more positive reviews over a decade later upon being re-released digitally and as part of Sonic and Sega themed game compilations. IGN gave the Virtual Console version an 8 out of 10, praising the game's graphics, music, and gameplay, and closed with saying "platformer fans would do well to give this one a look". GameSpot praised the Virtual Console release as well, especially its graphics, stating: "Visually, the developers made the best of the system's limited color palette and employed every graphical trick they could to make the game look snazzy. Ristar and his enemies have a good variety of animations, but what you'll probably notice the most are the colorful, multilayered backgrounds that constantly flaunt animated details in the form of moving clouds, falling debris, and rampaging creatures that have a habit of hurling things at you from a distance". NintendoLife scored it at 9/10 and referred to the game as one of the best of the system in regards to graphics, animation, and gameplay, writing: "Ristar proves that taking a radical approach to play control in a platformer can sometimes really pay off in the end. Not only did Sonic Team create a game that easily differentiates itself from their Sonic the Hedgehog series, they've also come up with some of the most unique game play ideas to come out of the 16-bit era and a game that's every bit as much fun to play today as it was almost 15 years ago when it was first released". 1UP.com referred to the game as "excellent" and referred to it as the "most entertaining" of the four non-Sonic games in Sonic Mega Collection. AllGame echoed the sentiment, referred to it as "being as good if not better than any of the included Sonic games in Sonic Mega Collection and as "an overlooked gem" as part of Sega Genesis Collection". Entertainment Weekly was less positive in their review, giving it a B− review score due to the perceived redundancy and recycling of ideas from the Sonic series. In a retrospective piece by Levi Buchanan of IGN, he praised the graphics and gameplay as being great for the aging Sega Genesis, but also asserted that the platform hurt the game's ability to succeed with sales and visibility: "Ristar never stood a chance. The game was released in early 1995, just as the videogame world was moving on to the next generation