RISTAR SECRET GUIDE for Sega Genesis Copyright William Walker. Do not sell for a profit. e-mail J-D-Walker@worldnet.att.net Special thanks to Jess Regan, who also made a guide on this game. Violence: very little Difficulty: (from 1-10) 6 PART I: FINDING BONUS STAGES 1-1: Shortly before the mid-boss, you'll find a handle in the air that you can spin around if you grab it. Then hold the direction you were facing when you grabbed it to go super fast. Time your release of B perfectly so you shoot off up/right. If you do it at just the right time you can reach some floating platforms. Go right jumping from platform to platform until you find another spinner. Grab it to go to the bonus stage. 1-2: Take the high path from the start, and once you knock down two trees (the second one with handles on the bottom) jump up and at the top of a tree jump and grab a bat that drops spiked balls. Don't head-butt him yet, instead hold b and you'll be carried right. When you reach a floating platform, head-butt him and land on the platform. Then ride another bat, to a place with a blue star, diving chicken, and the special spinner. 2-1: After the stage floods go left to an island in the upper left corner. The spinner is above it. 2-2: After you get through the underground caves and are back at the surface, jump onto the rocky ledge on the right with a starfish that grabs you. Drop into the water to drown him, and then jump back to the rocks. Wait for the bubbles to rise from the water, and jump using them as stepping stones. They disappear when touched, so jump fast. Use them to reach a floating platform with the spinner. You can use the same technique at the beginning to get a 1-UP. 3-1: After the big fire tries to engulf you (grab the handles above to avoid it) you'll find a series of fire pits. There's a vulture here. One of the pits has a spinner in it. Grab it and shoot up and a little bit right. There's a floating platform up there with the spinner above it. 3-2: Take the low path until you find a spinner above some fires. To the right here is a blue star. Use the spinner to flip up to a 1000 point gem by shooting up/left, and grab a 1-UP in the upper right corner. Then shoot straight up to the very top, and grab the pole. Above it is the spinner in the upper left corner. 4-1: When delivering the second metronome and after you cross the spikes (use the pincers to get the metronome over) and getting it up on the second fan then you'll find a pathway right. To the right are some spikes, and beyond them is the songbird. Kill the orbot, and get onto the platform by grabbing the handle on the edge. Jump to a floating platform above it, and then jump right, grab the handle on the edge of the alcove (it takes several tries) and grab the spinner. 4-2: When going through the drum part, you'll find a place where there's a spiked shaft with a star above it. To the right are some poles with green horns on them. Drop down the shaft, and grab the pole to the right of the drum at the bottom (grab at the right time or you'll grab the spikes and take damage). Once in the area on the right with two small shafts with spikes at the top, bounce up and grab the sides to avoid hitting the spikes. After the second shaft you find the spinner. 5-1: This one's tough. Take the highest possible path from the very start, and don't fall down. You can't fall down and get back up, so you have only one chance. This is one of the toughest bonus stages. When you find some blue things that collapse when you touch them, and with some ice droppers above, jump over them and jump and grab the handle on the top of the wall on the right. Climb up, and grab the spinner. 5-2: When you find the ice slides that are in the pyramid shape, and there's a orbot below that'll hurt you if you miss a jump, when you reach the top jump onto the last slide on the left column. >From here, instead of jumping to the next one, when you land quickly jump over the edge and you'll jump left. Grab the pole and then grab the spinner, in the upper left corner of this area. This one's pretty tough. 6-1: While wearing the anti-gravity shoes, but before you enter the column with spiked poles which is very hard, go left instead. When you find a room that you can't go up to the top of, jump and grab the left wall. Then, diagonally grab a higher spot, and in this way climb the wall by steadily grabbing it. Go past the wall droid, and at the top grab the orbot and swing over to the platform. Then grab the handles on the right, and climb up to the spinner. 6-2: Wear the end of the stage, you'll find a room shaped like an upper-case L. To the right is a transporter that you can reach by using the spinner to shoot over the spikes. Instead, shoot up and zig-zag back and forth. At the top, climb the left wall using the same thing you did in 6-1, and then grab the orbot, and swing over to a transporter that takes you to the room with the spinner. PART II: GETTING TREASURES 1-1: Grab the spinner and shoot up and a little right or left. Or, climb either wall like you do in 6-1 and 6-2 to reach the spinners. Land on the center platform with a magic star treasure. 1-2: There's some glowing pads here, and you've got to grab them in succession. The horizontal ones can be stood on. You've got to time your grabs perfectly. At the top, you'll find a crystal apple treasure. 