Rainbow Islands

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The basic premise of the game is that each level is an island which is slowly sinking into the sea. There are seven islands in total, each one split into four main stages. You must reach to the top of each level by jumping on platforms and using the game's most distinctive feature: the ability to fire solid rainbows used both as platforms to stand on and as weapons to kill or trap enemies (remember the gum bubbles in Bubble Bobble). Rapid rainbow firing is your key to success in order to get as high as possible. But building your "rainbow platforms" is often a tricky thing. While initially appears to be quite a simple game, Rainbow Islands has a vast number of secrets for the player to discover including secret levels, secret power ups and solving riddles. You can collect 7 special jewels from downed enemies. The end level bosses are gigantic and quite tricky to defeat. Due to these elements, completing the game properly requires some dedication and patience. The NES version is good, offering almost intact the fast action of the arcade. The game's European version (developed by Ocean) is much closer to the arcade game while the Japanese and North American versions have different level designs and story (the gameplay is the same).

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The MS graphics are fine and the animation is quite fast but the backgrounds detail is limited in each stage. The platforms are nicely drawn. Frame rate drops are found here and there when a large number of sprites (including the rainbows thrown) occupy the screen. The aural section of the game is good and sports the arcade tunes along with a few nice sound effects.

GAMEPLAY SAMPLE VIDEO
On our video below you may watch a variety of Rainbow Islands versions. The MASTER SYSTEM version is at 22:09.