Rainbow Islands

Rainbow Islands was one game I remembered so fondly today -- it somehow still brings back memories even if the 90s did have that problem of too many sudden brownouts. So what's the whole game about? I didn't know there was an arcade version until I grew up. It was a cute game -- that was all I cared about. 

Playing the game can be fun and frustrating. You have to make it up to the topmost part of the stage as fast as you can since the island will sink. Your character Bob will fire rainbows (yes rainbows) which he can use to defeat enemies and climb up to the top. Each enemy becomes a various item and one of them includes the diamonds. Tip: Always collect the diamonds because they are essential to getting the good ending! If you didn't then you get the bad ending which had you fight against the seventh boss -- which varied between the NES version and the arcade version. The PS2 Taito museum had the slightly different arcade version which was the original source amteiral.

The bosses themselves were homages to some Taito games such as Doh (in Arkanoid though I never fought him as a child), a giant version of Kiki Kaikai, a giant spider and all the weird stuff you could get into. Plus, there was also that need to get a crystal ball from the fourth level of later levels or the bosses you'd fight would be invisible and very frustrating. Though, I remembered the Japanese version in the Famicom allowed you an invincibility cheat by pausing, pressing select and resuming the game. However, said code would NOT work against the water and you still needed to move up when the island is sinking!

So far, this was a fun game to remember. Somehow, I wish Taito will start compiling their old games into HD for future systems. Otherwise, downloads are also still available. Though I wonder will the generation gap between this game and today's players be different?