"Rainbow Island Fans Should Start A Revolution Over This Game"

RAINBOW ISLANDS REVOLUTION
English and Japanese versions - because they're DIFFERENT.

Story/Characters/Intro
The brothers Bubby & Bobby are back, with a new take on an old and much loved classic franchise from Taito. It's a 2D platform/scroller (more or less vertical scroll as opposed to horizontal, as its always been) that functions much like the original games (both arcade classics and found on many consoles), the new twist being that you now have the touchscreen. Before I fly off the handle, I will wait until the Gameplay sector to rant about that. But let me just say this. I am sick of games that could have been good, but turned out crappy just because they FORCED the use of the touchscreen onto it. There are so many games for the DS that could just as easily been GBA games and probably more fun to play on GBA, too, without that damn touchscreen feature. There are some games that it works beautifully with, but there are a lot more games where they just force it and, basically, ruin the game entirely. And this is one of those games.

Graphics/Sound: 6/10
Graphics are classic 2D, very colorful and sharp. No complaints. As I mentioned already, though, could've just as easily been a GBA game. Sound effects and music are, likewise, colorful and sharp. Looks and sounds very much like the original game(s)...in fact just seeing a screenshot of it, one might think it was one of the old games. Nothing wrong with them, but nothing new here, either. If their goal was in preserving the classic look and feel, they achieved it. Why then, didn't they preserve the classic control and gameplay too!? Read on.....

Gameplay/Fun Factor/Controls: 1/10
As we say on the boards, "You Phail." Who failed is not necessarily Taito (well, they DO get an "F" for letting someone else put their mitts on their franchise) but this "Rising Star Games" who apparently OMITTED the option of being able to control Bubby with the d-pad!!! Why? Why did they remove it?! It makes no sense! In the Japanese version, you are able to control Bubby by either dragging him around by the stylus OR with the d-pad. There's no option for this, either, you can switch back and forth as desired, they are both constantly activated. Rather than running and jumping, and using the rainbows to climb as in the original games, Bubby just FLOATS, as he is permanently stuck within a bubble. It's a bore and a chore to begin with, but if you remove the ability to utilize the d-pad to control him, and are forced to move him with the stylus, it becomes infuriatingly NOT FUN. First of all, you're using the stylus to draw the rainbows now (much as I suspected before buying it), and I can deal with that. In fact you don't have to just draw an arc rainbow, you can draw a straight line, some kind of magnetizing pyramid, and, when powered up during a special time, a 5-pointed star. Just tapping the rainbow after you draw it makes it fall (in the same way jumping onto them in the old games made them drop) and you can kill enemies below you, and pick up power-up items as well. But in the English version, you are forced to drag and fling Bubby (or Bobby) around with the stylus only; the d-pad is dead, it literally does nothing, there is no option to turn it on, and the manual mentions nothing about it. During panicky moments, this causes you to sometimes 1) move Bubby when you meant to draw a rainbow nearby him instead, causing you to run into an enemy and die, 2) draw a rainbow instead of grabbing and moving Bubby, causing you to stay where you are as an enemy runs into you and you die, or 3) scribble furiously trying to draw a rainbow, move Bubby, or do ANYTHING as several enemies collide into you or you drift into the unnecessary plethora of spikes that poke and protrude at you from every angle. Even when you do get a power-up, it doesn't help much because you won't even survive long enough to utilize it much. It's not that the game is that hard, it's that you're so badly handicapped by the touchscreen controls because you have to multitask with one hand while your other one does nothing, while the game pulls some cheap punches on you. I bought the English version first, not having any clue about the controls, and by the time I reached the first boss was ready to throw my DS across the room. I searched furiously through the manual trying to find some mention of how to use the d-pad, only to come to the grim conclusion that you couldn't. However, when I learned later that the Japanese version does have d-pad control, I promptly sold my English version & got the Japanese one. There's barely any dialogue so the language is no barrier. The game is tolerable with d-pad controls, and here's why...

