote like in the older games. The artstyle is way too loose and sloppy, everything looks cheap. The levels are too big and feel empty, and it makes everything Sparkster does feel without impact. When you take off in Rocket Knight Adventures, it feels like you’re taking off in a rocket pack. When you take off in Rocket Knight, it just feels like you hop. The bosses also suck. They suck so hard compared to the older bosses, there’s nothing creative to them at all. The final boss is similar to the first miniboss you fight in the second level of Rocket Knight Adventures.
I don’t recommend it. At all. I put it down a few levels in and haven’t gone back.
Click here to see a playthrough of the game.
Sparkster’s Cameos
Konami was much nicer to Sparkster than Sega was to Ristar.
Sparkster shows up in Snatcher attending a strip club called Outer Heaven along with several other Konami characters like the Contra Dudes and Goemon. You know, he never struck me as the type to go to a strip club, code of chivalry and all that. I guess you never can tell with some guys.
He appears as a selectable character in Konami Krazy Kart Racers (see Sega, was that so hard?) and New International Track and Field, showing that Konami respects the little dude as much as they do Simon Belmont and Solid Snake.
His most bizarre cameo is either in the wrestling game Power Pro Wrestling ’96: Max Voltage or in the medieval fantasy dating sim Mitsumete Knight. In the wrestling game, he shows up as…basically Hulk Hogan with goggles on his heads. God only knows what he’d look like if he showed up in Rumble Roses. In the dating sim, he shows up as a guy that runs a secret shop and you fight him in a secret boss fight and if you win he gives you a secret item and I don’t know much about it, because it’s a dating sim, and I got too much dignity to really research it.
I don’t care if the main character did something stupid like cut a swan in half and Sparkster scales to him because they fought, I’m not using it. My boy wins clean or he doesn’t win at all.
There’s a fun little rivalry going on between Sparkster and the Contra Dudes behind the scenes of both series. In Contra: Shattered Soldier, there’s a secret ending where the Contra Dudes are attacked by Sparkster, and in Rocket Knight, there’s a secret ending where the Contra Dudes return the favor and attack Sparkster.
What caused this rivalry? What dark secret lies at the heart of the Sparkster-Contra Dudes feud?
I think someone stiffed someone on the tab at Outer Heaven…
Sparkster’s Powers and Abilities
Magic Sword
Every fantasy knight worth his salt has a magic sword. You simply can’t expect people to take you seriously if you’re swinging around a stick of cold iron, it’s got to made of orichalcum or sleg or something, or its got to shoot lasers or fire energy beams.
In the first game, Sparkster’s sword could shoot short energy waves. He lost this ability in the second game, likely to force the player to rely more on the revamped rocket pack mechanics, and instead his sword became covered in fire with each swing. I still feel comfortable in giving Sparkster the ability to shoot energy waves. It’s not a game-changer, and when things aren’t game-changers, I feel like they should be allowed in.
Rocket Knight brought back the energy waves in the form of fireball projectiles and upgraded it with a chargeable beam that fires across the entire screen.
Sparkster’s sword has cleaved through mechs of all kinds–little cherry-picker chicken walkers, big robots with Vectorman arms, and robots that turn into spaceships. He’s even sliced a giant lizard-king’s head in two. And not once has he ever had to sharpen his sword!
Rocket Pack
The gizmo that puts the rocket in Rocket Knight, Sparkster’s rocket pack works on spurts unless he consumes a power core object which allows him to fly for a limited time, even into outer space. You hold down a button and when the bar fills up you release it, and Sparkster flies in one of eight directions. Ristar has an eight way grab, Sparkster has an eight way dash. If Sparkster hits a wall, he bounces, and you use this in a few levels to get to hard-to-reach areas.
Sparkster holds his sword out when he flies, so you can cut through enemies. It’s really satisfying when you cut clean through a bad guy and come out the other side (try it on the tank boss from the first level), but Sparkster isn’t like Cannonball from the New Mutants (Ahm invincible when ahm blastin!). He’s got some I-frames, but be careful about how you use the rocket pack.
