Graphically, the game is played from a 2.5D view. You have weird little character who is mates with another little character, and both of you are trying to win one over another little character who is taking over the world with bad ass machinery. The characters are detailed enough but have no facial expressions or voiceovers. As mentioned above, your aim is to jump up various platforms. The rainbow lasts for about 5 seconds before dissolving. The platforms are quite good looking for a XBLA game, and a port, but the background is very obviously chromo key. It all looks nice and bright, and with its cheerfully gay music, it shows the game is for someone more female than say, me!

 

 

The game features 4 main modes. Story mode, Challenge mode, Time Mode and LIVE Mode. Basically the first three modes involves replaying the levels, but with different objectives. Story is the same as challenge except you unlock maps through story not challenge. Time mode is getting to the top to get a time on the leader board. All these modes are playable with a second controller, however to play online you need to be in LIVE Mode. The only mode vacant here is Story. To try and make all of these modes more unique, Challenge Mode and Time Mode allow you to control your avatar around the map, however, this is where some of the problems really show.

 

The controls are so sluggish and unreliable, when in Story mode, your protagonist is too bouncy and sensitive making it easy to fail a level, whereas when you play with your Avatar, he won’t even jump, requiring you to throw a million rainbows everywhere to make progress. Also you avatar looks perilously out of place in this mode, being completely static while you move him along. Not great to say the least.

 

When you encounter a creature, if you touch them in the slightest, you will be penalized by a massive 30 seconds to complete the level. Unfortunately there is no obvious way to ‘kill’ these creatures without touching them, and since they move really quickly, the game can be very infuriating. It took me a good half hour to complete the first level, which had a seriously bad time cap initially anyway.

 

If you have been a fan of Rainbow Islands since a young age, you may enjoy this title, but it feels too rushed out, without enough care for the gameplay, graphics and soundtrack. What I would have really liked in this game was multiple difficulty levels, some vague voiceovers and some great puzzles, but unfortunately all you get is a rock hard, unreliable AI with obvious paths. It is a shame the game suffers because of technical flaws because it’s not a bad game in itself, just not a must buy.