In the beginning it's not too harsh, but the game quickly becomes more difficult, perhaps too quickly, and not because the challenge rises but simply because of a slew of cheap tricks that you can't avoid with actual skill, only luck. Granted, the game notoriously threw surprises at you out of nowhere, that was one of the attributes to the classic version of the game, and often advancing to the higher levels required repeating a level over and over until you memorized enemy/boss patterns. Anyone who has ever played Rainbow Islands before to any degree would know this and expect it. But now not only do you have to climb the platforms within the alotted time (and believe me - the timer does NOT give you any breaks), and not only are the enemies swarming, diving and swooping at you, but now there are spikes everywhere and invisible frickin' airstreams that push and pull Bubby INTO the spikes and enemies!! So, while you're busy trying to doodle rainbows over and through the enemies and pick up a power-up or two, your character may or may not stay put. If you "parked" him somewhere in or near a jetstream, he may begin floating off into an enemy or one of a giant set of magnetizing spikes. Sometimes, due to little bubbles around you, you can see the jetstreams, while other times they're invisible and you just can't figure out why Bubby is not staying where you put him. Sometimes just finding a neutral place to park him momentarily is the equivalent of playing blind pacman. This is something I might expect on the higher levels, but this all occurs before the first boss. I never even LOOKED at the upper screen; I was so busy scribbling rainbows (there's a rainbow meter and you can only draw so many before you run out of juice, so there's a limit to how many you can draw and what size) and trying to keep my character away from enemies and spikes and out of jetstreams that I barely had a moment to take my eyes off the lower screen and see what was coming above me. If you can take a moment to look, it sort of helps you figure out where to go and what's coming down at you, but the space in between the screens throws you off and makes it so it doesn't help all that much anyhow. If you see an enemy descending on you from the upper screen, chances are by the time you look back down to move Bubby, it's already running into him.

All that being said, something just does not feel right about your character just standing there doing nothing while you draw the rainbows. The game is supposed to be about Bubby and Bobby's adventures, THEY are the ones going through the game, they were the ones hopping, climbing, and shooting rainbows. Now they just sit there helplessly in a bubble while some giant hand from above draws their rainbows for them and attempts to move and protect them. That doesn't even make any sense, even for in a fantasy world.

Replay? 1/10
Why even talk about being able to replay something I couldn't even tolerate playing through the first time? I did not finish the game - I'm about halfway through the Japanese version, and I can only handle it for so long before my tolerance runs out. That same urge to play and play in the other RI games is not there, and it's all I can do to force myself through a few levels. The "magic" of RI is nonexistent.

Buy, Rent or Run Away?
Run away from the English version!!! I suggest only hardcore RI fans buy the Japanese version, and only if they're fully aware that it's not going to play like the classic. You have read my review, so consider yourself warned. If you have no experience with past RI games then don't even bother going here, because you will feel like you wasted your money on an outdated-looking game that plays like crap. There are so many other DS or GBA games out there worthy of your 30-something bucks (if you want some reliable english versions of good Japanese games, check out atlus.com, almost every one of their games are worthy of purchase...they're almost as good as the now-defunct Working Designs when it comes to picking titles, and as of writing this review, you will see that GBA is not dead yet, thanks to Atlus!).

Final Score: 3/10
The English version gets a big zero. Rising Star Games get a big zero. The Japanese version gets a 3/10, as it is squarely below average, a poor excuse for utilizing the touchscreen, and is more a test of how much frustration you can stand than a fun way to kill some time. They could have EASILY included a classic version of the game on the same cart, too...thanks for nothing. It's also very disappointing for this particular fan who was looking forward to this title so much. I have been a RI fan ever since I had it on the TurboGrafx16. If you have an itch for some good RI action, find a copy of Bubble Bobble Featuring Rainbow Islands for the PSX and play that one.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/16/06