The second game upgraded the rocket pack and made it a more important gimmick overall. It charged faster and could charge to two levels. The first was the dash from the first game, but the second was a dash with an energy shield that carried you further and dealt more damage.
If you use the rocket pack while standing still, you spin, because Sonic clone, remember? This spin isn’t very useful in the first game, but in the second where your rocket charges faster it becomes more viable as a weapon. However, Rocket Knight Adventures 2 revealed that he can’t spin out of a grab. When a big snake robot grabs him, he can’t do anything but get thrown.
Opossum Tail
But of course, he’s an opossum!
Though it’s of negligible importance in a fight, Sparkster can support himself, armor and all, with his tail.
He looks so cute when he hangs upside down.
Sparkster Mech
In the first game, Sparkster briefly steals a rock-em-sock-em-robot inspired pig mech and uses it to box Axel in his own mech. Sparkster apparently took a liking to the mech, because in the second game he has his own opossum mech painted in his colors.
This mech isn’t exactly Escaflowne. It can punch, and since it has crazy Vectorman arms it can kind of throw a quasi-rocket punch, but…that’s it. It punches. Punch punch punch! It’s also got a huge weakness–it can’t do anything to enemies behind it. You’d think those Vectorman arms would be able to pinwheel, but no.
It’s more like Sparkster’s cool ride than something he relies on to win.
Golden Sparkster
The second game substantially increased Sparkster’s Sonic-ness. Not only did he get more ‘tude, but he got his own golden supermode activated by collecting 7 plot device objects hidden throughout the stages.
The power of seven magic swords (the game manual calls them sword fragments, but let’s get real, they’re swords) transforms Sparkster into Golden Sparkster…but in case you’re thinking this turns Sparkster into an invincible living comet, curb your enthusiasm, frantic one.
Golden Sparkster is the Go-bots to Super Sonic’s Transformers.
Golden Sparkster deals twice the damage of regular Sparkster and his rocket pack charges faster. That’s…it. That’s really it. No invincibility. It doesn’t even decrease the amount of damage you receive.
On the positive side, Golden Sparkster isn’t on a timer. Once Sparkster activates it, he stays Golden Sparkster. He only turns back to normal when he returns the power to the swords.
Sparkster’s Stats
Sparkster’s Strength
–Smashed through a castle wall and the wall of an armored airship without harm.
–Scales to Axel, who took out a wall of the Pig Star with his own rocket dash attack.
–Unharmed by the mini-tornadoes from Rocket Knight Adventures 2’s desert stage.
–As Golden Sparkster, cuts a giant King Gedol’s face in half with one blow.
–Was unharmed by a giant mech punching him across a city.
Sparkster’s Speed
–Is able to fly to the Pig Star out in space. Do note however that the Pig Star isn’t too far away from the planet and it takes Sparkster an entire level to reach it. Ristar travels to other planets in seconds.
–Is highly mobile with his rocket pack, though he can only use it in spurts without a power core. In Rocket Knight Adventures 2, Sparkster’s rocket pack gets upgraded so that, if you know what you’re doing and have the overhead clearance, you can stay in the air indefinitely without a power core.
So Who Wins?
Sparkster sees stars and gets grounded.
If we allow Ristar his end-of-level planetary speeds, it’s not a contest, it’s a jet vs a comet. Ristar bumps into Sparkster, Sparkster goes down. Boom bang.
If we don’t allow Ristar to go full shooting star mode, the fight becomes closer, but Ristar still wins.
