Rainbow Islands Extra (MD, 1990)
Graphics-5.5 Sound-4.5 Control-6.5 Challenge-8 (extra mode)
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-6.5
+
Innovative mechanics (see the arcade review)
Some good bosses
Difficulty options (Original and Extra mode, both have 3 difficulty levels)
Some decent enemy AI in the Extra version
Innovative main mechanic (make platforms out of rainbows which also hurt enemies, stomp rainbows to make them fall on enemies and to make the enemy drops better)
Alternate endings (get all diamonds on every island, need to get them in the correct order for the best ending and the bonus island)
Smart bombs (stars)
Upgradeable movement and rainbow speed
Decent art direction
Easier to climb when sped up and using just normal rainbows in Original mode than in the arcade version (they spawn quicker) and a few more of them stay on screen at once (the latter leads to slowdown though)
Power ups don’t disappear in Original mode unlike in the arcade version,
+/- +/-
Fairly frequent checkpoints (can be hard to recover after death since you become slower and the rainbows both smaller and slower)
Jump controls are similar to bubble bobble (triangle shaped, kind of slow, slow falling speed) – not that suitable for vertical platforming where you can easily fall down
Need a guide to see how to obtain certain things via combos?
One hit kills
It's possible to jump onto rainbows without crushing them if you hold the jump button (triggers an extra jump when landing and you keep jumping again until you let go and then it gets crushed; not that useful later on where there are more enemies and they can shoot you, it also doesn't work if you try to jump onto a rainbow by jumping through it from underneath)
No time limit in the Extra mode
Slightly more sensitive jump height control than in the arcade version,
-
For some reason the jump height is one tile lower compared to the arcade version (Original mode)
Looks and sounds like an 8-bit game (though it is very accurate to the arcade game)
Repetitive
Slowdown - when there's too much going on your character won't attack or jump (!)
You need to collect 7 diamonds per island to actually beat the full game and the game doesn't tell you this until you've beaten all the normal islands (and when you do the game tells you to collect them in the correct order - major bummer!)
Some trial & error (boss patterns)
Very slow falling speed leads to lots of cheap deaths
First ten levels are a cakewalk
Can't jump down through platforms which can be jumped up through
Mixed up sky colours (world 1 is black and world 3 is blue when it should be the other way around) and some missing visual details in Original mode
Stiff movement on rainbows (your avatar automatically moves to the top of the rainbow when stepping onto one; only slightly improved over the arcade version as you can more easily more around slightly on the top of a rainbow’s arc if you just tap the d-pad)
Some enemies behave differently (harder) or are placed differently than in the arcade version (Original mode)
Comment on the modes (Swedish):
MD-versionen innehåller två lägen, Original och Extra. Original verkar vara en portning av arkadspelet med "somewhere over the rainbow"-tolkningen som musik (i en ganska kass tappning, långt ifrån vad hårdvaran klarar av), och grafiken har de knappt petat på, men det verkar gå lite snabbare än NES- och Amiga-versionerna. Kontrollen verkar vara intakt. Om det är bra eller inte är väl subjektivt men själv tycker jag de kunde slipat den en aning då det känns som man är på månen när man hoppar. Det enda märkvärdiga här är en options-skärm där du kan välja antal credits och svårighetsgrad, vilket jag inte tror man kan i andra versioner?
Mer intressant är Extra mode, som ändrar ordningen på banorna och gör alla fiender betydligt svårare. T.ex. så hoppar de efter dig om du går förbi dem och vissa av dem beter sig annorlunda. Bossarna är också betydligt svårare längre in i spelet. Däremot finns det ingen tidsbegränsning som i arkad-spelet, så tar man det lugnt ligger utmaningen egentligen bara i att samla diamanter och klara bossarna.
Ett problem med spelet, som jag inte minns om det finns i andra versioner är slowdowns. Går att undvika om man tar det lugnt, men låter man skärmen fyllas med fiender innan man börjar pumpa ut regnbågar så går det riktigt segt, och kontrollen svarar sämre. Kände flera gånger att inget hände när jag ville hoppa eller skjuta i dessa situationer, och det gör spelet onödigt frustrerande.
