Rainbow Islands
Rainbow Islands is a platform game from Taito. It is the sequel to Bubble Bobble, and the prequel to Parasol Stars.
| Table of contents |
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2 Game structure 3 Rainbows 4 Enemies 5 Special elements of gameplay 6 Secrets |
The game is set on a chain of seven 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:
Premise
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.
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. Collision with the water results in death, 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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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:
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.
Special bonus items are more often obtained by collapsing rainbows onto enemies rather than directly shooting them, which tends to yield food items. The stars, however, are generally situated in the levels themselves.
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.
Rainbow Islands is packed with secrets of various natures. One of the more open secrets is that the fifth island, Doh Island, is 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.
The boss on Doh Island is Doh himself, the boss of Arkanoid.Game structure
Level format
Bosses
Rainbows
Aggressive uses
A collapsing rainbow will also collapse other rainbows in close proximity, allowing the player to cause large cascades of collapsing rainbows.Defensive uses
Rainbow upgrades
Enemies
Enemy deaths
Anger
Special elements of gameplay
Bonus items
Common special bonus items
Diamonds
Secrets