Ristar Classic 4+

Start been my childhood in 2016 on the iPhone 10 and that was a pretty long time I played it I was having a hard time with the D pad but I realize there was a joystick arcade one so I put on but in weeks later it was pretty hard to use so I used the D pad which is really easy to use for me because I’m an iPad and if you’re playing on phone make your D pad or buttons bigger got it so you have to get this because this is the best game I ever had for my phone or I will say iPad it’s really original contact I know the history his name used to be called feel it’s a dumb name right but that’s all bye the end

This game runs abysmally on my iPod 5, iPad 3, and iPhone 5C, with an abundance of slowdown, frame-tearing, and audio-popping. I already have this game on my Nintendo Wii, but the image just isn't as sharp as it would be through an HDMI signal. I'm 100% certain that the A8 chip in the Apple TV is more than enough to properly run this at a stable 60fps.

Edit: Had to reduce this from 3-star to 2-star. I decommissioned my iPhone 5C and made a 3-generation leap to the iPhone SE, but even jumping from the A6 to the A9, the game still suffers from stuttering, frame-tearing, and audio-popping. It has become abundantly clear to me that the emulation software in Sega Forever is inferior to that of unofficial Genesis emulators for Android/Windows, and will run poorly on the A8 chip in the Apple TV (4th-gen) and even the A11 Bionic chip in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. Sega Forever is a 2016 ARM-architecture Genesis emulator being outclassed by the Nintendo Wii’s “Virtual Console”—a 2007 PowerPC-architecture Genesis emulator. Nintendo has proven with the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch that ARM devices can run stable, accurate emulation of older consoles, making Sega Forever even more insulting.

I suggest that Sega either patch each and every one of these games to be of the same standard as the 3D Classics line for Nintendo 3DS, or abandon the Sega Forever project altogether.

Ristar has been a fantastic game to discover and play through. It has a very endearing art style and was something not remotely on my radar. When I found it I was very impressed by the creativity and the care that went into the original game.

Giving it three stars because of two glaring issues with the game:

-1 star: The over-saturation of ads in the game. I’m not exaggerating it’s one of the worst ad formats I’ve ever seen in a game. Start the game? watch an ad. Save your progress after each level? Watch an ad to do that. Want to go back to your level after watching the ad to save your progress? Watch an ad. I don’t feel very sympathetic to this poor design given it’s Sega, a very successful gaming corporation, and not an indie developer who may need the increased ad revenue.

-1 star: The controls are also laughably bad. I get that it’s never easy to port a game onto mobile but this handles way worse than I often have patience for.

At the end of the day, it’s a very flawed port of what I would say is a strong original game for the Sega Genesis. There’s plenty of enjoyment to be found as there’s a lot of care went into the 1995 product. The port itself is about as lazy as it can get. You could probably get through the game if you have enough patience, nostalgia or appreciation for the creativity.