Bubble Bobble also featuring Rainbow Islands

The Good
This is without a doubt one of the best computer game retouches ever. Screw Rainbow Islands; I'm talking about Bubble Bobble - Rainbow Islands was just a bonus. But Bubble Bobble was one of my favorite games on the XT, and boy did I play this one to death.

The remake is simply amazing: revamped graphics that still stay true to the original, excellent music, good controls and the gameplay retains the charm of the original game without taking anything away from it. Simply magnificent!

The Bad
The addition of Rainbow Islands was really stupid (as was the game)... more importantly, I never find it in stores and was forced to play a pirated version. Oh well, life is tough :-)

The Bottom Line
A faithful and overall excellent remake of a true classic. Just make sure you stay away from Rainbow Islands.

The Good
Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands is the collection of the two hottest games ever to hit the arcades, and is a compilation designed for both PSX and PC. There is actually a third game included as well, but I’ll discuss this game later.

In Bubble Bobble, you play one of two dinosaurs that must rescue their girlfriends. You have to survive all 100 rounds trapping several enemies in bubbles, and then popping them. When you do this, they turn into fruit, which you can pick up for points. Help is always on its way, with bubbles containing thunderbolts, fire, and water, which can be used against your enemies. Get bubbles with the letters EXTEND separately to be awarded an extra life. The last round features a boss that takes quite a number of hits from thunderbolts to destroy, and the ending you’ll receive will be either good or bad, depending on whether you played with a friend. Highly addictive.

In Rainbow Islands, there are seven islands consisting of four rounds each. In each one of them, you must make your way towards the top of the screen, shooting all living wildlife with rainbows. In every last round, there is a nasty boss waiting to wipe you out. An enemy will leave behind a gem if you manage to wipe out two or more enemies at once. Collecting seven gems will not only gain you an extra life, but you’ll also be able to collecting one of the seven huge gems. Collect them all to reveal the seven hidden islands, where you will be able to collect three mirrors. Like in Bubble Bobble, you have a good and bad ending. If you follow my advice, then youÂ’ll receive the good ending, otherwise it’s the bad ending.

I stated earlier that there is a third game. This third game is basically an enhanced version of Rainbow Islands. The difference between this and the original game is that the graphics are a lot better, and there are detailed backgrounds rather than the blue or back background or whatever color Taito decided to use. For the sounds overall, there is sound support for Adlib, Sound Blaster, and MPU-401. The version of Bubble Bobble that you’ll get to play is almost identical to the coin-op version, regardless of which sound card you choose. In fact, all the games have the same sounds that you’ve heard from the coin-op version.

The Bad
As a result, the sounds became all static whether I run the pack from Windows or MS-DOS, but other than that, there were no bugs found, and the game was playable.

The Bottom Line
The only thing I have to say about this pack is that I hope you play better than I did. I’m absolute crap at Rainbow Islands. Since Taito developed the Bubble Bubble/Rainbow Islands compilation, I’d like to see another one containing Chase H.Q., Bonze Adventure, and Operation Wolf. And not just for the PSX 2.