Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (1987)

(This review is for the arcade version) Preliminary: Straightforward fun platformer that has extra layers if you so choose? Nice. Reading through the Gameplay explanation on the StrategyWiki is a bit overwhelming, but it seems really interesting! And I love that I have access to this on an arcade machine! I'm on to Round 2, and I'm liking the cute Sound and Look and the fast-paced gameplay, tho quite disappointed with some features of the jump mechanic. The momentum is way overboard and mid-jump is not as manipulatable as one would expect from an arcade game. I love love love the "world map" type vibe though.

Look: 9/10 I love the "horror" theme of the 3rd world :-p Full of cute settings and colors. And wow a lot of the Look of the 4th world reminded me of the not-yet-released Super Mario 3

(There were also angry sun type enemies :-p) And as mentioned I love the world map Look

Sound: 8/10 Great, cute, no distinctly sentimental aspect but very fitting and very good.

Play: 8/10 Before I knew it I was on Round 4. Tho the jump mechanic was still a bit meh, I loved creating a rainbow while moving so then you immediately walk up it then can jump from there, made for fast-paced fun. There seems to be a time limit? Because it told me to hurry? But I don't see a timer. (I learned later that soon after it says Hurry, water starts filling up from the bottom. Never a fan of time limits in action games, especially without a timer visible??) Already by the first boss, I was just playing to get through the levels, not for secrets not for points not to kill the enemies (because that mechanic was also kinda... meh). Kind of a bad sign if I'm already feeling that way. I enjoyed the mechanics of the first boss tho! So let's keep pushing.

As always I love love love when you can hit away enemy projectiles, and luckily the rainbow mechanic just generally was great, and indeed it acted as a shooter where I could shoot away enemy projectiles :-p The collision masks were, like the jump, a bit disappointing for an arcade game, but here I was on the last world, despite only having the lowest power-ups possible for the last 2 bosses ha. That says a lot indeed :-p

Feel: 9/10 I was getting more into it in the second world. I liked forgetting about the jump for the most part and literally just spamming the rainbows lol which allowed you to basically make steps to go up and down and kill enemies along the way. I'd only deviate when I knew an enemy would get me and I'd treat the rainbows like they're projectiles of a shooter :-p Nice! Seems like they definitely intended that. And I suppose it's not just spamming the rainbow creation, it's about timing, like about when you're on the second one I dunno it was very intuitive and I loved it a lot! Way better than the jump. The 2nd boss was also really fun! And it clearly expected you to build these "stairs" of rainbows and smack it like a shooter, I even killed it off with a "crashing down" rainbow too! Def getting the hang of this! Hopefully I don't die and presumably lose the 3-rainbows-at-a-time power-up tho.

Uff I only had one-rainbow-at-a-time after dying for the World 5 boss, but it was definitely manageable.

Attachment: 9/10 The momentum mechanic of the jump never stopped being a disappointing, but the rainbow mechanics really helped the game shine. They're like a step-ladder and a shooter mechanic and a Space Panic all at once :-p Loved using all 3 of its features in last-minute moments. I am excited to show my family this on the arcade machine, tho I do wish the 2-player was cooperative. That'd be a blast! If I had read correctly there are secret worlds and I think you're supposed to play through all the worlds again for the "true" ending or w/e, but I will be happy to get through all the worlds/rounds. That's still a lot!

Heh my plan was just to backlog for a bit then do some Nex or stream Subnautica, but here I am on World 6. Might as well finish the game! (Well, at least up to the point I plan to play). I finally got to all the power-ups I had had before on the last level ha, the fast-forming rainbows got me back into that rhythm I was having so much fun doing, but I'm glad I still had fun facing the fewer-power-ups challenge in those later levels (heh, with savestates of course). The final boss wasn't too bad, and I was good at using the "crash" mechanic where you jump on your rainbow to crash it down on the boss. Yes! Great ending message and colors and Look and Sound Made me feel like the true ending!

But it did a good job of presenting how if you collect all 7 Diamonds in each Round (I was averaging 4ish maybe 5ish at most when focusing on killing enemies not just rushing... it's based on what area of the level you kill them in to determine what diamond appears), you get access to the Secret Worlds. Cool how they let you just play the game and still get an ending, but also entice you to replay not just for higher score but also for a "true ending." Tho I'm not doing that now, that's a great way to encourage me to return to this, possibly on the actual arcade machine, and try for those someday. Great game! And imo this is how secrets should be! Clear hint given after you beat it the normal way

Completion: Main Story Playtime: 1h 15m