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-6.5
+
Innovative mechanics (see the arcade review)
Some good bosses
Difficulty options (Original and Extra mode, both have 3 difficulty levels)
Some decent enemy AI in the Extra version
Innovative main mechanic (make platforms out of rainbows which also hurt enemies, stomp rainbows to make them fall on enemies and to make the enemy drops better)
Alternate endings (get all diamonds on every island, need to get them in the correct order for the best ending and the bonus island)
Smart bombs (stars)
Upgradeable movement and rainbow speed
Decent art direction
Easier to climb when sped up and using just normal rainbows in Original mode than in the arcade version (they spawn quicker) and a few more of them stay on screen at once (the latter leads to slowdown though)
Power ups don’t disappear in Original mode unlike in the arcade version,
+/- +/-
Fairly frequent checkpoints (can be hard to recover after death since you become slower and the rainbows both smaller and slower)
Jump controls are similar to bubble bobble (triangle shaped, kind of slow, slow falling speed) – not that suitable for vertical platforming where you can easily fall down
Need a guide to see how to obtain certain things via combos?
One hit kills
It's possible to jump onto rainbows without crushing them if you hold the jump button (triggers an extra jump when landing and you keep jumping again until you let go and then it gets crushed; not that useful later on where there are more enemies and they can shoot you, it also doesn't work if you try to jump onto a rainbow by jumping through it from underneath)
No time limit in the Extra mode
Slightly more sensitive jump height control than in the arcade version,
-
For some reason the jump height is one tile lower compared to the arcade version (Original mode)
Looks and sounds like an 8-bit game (though it is very accurate to the arcade game)
Repetitive
Slowdown - when there's too much going on your character won't attack or jump (!)
You need to collect 7 diamonds per island to actually beat the full game and the game doesn't tell you this until you've beaten all the normal islands (and when you do the game tells you to collect them in the correct order - major bummer!)
Some trial & error (boss patterns)
Very slow falling speed leads to lots of cheap deaths
First ten levels are a cakewalk
Can't jump down through platforms which can be jumped up through
Mixed up sky colours (world 1 is black and world 3 is blue when it should be the other way around) and some missing visual details in Original mode
Stiff movement on rainbows (your avatar automatically moves to the top of the rainbow when stepping onto one; only slightly improved over the arcade version as you can more easily more around slightly on the top of a rainbow’s arc if you just tap the d-pad)
Some enemies behave differently (harder) or are placed differently than in the arcade version (Original mode)
Comment on the modes (Swedish):
MD-versionen innehåller två lägen, Original och Extra. Original verkar vara en portning av arkadspelet med "somewhere over the rainbow"-tolkningen som musik (i en ganska kass tappning, långt ifrån vad hårdvaran klarar av), och grafiken har de knappt petat på, men det verkar gå lite snabbare än NES- och Amiga-versionerna. Kontrollen verkar vara intakt. Om det är bra eller inte är väl subjektivt men själv tycker jag de kunde slipat den en aning då det känns som man är på månen när man hoppar. Det enda märkvärdiga här är en options-skärm där du kan välja antal credits och svårighetsgrad, vilket jag inte tror man kan i andra versioner?
Mer intressant är Extra mode, som ändrar ordningen på banorna och gör alla fiender betydligt svårare. T.ex. så hoppar de efter dig om du går förbi dem och vissa av dem beter sig annorlunda. Bossarna är också betydligt svårare längre in i spelet. Däremot finns det ingen tidsbegränsning som i arkad-spelet, så tar man det lugnt ligger utmaningen egentligen bara i att samla diamanter och klara bossarna.
Ett problem med spelet, som jag inte minns om det finns i andra versioner är slowdowns. Går att undvika om man tar det lugnt, men låter man skärmen fyllas med fiender innan man börjar pumpa ut regnbågar så går det riktigt segt, och kontrollen svarar sämre. Kände flera gånger att inget hände när jag ville hoppa eller skjuta i dessa situationer, och det gör spelet onödigt frustrerande.