Rainbow Islands

Bub and Bob strike again! Once upon a time they were cute bubbles-spitting dragons, but now they have the power of the rainbow on their side.

With Bubble Bobble Taito put an essential milestone in the story of the arcades, but one year later (1987) they nearly repeated with Rainbow Islands, a game that almost nothing had to share with its prequel if not the same level of novelty, the gameplay attitude and, at the end of the day, the fun provided.

Bub and Bob, now humans instead of dragons, have been called to help the inhabitants of the Rainbow Islands to defeat an evil villain who conquered the land with his minions.

The game significantly changed from the previous chapter: no more fixed stages, but vertically developed levels in which your hero should arrive to the top jumping over platforms and killing (or avoiding) an huge amount of enemies. Following the path of peace-loving weapons inaugurated in the first chapter, the two kids now shoot lethal rainbows, that can also be used as temporary platforms like the bubbles in Bubble Bobble.

During the climbing, your heroes will find power-ups (like multiple rainbows or speed improvements) that can simplify the journey to reach your target, not only the most straightaway, but also the less immediate ones: in fact, in perfect Taito style, the game has a lot of secrets that wait to be unveiled.

One of them, probably the less hidden, is the presence of three additional islands (over the original seven) which can be unblocked by collecting all the big diamonds guarded by the final-level bosses (yes, there are).

Note that, in order to make a boss to release the big diamond, you should gather during your ascent seven differently colored smaller diamonds, released when ordinary enemies are killed in ways different than a direct rainbow shot. The game will be open to different endings according to the level of completion achieved.

So, let's start with the flaws (or maybe I should say THE FLAW, single one, but not neglectable): this time Taito chose to separate Bub from Bob, allowing only turn-based 2 players modality (not sure if someone ever used this).

All the rest is great, particularly the simple game working, made special through the use of rainbows, that becomes gradually more and more challenging during the progress of your journey. The secrets and different ending bring additional depth, allowing to have many days of fun.

Play it again and you won't regret it.

How is Toki aged?

Graphic: cute and colorful, with many of the characters already seen in Bubble Bobble and other Taito games (Arkanoid, Darius).
Sound: the music is going to be impressed in your brain.
Playability: immediate action, but why why WHY did you leave out 2-players co-op mode??
Signs of the time: none, as fresh as the first day.
Overall: though probably underrated at that time, it's yet another Taito classic.