Rainbow Islands Revolution – Exclusive Interview and Screens

Its not often that the announcement of new screenshots causes such a stir in the SPOnG office, but when we hear that Rising Star Games is dishing out the first screens of Rainbow Islands Revolution for the Nintendo DS then we go all dewy-eyed and even put on our Taito t-shirt to mark the occasion.

Any gamer of a certain age cannot but help remember Rainbow Islands with fondness – an immediately accessible, cutesy platformer which allowed you to fire rainbows into the sky and walk on them. It was, and is, and hopefully shall continue to be, a classic work of videogaming genius.

It will be interesting to see how the game is updated for Nintendo DS and how it makes us of the touch screen stylus. We are told, from the press release, that the game is entirely touch screen based. Hmmmm. With this in mind, SPOnG fired off a few questions to Mr. Tomio Kanazawa, the Senior Producer on Rainbow Islands Revolution at Rising Star Games:

SPOnG: We are told that the entire control method is now Touch Screen-based, considerably altering the original's "run, rainbow, jump" gameplay, with Bub or Bob sitting in an eternally floating bubble, being moved around the levels by touching and dragging with the Nintendo DS stylus. Doesn’t this make it a totally different experience to the original Rainbow Islands?

Tomio Kanazawa: Rainbow Islands Revolution still features the same central mechanics: Getting to a goal at the top of a level and defending yourself with rainbows. Whilst the platforming aspect has been refreshed, the basic premise of the game remains the same. Playing RIR is not a totally different experience at all, but the game mechanics have been updated to offer a method of control that modern games players have come to enjoy and expect.


SPOnG: If you are dragging your character around, how do you create rainbows? And how do the rainbows work in the game? What are the differences/developments on the original in this respect?

TK: Rainbows are drawn directly onto the touchscreen with the stylus and are manually tapped in order to make them fall. They work in pretty much the same way as they do in the original, except the player doesn't need to use them as bridges or platforms anymore.

The rainbow length is restricted, but can be extended by picking up the same power-ups that allowed double and triple rainbows in the original. There are also special rainbows that can be drawn if the player holds down one of the shoulder buttons. These have to be drawn in one of two specific shapes, but function as the trapping ability of the original's rainbows, such as when an enemy is trapped in the gap under a player's rainbow and it runs back and forth until the rainbow drops. Now players can draw a circular rainbow around the enemies they want to trap and either take them out with a traditional rainbow or "flick" them with a stylus. Flicked enemies bounce about like missiles for a short period and take out any enemy they touch, producing high-value bonus items.


SPOnG: Basically, we're worried this game will not be at all like Rainbow Islands? Can you put our minds at rest?

TK: A direct translation would be best suited to the GBA. However, the basic play mechanic, as outlined above, is identical. It even has the same secrets and techniques for unlocking the secret islands. It's as close to a genuine update as you could ask for and with the new touchscreen control method it also adds something entirely new.


Well, there we go - it sounds like Rainbow Islands, it looks like Rainbow Islands, but will it play like it? Watch this space for a full RIR preview and more news on new Rising Star titles coming up early next month. We can’t wait.