Rainbow Islands
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| Rainbow Islands | |
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| Developer: | Taito |
| Publisher: | Taito |
| Game designer: | Fukio Mitsuji |
| Release date: | 1987 |
| Genre: | Platform |
| Game modes: | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Cabinet: | Standard |
| Controls: | Joystick (2-way); 2 buttons |
| Monitor | |
| Orientation: | Horizontal |
| Type: | Raster, standard resolution (Used: 320 x 240) |
| Notes | |
| Sequel to Bubble Bobble. | |
Rainbow Islands is a 1987 arcade game from Taito. It is the sequel to Bubble Bobble, and the prelude to Parasol Stars.
| Contents |
Premise
The game is set on a chain of ten islands, each one with a different theme. Each island provides four rounds of gameplay, and once these are complete the player moves to the next island in the chain. The islands get progressively more difficult, with enemies moving much faster on the later ones.
In order of play, the islands are:
The three secret islands are:
These are depicted on a map screen before the start of each island. The three secret islands are not visible before fulfilling certain conditions; see the Diamonds section for more info. Most versions of the game however completely lack the secret islands. This includes even the much criticized 1996 PC port by Acclaim, which means that most versions of the game are somehow incoherent with the story.
The main characters are Bub and Bob, the protagonists of Bubble Bobble. However, in this game they appear in human forms, as opposed to the dinosaurs of the first game. In single-player mode, only Bub is present.
Game structure
Level format
Every round has essentially the same format. The player begins at the bottom of a long, vertical level, and must reach the 'Goal' at the top.
Levels are filled with structures and platforms that can be used to ascend. On the way up, various enemies will attempt to thwart your efforts. A collision with an enemy results in the player's death. In addition, some enemies possess projectile weapons which will also kill the player.
If the player spends too long on a level, the message "Hurry!" appears on screen, accompanied by an urgent klaxon. Subsequently, the music speeds up, and a few seconds later, water begins to fill up the screen from the bottom. Immersion in the water results in death (it is possible to "wade" in it, up to about neck-deep), and thus the player must hasten his efforts to reach the Goal.
If the Goal is reached, a victory jingle is played and the message "GOAL IN!" appears on screen. As a reward for the player, a large chest full of bonus food items drops in and scatters its contents over the Goal platform, leaving the player to collect these to obtain more points before the round ends.
Bosses
At the top of the last round of every island, there is a large boss enemy, which is in most cases an enlarged version of one of the regular enemies on that island. Bosses are significantly tougher and better armed than their smaller counterparts. If the boss is defeated, a chest drops in and scatters its contents, in the manner of regular Goals.
Rainbows
The player's singular special ability is the power to create rainbows. These manifest as arcing trails left by a bouncing star. Unlike their physical counterparts, these rainbows are solid and can be walked upon by the player, or by enemies. They remain fixed in space until they eventually disappear, either after a number of seconds, or if a large number of rainbows have been created since (there can be only a finite number of rainbows on screen; approximately eight).
Offensive uses
- Direct projection - A rainbow can be fired directly at an enemy, killing it.
- Collapsing - A rainbow can be jumped upon, which collapses it. Any enemies beneath the collapsing rainbow are killed. This is the more powerful use of rainbows and is particularly effective against bosses.
Collapsing a rainbow before it is fully built (i.e. by firing a rainbow then immediately jumping on it) will result in the whole rainbow being immediately built and collapsing. This can provide a very effective way of rapidly collapsing rainbows; if firing a triple rainbow, you can jump on the first rainbow and it will immediately build and collapse all three, saving potentially vital seconds.
A collapsing rainbow will also collapse other rainbows in close proximity, allowing the player to cause large cascades of collapsing rainbows.
Additionally, collapsing rainbows will collect any items they collapse through. Direct projection can also be used, but the arc shape means that it can easily miss.
Defensive uses
- Trapping - Because of the arc shape of a rainbow, enemies can be trapped underneath them. It is then a simple matter to collapse the rainbow on top of them. Trapped enemies always become angry.
- Blocking - Projectile weapons can be blocked by rainbows. The rainbow is always destroyed in the process.
- Escaping - A rainbow can provide a quick exit away from danger if necessary; it is possible to form an ascending path of rainbows without jumping. The player can easily walk on rainbows to cross from one side of the screen to the other, even through walls.
Rainbow upgrades
- Red pot - The red pot, a frequently appearing bonus item, increases the number of rainbows fired in a single shot. Collecting it once gives the player double rainbows; collecting it again gives triple rainbows, the full extent of this bonus.
- Yellow pot - The yellow pot gives the player fast rainbows - ones that are generated with increased speed.
A rare special item, the rainbow cross, will provide fast quadruple rainbows for the remainder of the level.
Enemies
Every island has its own set of enemies; on Insect Island the player is confronted by ladybirds, spiders, and so on, while Combat Island features tanks and helicopters. However, many different enemies on different islands exhibit the same base behaviour.
Enemy deaths
When an enemy is killed, it turns blue and harmlessly spins through the air in a parabolic manner. When or if it lands on a platform, it turns into a bonus item.
