Rainbow Islands (NES) review"This is the game where the Bubble Bobble timeline splits into two, like Zelda." |
The title of Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (as it's called in Japan and arcades) might initially seem like a misnomer. Where are the dragons from the original Bubble Bobble, and where are the bubbles and bobble? The absence of those familiar elements only makes sense once you learn that Rainbow Islands actually takes place after the hidden true ending to Bubble Bobble. Returning protagonists Bub and Bob have finally reverted to their human forms. Now known as Bubby and Bobby, the two children can apparently shoot rainbows and must use this power to rescue villagers who were kidnapped from some random village.
Alright, so it’s not exactly Metal Gear Solid. The important thing is that, unlike its predecessor, Rainbow Islands is a vertically scrolling platformer. Bubby produces rainbows that then serve as either platforms or a means to defeat enemies. He can climb on a rainbow by walking onto it, but jumping on one will cause it to drop. Falling rainbows can also defeat enemies (a necessary technique if you hope to reach the final level). You can bounce off of rainbows by holding the A button, or you can simply continue to produce rainbows once you reach the highest point of the rainbow where you’re currently standing (effectively creating stairs in the process). Naturally, your overall objective is to reach the highest point in each stage so that you can move on to the next area. At the end of every fourth level lurks a super-easy boss. These guys are nothing. They move slowly around the screen and can be eliminated with a few quick rainbows. Many of them don’t even attack you; they just fly around and wait to die. After you finish them off, you move on to the next themed island.
Bosses aside, the game is harder than it probably sounds. Enemies are plentiful and it only takes one hit to send Bubby to an early grave. You’ll constantly be moving upwards towards the goal, but you lack any way to attack vertically by default. Rainbows only come out horizontally, arching in front of your character. Thankfully, there’s a wide variety of power-ups to help you out. They let you double your walking speed, shoot out two rainbows at the same time (or a “Double Rainbow,” if you prefer), gain a set of rainbow satellites that rotate around you for a time and defeat any enemies they touch, or they simply explode and destroy every enemy within a certain radius.
Staff review by Rhody Tobin (January 08, 2013)
Rhody likes to press the keys on his keyboard. Sometimes the resulting letters form strings of words that kind of make sense when you think about them for a moment. Most times they're just random gibberish that should be ignored. Ball-peen wobble glurk. |
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