In terms of durability, it’s hard to say who has the edge. Sparkster has a bigger health bar, but his health bar works on different rules from Ristar’s. For Ristar, any hit, be it a hit from a shrimp (literally a shrimp in the case of the water level) or a tidal wave of lava, drains a star. But Sparkster loses hearts based on the intensity of the attack. Bumping into a generic pig soldier takes off half a heart, but getting hit by something like the fire plumes from the castle level drains several hearts. Ultimately, I’m going to give the durability advantage to Ristar. The guy catapults himself across planets. He takes on g-forces that could probably liquify Sparkster.
Sparkster’s greatest asset in this fight is his speed and maneuverability. Ristar is a slow poke compared to Sparkster, but the problem is, Sparkster doesn’t have an effective ranged attack. The energy wave from his sword only goes a little ways before it dissipates and the energy beam from Rocket Knight has to be charged. To reliably attack Ristar, he’s going to have to get close to Ristar, and that’s very, very bad because Ristar is way stronger than him.
Sparkster was able to tear down a castle wall, but Ristar was able to tear down a castle…and the island it was floating on. Ristar only needs to get his hands on Sparkster once, and Ristar is very good at getting his hands on opponents. Remember, Sparkster can’t use his spin move to break out of grabs. If a robot snake with hands could grab him and toss him, Ristar should be able to do the same.
Are you familiar with bear vs bull fights? You’ve probably heard the term bear vs bull markets. The term comes from people actually making bears and bulls fight each other in the 19th century. The bull would be faster and more aggressive while the bear would be defensive and reactive. It was fast charges vs slow grabs, but the bear typically won, because while the bull might have to gore the bear several times to win, the bear really only needed to grab the bull once to win.
That’s this fight. Sparkster is the bull, Ristar is the bear.
Sparkster’s mech isn’t going to do much other than delay the inevitable. It’ll go down like a mini-boss before the final boss. Golden Sparkster looks cool, but it doesn’t do much for the durability and strength gap.
Poor Sparkster. Going into this, I thought he would win when I started this match, but after reviewing both characters I have to give it to Ristar. Sparkster can’t spin out of Ristar’s grab, he can’t attack from outside of Ristar’s grab range accept by using a charge attack, and he goes down if Ristar hits him with one castle-level headbutt.
At least the poor opossum won’t be turned into roadkill. This blog does characters vs characters, not powersets vs powersets, and Ristar is no killer. Even Greedy ended up stuck on an asteroid, not dead.
I think this could be a really fun fight with the right choreography. It could be a neat little slapstick brawl. Just think about it. Sparkster freaks out when he jukes a grab and sees Ristar snap a tree in half, then Ristar freaks out when he grabs Sparkster and Sparkster takes him for a rocket ride. Ristar headbutts the ground to stun Sparkster so he can catch him and headbutt him out of a castle window, Sparkster comes back through the wall with his mech. But eventually, it’ll come down to Golden Sparkster’s rocket pack dash vs Sparkster using a bar found in the castle wreckage to meteor strike, and the meteor strike is going to win and send Sparkster bouncing around the screen like any one of Ristar’s bosses.
Sparkster stands up, because he’s a hero, but he’s totally out of gas and Ristar jumps the slow energy wave to grab and headbutt him in a reference to Adahan. A star wheel appears as it always does when Ristar beats a boss and Ristar takes off while little stars gather around Sparkster’s head.
That’s the kind of fight I’d love to see.
I’ll probably never see it, because if Death Battle does option the fight they’d probably have Ristar tackle Sparkster into the sun after spinning with him on a star wheel until Sparkster turns into a red slurry of blood and gore.
Still, one can dream…
Better luck next time, little dude.
I really wish Death Battle would include more Sega characters. Sega’s more than just Sonic. I’d kill to see Mike Haggar vs Axel Stone or Tyris Flare vs Blaze Fielding.
Speaking of Golden Axe, I’m surprised you haven’t done any fights involving Golden Axe characters yet. It seems right up your alley, with you being a Sega fan and also a fan of cheesy 80’s sword and sorcery flicks. It’d be fun to see.
Great blog! Your enthusiasm for these series made it very entertaining.