

His arms are also used to climb walls, swing across poles, and even find bonuses inside some walls. Ristar's arms can also be used to ride spinners, which are used to move Ristar to a different location or to access some hidden Bonus Areas. Ristar attacks by grabbing the enemies with his long arms from either a close or mid-range stance, and then headbutting them. The gameplay is very different from the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games. One of the usable passwords in Ristar is "FEEL", which is a reference to this prototype. Feel would also have worn Sonic the Hedgehog-styled shoes, but they were later changed to the thunderbolt design.

One of the main differences between both appearances is the lack of the star-shaped body, with the Feel characters bearing a rabbit-like motif. Ristar was originally going to be called "Feel", including a different character with a similar appearance to Ristar.