Anger
As in Bubble Bobble, enemies can become angry. When this happens, they turn red and become faster and more aggressive. Enemies can be made angry in three different ways:
- Trapping an enemy underneath a rainbow.
- Spending too long in the presence of an enemy without killing it.
- Spending too long on a level such that it begins to flood with water. When this happens, all enemies on the level immediately become angry.
Special elements of gameplay
Bonus items
There are hundreds of bonus items that can be obtained in Rainbow Islands. Many of these are food items that simply give points, but there are also a number of special bonus items that give the player enhanced abilities or endow him with temporary special powers.
Common special bonus items
Special bonus items appear as every third item produced by killing enemies; the other two will either be a food item or a diamond, depending on the method of killing. Stars are often situated in the levels themselves.
- Shoe - Makes the player run faster.
- Red pot - Gives the player double and subsequently triple rainbows.
- Yellow pot - Gives the player fast rainbows.
- Yellow star - similar to a bomb; creates an upward expanding burst of yellow stars that kill any enemy in their path.
- Red star - similar to the yellow star, but more powerful; creates a fully circular burst of red stars which are equally lethal.
Diamonds
The diamonds are very special bonus items. Diamonds can be obtained by collapsing a rainbow onto an enemy, or by killing it in a 'special' way (for instance, with a star, or with special powers granted by a bonus item).
There are seven different colours of diamond: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. The colour of a diamond depends upon its horizontal location on the screen when it appears. A diamond formed in the leftmost seventh of the screen will be red; in the second seventh it will be orange; and so on in the colour order listed above.
When a diamond is collected, an icon appears at the bottom of the screen signifying that diamond, if it has not already been collected on this island.
Collecting all seven colours of diamond before the end of the island gives the player a huge bonus. Also, if the boss at the end of the island is defeated, a large diamond is given from the bonus chest. Collecting this gives a huge point bonus, and the fact that you have collected it is denoted on the map screen.
Collecting all seven colours of diamond in the rainbow order (ie. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) gives the same bonus, but also opens a special door on the boss screen. This door allows the boss battle to be bypassed completely, although the player may still fight the boss and collect the contents of the bonus chest before entering the door if desired.
The door leads to a special room. Inside the room is a large diamond, the same as is dispensed from the bonus chest when all seven diamonds are collected.
More importantly, there is also a super special bonus item which in many cases grants you permanent use of a power, such as the shoe speedup, or fast rainbows.
Additionally, there is an obfuscated lettered code written at the top of the level. This is a cheat code. The means of entering this code differ between the different computer versions of Rainbow Islands.
In some versions, if a large diamond has been collected on all regular islands, three secret islands become visible. Collecting a small diamond of each color on these islands gives a different-colored mirror for each island. It is necessary to collect all of these to see the true and happy ending after beating the last island.
References to other Taito games
Rainbow Islands is packed with secrets of various nature, as well as many references and homages to other Taito games.
One such reference is the fifth island, Doh Island, a homage to the game Arkanoid, also by Taito. This level plays as any other, but the enemies are the same as encountered in Arkanoid, and the platforms are designed from coloured blocks. Also, the music is absent and the player's jumping sound resembles the sound of the ball hitting the bat in Arkanoid. Losing the final life in this island also results in the Game Over music from Arkanoid instead of the usual Rainbow Islands music.
The boss on Doh Island is Doh himself, the boss of Arkanoid.
Similar homages and references can be found on all three secret islands:
- Magical Island (the eighth one) is a homage to Taito's Fairyland Story, and the graphics, music and enemies are the same ones found in that game.
- Darius Island (the ninth one) is a homage to Taito's Darius, and the graphics, music and enemies are the same ones found in that game.
- Bubble Island (the tenth one) is of course a homage to Taito's great hit, Bubble Bobble, and the music and enemies are of course modelled after the original game.
Another tribute to Bubble Bobble can be found in the death animations of enemies: if a crystal ball has been collected, the animation frames of defeated enemies will turn to the death frames (blue) of a random Bubble Bobble enemy, instead of a Rainbow Islands one, for the remainder of the level.
Ports
Rainbow Islands has been converted to the following home computer and video game console platforms:
- Commodore 64 (1989, Graftgold/Firebird)
- ZX Spectrum (1989, Graftgold/Firebird)
- Amstrad CPC (1989, Graftgold/Firebird)
- Amiga (1990, Graftgold/Ocean)
- Atari ST (1990, Graftgold/Ocean)
- Sega Megadrive/Genesis (1990) (released as Rainbow Islands Extra)
- NES (1991)
- Sega Master System (1993)
- PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 (1993, NEC Interchannel)
- PC (1996, Graftgold/Acclaim) (released as Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands)
- Sega Saturn (1996) (released as Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands)
- PlayStation (1996, Graftgold/Acclaim) (released as Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands)
- WonderSwan (2000, Bandai) (released as Rainbow Islands: Putty's Party)
- Game Boy Color (2001)
| Missing image ST_Rainbow_Islands.png Rainbow Islands on the Atari ST | Missing image NES_Rainbow_Islands.png Rainbow Islands on the NES | Missing image GBC_Rainbow_Islands.png Rainbow Islands on the GBC |
| Atari ST | NES | Game Boy Color |