And, as it turns out, this was true when I was 10 too. And while its difficulty certainly trends strongly toward the much easier end of that market, it's really not the cutesy bouncy kids game I'd wrongly remembered. It's a game that encourages the development of skill within its relatively few levels (four short vertical levels on each of the ten islands). Because of course like so many of Taito's games, it was designed for an arcade cabinet, and therefore the consumption of coins. If I had the patience and the wherewithal, this is a game I could get good at. I think that further emphasises to me what a good game this is. I mean, you could if you weren't cack-handed me, desperately flailing about and inevitably bumping into a baddie the moment I've boosted my rainbow powers into anything useful. All these elements combined, from just two buttons, create an elaborate and complicated means of interaction that allows for impressively tactical play.ДЇor instance, you can create cascading chains of rainbows, where jumping on one at the top causes a chain reaction that takes about a whole screen of enemies at once, filling it with vital pick-ups. Oh, and you can collect such items using rainbows too. Better yet, cast one over the top of an enemy, then jump onto the bow, and they're changed into a bonus item, such as collectable diamonds, speedy shoes, or most crucially, potions that let you fire your rainbow more quickly, or build up to double or triple rainbows. But they're also your only weapon, transforming enemies on contact into delicious treats.

Rainbows can also be run up, then jumped off, to create bridges through the sky.

Its mechanics are few, but so brilliantly realised that it shames most of your modern platform darlings. Rainbow Islands is a sublimely good platform game. Which makes just how absolutely terrible I am at it today all the more shameful. Indeed, so much of my after-school-but-before-dad-got-home time was spent playing this on our Atari ST when I was 10 years old. It's almost insufferably cute, with its array of adorable enemy creatures, sweetie and pudding pick-ups, and chubby-faced protagonists. Bub, or Bob, former dragon-shaped stars of Bubble Bobble, are returned to their human form and on a quest to climb ever-upward via their magical rainbow bridges, to rescue the Rainbow Islands from the clutches of the Dark Shadow. Rainbow Islands, to all intents and purposes, looks like a children's game. All but another 17 years later, I felt absolutely compelled to give it another play, driven by the fondest childhood memories of spending countless hours in its super-colourful world. Taito's 1987 sequel to the far more ubiquitous Bubble Bobble eventually reached our waters some 17 years later via Empire Interactive's Xplosiv label. Past Perfect is a retrospective column in which we look back into gaming history to see whether old favourites are still worth playing today.ДЇirst and foremost, yes, Rainbow Islands absolutely did come out on PC.

Nes rainbow island