The “Extra Version” of Taito‘s classic Rainbow Islands is a modified version of the original arcade game, where the levels have been rearranged and the enemies changed to make the game more challenging. There are some new power-ups to discover, and the bosses have also been changed too. Rainbow Islands Extra was released into arcades in limited quantities in 1988, and was also released on the Sega Megadrive in 1990 and the FM Towns in 1992.

In the options there are three difficulty levels to choose from (Easy, Normal and Mania); you can change your ‘life stock’ from one to seven, and – most importantly – you can toggle between ‘Extra’ play mode and ‘Original’ play mode. So if you want to play the game as it was originally released, you can.

The Megadrive version of Rainbow Islands Extra was only ever released in Japan – by Ving – but the game is all in English, so is playable to Western gamers. Which is great because this is an excellent conversion. Arguably the best home Rainbow Islands port available.

Rainbow Islands Extra is considerably more difficult than the original, and the bosses are especially tough, so making it all the way through the seven available islands is an expert achievement.

If you’re a Rainbow Islands fan, or a Megadrive/Genesis owner, then this game is a must-own. It’s an almost perfect* port of a brilliant game and gives the Megadrive a classic game in its library that the SNES doesn’t have.

*= The only criticism I can give is that there is some sprite tearing on occasion – usually when there are lots of rainbows on-screen. While it is certainly noticeable, it doesn’t affect the gameplay in any way.

More: Rainbow Islands on Wikipedia