2-1: Swim to the bottom right corner, and head-butt the chest to reveal an oyster treasure. It'll move around the room, and you've got to swim to where it'll come and time a grab perfectly to snag it. 2-2: Jump out of the water and grab the lowest spinner. There's a lot of spinners here, but if you shoot up and a little right you can reach the platform in the upper left corner without using any other handles. On it is a teapot treasure. 3-1: Grab the handles in succession, making your way through the gauntlet. If you miss a grab, you'll fall onto spikes, which speeds up the timer. In the bottom right corner is a flaming sword treasure. 3-2: Grab the first spinner and shoot right, then grab another spinner before you hit the spikes on the floor, and shoot right again. At the far right is a fire pot treasure. 4-1: This is a hard one. When you grab a chest it disappears, and you've got to grab chests in succession so you can jump up to the top row. If you miss a grab, you will have to climb up another way, and will need to use some chests for standing on. also try to use a little preplanning. Once on the top, jump and grab the handles on the top, and then climb right, and at the end of the handles grab the red pad, and a bell treasure is yours. If you fall, you're done for. 4-2: Here there's some pads which bounce you up. You've got to bounce over towers with spikes on them. Be careful. Remember if you hit spikes the timer speeds up. At the far right you'll find a bass clef statue treasure. 5-1: Jump to go down the slide, and once on the lower slide jump and grab the red pad. Then turn around and grab the pad again, and this time go back left on the same slide. Jump over the little rise, as it'll stop you and make you go the other way. Then slide left to a gem flavored ice cream treasure. 5-2: This is one of the hardest ones to get. First you've got to jump into a hole between tow slides, which is tough. Assuming you don't run out of time right then and there, you'll find yourself in an underwater channel with spikes. Swim at normal speed to avoid hitting spikes, and go carefully. On the other side jump out of the water to a slide, then jump to another slide. You should be almost out of time now. Climb the left wall, and then fall and grab the tiny red pad. Once on top of it, jump right to finally get a diamond treasure. 6-1: Bounce on the pads in succession, until you reach the top. Then grab the red pad, swing over to the other side, and drop down, this time timing your grab perfectly so you grab the pad and swing over to the next shaft before you hit the bouncy pad which sends you back up. At the bottom you'll find a golden machine piece treasure. 6-2: This one is very hard. You must grab a wall just below the purple gem on the surface above, and then diagonally grab the wall just above at the perfect time. You must also know how to climb walls. At the end (if you get there) grab the platforms one by one, and on the last one make a grab at the red pad, and jump over to an ancient diamond treasure. It's very hard to do. Good luck. PART III: DEFEATING BOSSES Flora mid-boss: The first mid-boss is a giant snake that appears in one hole, and moves to another hole. Moving between the cells is accomplished by grabbing the vines. You must bash him three times to beat him. It's difficult to get a good shot off, but with a little patience, strategy and luck you'll beat him in no time. Flora boss: Riho is easy. Just head-butt him three times from below and the monkey on his back falls off. Head-butt it once, and repeat this three times to win. Just watch out for the whirlwinds and snowflakes he drops. Undertow mid-boss: A series of water creatures will rise up, and then fall back down. Bash them each once and prepare for the next attack. Watch out for things they drop on you. The fish are the worst as they drop the most stuff. Undertow boss: Ohsat will swim back and forth, and can't hurt you. When he swims off the screen he might do an attack: release some ancient fish, release some jellyfish bombs, or drop rocks. The latter is the most common, but you can avoid it be swimming to the side of the screen. The other thing he can do is swim onto the screen from one side, pink. He'll try to ram you, but just head-butt him (can by tricky). After four head-butts he's toast. Scorch mid-boss: Orbot eyes will appear in the holes. When their bodies appear, bash them in the order their eyes appeared. If you are wrong, you'll be roasted by the flames below. Try using a pencil and paper. Each time it gets faster and there are more orbots. Don't forget to grab the 1-UP after finishing. Scorch boss: I found Adahan to be pretty hard. After reaching him stay on the side, as he'll burst out of the center. If he floats in the corner, you must wait until he fires both arms and then try to bash him before he hits the ground. If he lands, he'll either shoot his arms at you or release a ground wave. Jump over whatever he does and head-butt him. After two hits you'll go down a shaft. You can only get out by hitting Adahan once - he'll appear above you, and then move down toward you. Bash him but don't let him hit you. After one hit you'll have to repeat this procedure again, hitting him three more times. Then hit the red mole and you're outta there! Sonata mid-boss: Three bird heads will be above you. Stand next to one of them, and when it slams the ground, hit