They took the rainbow — and made it a tool.
In most games, a rainbow is decoration. It sits in the background, pretty and useless. Rainbow Islands put it under your feet. You conjured rainbows out of thin air, walked on them, used them to crush enemies, climbed them to escape. Fukio Mitsuji, who designed the game, didn't believe in sudden inspiration. 'A game cannot exist without clear design intent,' he said. Years later, he ran a game design school — and made that idea the foundation of what he taught. The rainbow wasn't decoration. It was the whole point.
— inspired by Fukio Mitsuji
About this game
Released in 1988 for the Famicom, Rainbow Islands is the sequel to Taito's Bubble Bobble. Designer Fukio Mitsuji turned the rainbow from background decoration into the core mechanic: players conjure rainbows to use as platforms, weapons, and escape routes through seven vertically-scrolling islands. The Famicom version, developed by Disco (a Taito subsidiary), retained the original arcade's use of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' in its soundtrack — a detail later removed from other regional versions to avoid copyright issues. Mitsuji, who passed away in 2008, later founded a game design school where he taught that games require clear design intent, not sudden inspiration.
Gallery
The Story Behind
Rainbow Islands was released in arcades in 1987 and ported to the Famicom in July 1988. It served as the sequel to Bubble Bobble, returning protagonists Bub and Bob to human form. The game was designed by Fukio Mitsuji with music composed by Hisayoshi Ogura. The Famicom port was handled by Disco, an in-house subsidiary of Taito.
Tricks & Tales
The Japanese Famicom version retained the use of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' in its soundtrack, directly from the original arcade version. Later regional releases modified the music to avoid copyright issues. Fukio Mitsuji, the game's designer, later established a game design school where he taught his philosophy that clear design intent must precede any creative work.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
Famicom and NES are the same hardware family but use physically incompatible cartridge formats — Famicom carts have a 60-pin connector and a narrower shell, while NES carts use a 72-pin connector with a wider housing. You cannot insert a Famicom cartridge into a North American NES slot without an adapter, and vice versa. The Famicom itself has no lockout chip, so any Famicom cartridge from Japan will run on a Famicom console regardless of origin. If you are buying a Japanese Famicom cart to play on a NES, you will need a 60-to-72-pin physical adapter; if you own a Famicom, Japanese-market software is your native format and no workarounds are needed.
Maintenance Tips
The gold-plated edge connectors on Famicom and NES cartridges pick up skin oils and oxidation over decades — a gentle wipe with a cotton swab dampened in 90% or higher isopropyl alcohol, stroking along the length of the pins rather than across them, is the accepted standard. Let the alcohol fully evaporate before reinserting. The old habit of blowing into a cartridge is folklore: the moisture in breath causes slow corrosion of the contacts over time, and any improvement you felt came from the act of re-seating the cart, not from the breath itself. Nintendo eventually updated its own troubleshooting guidance to say explicitly: do not blow into your Game Paks.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 copies regularly.
Can I play this Famicom cartridge on my NES?
Not directly. The Famicom uses a 60-pin connector, while the NES was redesigned with a 72-pin connector — the cartridges are physically incompatible. To play Famicom games on an NES, you need a 60-to-72 pin adapter, which is available commercially. The adapter bypasses Nintendo's region lock chip and allows your NES to recognize the Famicom cartridge. Some non-North American NES systems may require pressing the reset button multiple times for the game to boot properly.
My Rainbow Islands cartridge won't start — what should I do?
The trouble is almost always dirty contacts, not a broken cartridge. Clean the gold pins gently with a cotton swab and 90%-or-higher isopropyl alcohol, wiping lengthwise along the pins. Let it dry completely before playing — any moisture can damage the delicate metal parts. Please don't blow into the cartridge: the moisture in your breath slowly corrodes the very pins you're trying to clean. Blowing only ever seemed to work because you also took the cartridge out and put it back while doing it.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2
A short checklist for buying a used Famicom cartridge wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Make sure it fits your console
This is a Japanese Famicom cartridge with a 60-pin connector; a North American NES uses a 72-pin slot, so it will not fit directly.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
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If this title saves your progress, check the battery
Cartridges that save use a small coin-cell battery that fades over decades — a dead one wipes your save without warning.
Ask the seller whether the save function was tested. Replacing the battery is possible, but doing so erases any existing save.
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Check that the contacts are clean
Dirty edge contacts are the most common cause of startup and sound trouble in cartridges of this age.
Choose a seller who cleans the contacts before shipping. A note that it was tested and cleaned means the basics were handled.
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Confirm it is genuine, not a reproduction
Sought-after titles are targets for reproduction boards with replacement labels.
Ask for a photo of the circuit board and look for factory markings. Favour a shop with a licensed second-hand dealer permit (古物商) — by law its stock has a traceable origin, your simplest guard against fakes.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See the unit we have →Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
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