The added pressure of each level sinking into the sea means the player has to work their way through the level as quickly as possible. The Rainbows can also be used as a weapon to defeat enemies by trapping them under the Rainbow and then jumping onto it, breaking it and killing the enemy in the process. Using the main characters' ability to cast Rainbows, the player can use these as platforms to advance up the level. The aim of the game is to scale to the top of each level. It appeared on Xbox Live Arcade in 2009, again with newer upgraded visuals.
Later releases with upgraded visuals were released in 1996 for the PlayStation, PC and Sega Saturn. The player can choose to switch back to the original level order in the options menu. Darius World instead becomes the first world. The Mega Drive version, called Rainbow Islands Extra, shuffles the levels around - e.g. The Famicom/NES version in Japan and US had original levels and graphics and differs greatly from the more faithful European port. The Sega Master System version suffers from a glitch making it impossible to reach the 8th Island and thus impossible to complete the game. Taito converted the game to the Sega Mega Drive in 1990, the NES in 1988 and the Sega Master System in 1993. The Amiga and Atari ST versions were also ported by Ocean Interactive in 1990. Rainbow Islands was originally an arcade release but has been ported to several home consoles and computers, Including The Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad in 1989 by Ocean Interactive. Several other iterations have also been released on the early 8- and 16-bit consoles.Ī platforming game at its core, there are ten islands to beat (dependent on the platform), each one with a different theme that become progressively more difficult. The game was originally released as an Arcade title in 1987 but has been ported to several home computer systems including the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and later the Amiga and Atari ST. This time they are charged with rescuing the titular Rainbow Islands from an entity named Dark Shadow. Bubblun and Bobblun), who returned to their original human forms at the end of Bubble Bobble. Rainbow Islands is the official sequel to Taito's Bubble Bobble, once again featuring Bub and Bob (a.k.a.