Read more about Ristar at: Wikipedia

Official Site: Sega

Ristar, known as in Japan, is a platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis in 1995. A Sega Game Gear version, which features very similar gameplay in different level designs, was also released in the same year.

The game stars a humanoid cartoon star who uses his hands and long, stretchable arms to both move and combat enemies. Reception for the game has been generally positive, but the game's initial release was overshadowed due to the imminent ending of the Genesis's lifecycle and the beginning of the Sega Saturn and other fifth generation video game consoles.

Ristar developed from an idea originally put forward during design talks for the character who would later become Sonic the Hedgehog. Yuji Naka, head of Sonic Team, recalled in 1992:

At first we used a character that looked like a rabbit with ears that could extend and pick up objects. As the game got faster and faster, we needed to come up with a special characteristic to give our character some power over his enemies. I remembered a character I had thought about years ago who could roll himself into a ball and slam into enemies. Hedgehogs can roll themselves into a ball, so we decided to go from a rabbit to a hedgehog.

Ristar has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.