From the developers that created Bubble Bobble Revolutions comes a pseudo sequel that reintroduces those lovable dragon characters… except instead of dragons, you play as small children… trapped inside of a bubble. See the similarities? Yeah, me neither.
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Rainbow Islands Revolution can be described as a discomfited blend of Kirby’s Canvas Curse and Balloon Fight’s Balloon Trip mode. Unlike the usual Bubble Bobble format, where the goal is to defeat every baddie on screen, Rainbow Island’s objective is to get from Point A to Point B. Instead of playing as one of those cute lovable dragons, the player will play as a small child, which is actually one of those dragons in human form.
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Since humans do not really possess any cool super powers like a member of the X-Men or deadly appendages like the claws of a wild beast, video games need a cool gimmick to make the game interesting and fun when playing as a normal everyday human, especially a small child. So what better way to fit this bill than by trapping a small child into a bubble! Just how does one breathe in there anyway?
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Using stylus control, the player must guide this spherical baby to the end of the level without taking too much damage from hovering insects and other assorted bad guys using the “stab and drag” method. This is form of transportation reminded me a lot of the Balloon Trip mode from NES’s Balloon Fight where the player must dodge enemies, walls, spikes, and barriers in order to make it to the goal.
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Dragging the stylus to control your floating bubble baby is not the only user input. The stylus is also used to create rainbows, a single thin line used to attack and thwart enemies. Stealing the idea from Kirby’s Canvas Curse, Rainbow Island’s use of this gameplay gimmick is quite lacking and inaccurate. Unlike in Kirby’s first DS adventure, the stylus is only used to attack, not to create ramps and boarders to help Kirby along the way.
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Enemies often overload the screen. The only way to solve this problem is to draw a line with the stylus to eliminate them. If done correctly, enemies will then be sliced down and they will drop a piece of fruit that boosts the score. A meter at the bottom of the screen displays how much rainbow goodness can be placed on screen at one time. While this gameplay element was rather successful in Kirby’s Canvas Curse, it is quite flawed in this game. The rainbow line, unfortunately, can only be drawn one length and thickness. This is completely limiting because there will be many times the player will want to draw one giant line instead of three to four little ones. The player has a limit as to how much rainbow juice they can use at one time thanks to the meter on the bottom of the screen, so why can’t I use it how I want?
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There are also a couple other reasons why this rainbow technique is not as favored as it should be. First, when the player stabs and drags the bubble to guide the floating bubble boy, the character can never keep up with the speed of the player’s drag. The floating bubble just moves way too slow. The player does have the option to pick a playable character with different statistics (one has more speed but not as much health, etc), but they still will never move fast enough to keep up with user’s input. More often than not, the character will be bumping into enemies and walls more than one should because of this hindrance. Next, because the character moves so slowly, the stylus is often in a spot on the touch screen away from the playable character. This confusion tricks the game into thinking the player will want to draw a rainbow line instead of moving the character around on screen. And once a rainbow line has started, you cannot stop it until the full line is drawn out. But the time the player realizes this mistake, it is often too late and damage will have been taken.
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Some levels scroll vertically while others scroll horizontally. I noticed that when playing the horizontally scrolling levels, there just isn’t enough screen lead to guide the player safely without running into an enemy or spiked wall. And since there is no way to zoom the camera out, the player will take unnecessary damage often. The vertical levels are not much better either. Because there is a piece of plastic that separates the DS’s top screen from the bottom, the transition from one to the other is always awkward.
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Like Bubble Bobble Revolutions, this game features a four player mode, but each player will need his or her own copy of the game. But since this game looks like it could have been created on the NES, there is no reason why a single card link function of some kind was not included. The lack of this feature completely decreases the overall fun value.
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All the game’s graphics are incredibly simple. They in no way shape or form, push the system in any department. All sprites look like they were created from a NES gaming palette. And just like Bubble Bobble Revolutions, the intro movie is laugh out loud hilarious but not for its comedic value, but rather because has been done so poorly. And why is the continue screen so generic and drab? For a game that is supposed to take place in a colorful fantasy land, the continue screen is one plain and boring place. I do, however, like the fact that the designers include a “Doh’s Island” stage. Doh It Again was a SNES version of Arknoid, or Brickles or Breakout as some call it. All the enemies that were in that game make an appearance in this stage. I always admire when developers take the time to incorporate a classic game into a new release, whether it is a hidden stage or a main part of the game. Kudos.
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The music contains the same quality as the graphic value. Only a few musical tracks made it into this game, which means the player can expect to hear the same looping tracks throughout the entire game… if the player will even play it for that long. Within the first two minutes, your DS’s sound bar will be slid all the way over to mute.
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Rainbow Island Revolutions is a joke. The entertainment value for this game is quite low. In fact, this game is so much like a chore, I can see parents using this game as a form of punishment for not cleaning your room. Unless the Bubble Bobble dragons can turn their lives around, I think it might be time they retire and remember their pinnacle, their first NES title.