Rainbow Islands Revolution

Rainbow Islands was another of those big coin-op classics from way back, though it is often forgotten in favour of its older brother, Bubble Bobble. It was probably rightfully in the shadow of its predecessor, as, arguably, Bubble Bobble is a much better game, but that isn't to say that Rainbow Islands was ever bad

 

The graphical style is still very cute, but it is different to the original

 

A great idea is included with a 'gestures' system of sorts, wherein the player holds down one of the shoulder buttons to give their rainbows different abilities, such as being able to draw a circle around the enemy to paralyse them, allowing the player to tap, hold, drag and fling them at other creatures to gain the precious diamonds needed for your character to gain extra powers until the end of an island (unless they die). A star can also be drawn if you have enough rainbow 'ink' (a trait that may have been inspired by Kirby: Power Paintbrush, but one that is certainly needed to stop players going manic and killing everything on a screen in one stroke), which acts as a smart bomb and clears the screen of enemies, but this can be quite difficult to do

 

Ah, the bosses. As previously mentioned, the enemies from the original are largely here, and the big guys are no exception. However, there are differences in how you take them on