Rainbow Islands

~ RAINBOW ISLANDS ~

Taito / NEC Avenue

CD-ROM

1993

Well, I like Parasol Stars but not nearly as much as everyone else seems to, and the consensus seems to be that Rainbow Islands is similar to PS but not nearly as good, so I was expecting RI to be rather unspectacular. I actually ended up loving it.

Its race-to-the-top gameplay appeals to me much more than Parasol Stars' bumble-around-in-a-box formula. At first, it made me think of Kid Icarus' vertically scrolling stages, but with much more color, much faster action, and far less suckiness. The best thing about it is that you can do so many different things with your rainbow weaponry, from killing enemies to nabbing items and building bridges.

The bosses are a charismatic lot, and the level themes, especially the game-related ones (elements of Darius, Bubble Bobble, and Arkanoid are incorporated in particular realms), add a great deal of personality to proceedings that are entertaining to begin with. To top it all off, there's a sweet vocal number at the conclusion (if you prove yourself worthy of experiencing the best ending).

The one thing that bugged me about RI at first was how bloody difficult it can be to acquire the elusive hyper items. (You have to collect different-colored diamonds in the ROYGBIV order in each world, and as you can do only so much in attempting to determine the colors that appear, the process can prove extremely wearisome.) But when I finally managed to get my hands on a few of them and realized how incredibly helpful they are, I understood why the game makes us go through such a taxing trial to obtain them.

Rainbow Islands isn't the easiest game to come by, and, unfortunately, $90 seems to be a common price for it these days. I was able to acquire it from a friend for much less than that a few years ago. Knowing now how enjoyable it is, I wouldn't hesitate to plunk down a decent amount of cash for it if I had to, but I'd probably wait until I was presented with a price significantly lower than the going rate.