it. They're only vulnerable when they slam the ground, and each takes three bashes to destroy. When the orbots come across the screen in a wave, stand under them when they go up. Sonata boss: Awaueck will land on the perch, and shoot or drop blue notes at you, and they hurt you. Also watch out for stuff falling from the ceiling. Head-butt his perch three times to knock him off. He now will try to drop on you, dive-bomb you, or rain feathers on you. If you've taken any damage avoid his attacks until a star appears. Or, just head-butt him twice and he'll go back to the perch. Repeat three times and he's a bad memory. Freon mid-boss: The alien creature will hold a bomb in front of him, so jump and bop the top half of him. Then proceed to the snowball fight. Stand still until a snowball appears in front of you, and the grab it and throw it at the creature, while avoiding the snowballs he throws at you. He's only vulnerable when he's holding a snowball over his head, and is about to throw it, so your timing must be perfect. Three hits sends beats him. Freon boss: Itamor is really tough. His attacks are throwing ice blocks at you, freezing you in ice, and eating you. When that same alien you beat before appears, grab the pizza he's holding. Then, time your throw perfectly so it lands it Itamor's mouth when it opens just after he stops chewing. It's similar to how you beat Wart in SMB2. If the pizza hits the ground you'll lose it. If you succeed he'll leap up above the screen. Stay a little bit to the right of his shadow, and when he lands and bounces back right, run under him. After four pizzas he's done for. Good luck. Automation mid-boss: A group of orbots will challenge you here. In each attack formation you've got to bash the leader orbot with a helmet. Doing this results in them moving on to another attack. If you bop another orbot it turns black and can't hurt you. Each one is tricky and requires some luck. Luckily if you die (which happens several times) you can start back here. Good luck - this is the toughest mid-boss. The attack formations are fall, circle, cross and single shoot. In single shoot, avoid or bash all the orbots as they are fired at you and bash the leader when he fires. Automation boss: This one's easy. Uranim will do all kinds of attacks, most of which involving throwing things at you. Just bash him, and keep bashing him and you'll be safe from his attacks. Never let up and never hit the floor. Keep bashing him until he's stunned. Then the pincers above try to drop on you. Jump over Uranim as they come, so that Uranim, the pincers and you form a straight line up. This way the pincers will try to hit you and hit Uranim instead. Bash him again, and keep this up until he is toast. You'll see Greedy's space cruiser launch. Space cruiser mid-boss: This one's a big robot that was a big cord on the back, and if you try to hit it a shield comes up. Keep bashing it until the mad scientist drops down to fix the eye, which has been following you throughout the level. The problem is, bashing it doesn't avoid the attacks - boomerangs, bullets streams, laser bursts and energy rays. Jump over the energy rays, avoid boomerangs and bullet streams. You get plenty of warning before a laser burst, and time your grab just right so you're grabbing him when the gun fires and you won't be hurt. After five hits on the scientist it's headed for the scrap heap. Walk under the tube to go to the final battle. Space cruiser boss: Greedy will first release some cannon-orbots. Run back and forth as they reposition and fire so their energy balls miss, and then jump and bust one. Keep this up until they're all gone. Then Greedy warps around, and is difficult to grab. If you don't grab him before too long he'll surround himself with black orbots. He'll then shoot them at you one by one, and you must run back and forth to make them miss. If you manage to grab one a star appears, but this is tough and you'll lose more stars than you'll get. After all the orbots are gone Greedy warps around again. If you can get him he'll drop two orbots. Kill them and continue. After five hits, greedy creates a vortex. To avoid being sucked in and getting killed, grab an orbot that falls and hang on for dear life. After the vortex disappears Greedy will appear in the corner and you can try bashing him from below before he disappears. Hit him quickly if he appears in the center, as he'll create another vortex. After the screen darkens Greedy will appear and try to zap you with a superbolt of electricity. On the floor, grab diagonally up/right and you'll head-butt Greedy when he appears. Do this five times do destroy Greedy and watch the ending. PART IV: PASSWORDS The passwords can be reached by the options section. Select the letter you want and press C. After you've entered the whole password go to end. The passwords are: ILOVEU - You can start at any level you want, MAGURO - You can alter the music in sound test to make it sound weird, MUSEUM - You can fight all eight bosses (mid-bosses don't count, and the space cruiser mid- boss does count) and see how fast you can beat them, SUPER - You play the game dying after one hit, and DOFEEL - You can play all the bonus stages and see how fast you can beat each one. Great job on completing Ristar, and if you have questions or further tips e-mail j-d- walker@worldnet.att.net . Good luck!