#28: Rainbow Islands (Taito/Ocean, Amiga, 1987/1989)

At first glance, Rainbow Islands seems like a pretty straightforward game. You shoot rainbows, use them to kill or avoid all the bad guys and climb to the top of the level. Then keep doing it until you have done all the levels. Job’s a good ‘un. But there’s actually a lot more going on, beneath the surface. Simply finishing all of the levels isn’t enough. Defeating each of the seven bosses, as impossible a task as it may seem, is only a part of the fight. There is always an even bigger, even more belligerent arsehole waiting in line. Gay marriage is legal now, and that is a wonderful and positive achievement, but it doesn’t mean the fight for acceptance is over.

Here’s the deal: If you kill an enemy by dropping a rainbow onto it from above, rather than hitting it directly, it will turn into a gem in one of the seven colours of the rainbow. Collecting all seven gemstones in a single world will net you a giant gem at the end of that world; red in the first world, orange in the second, et cetera. And, as it turns out, collecting all seven giant gemstones is required to access the three secret worlds beyond the seventh, which are necessary to obtain the true ending of the game. It feels like a lot of hoops to have to jump through, just to even get a seat at the table. Be gay, if you must, but you’d better do it in exactly the right way, if you want to be accepted. “I don’t mind what goes on behind closed doors, but for god’s sake, stop forcing it down my throat.”

But that’s not all. If you collect the seven small gems in a world in order, from red through to violet, you will be granted access to a secret room at the end of the world in which you will find both the giant gemstone for that world and a permanent power up. (And, to be clear, it is perfectly within the player’s control which colour of gem will be appearing when, dependent as it is on the position of an enemy when you drop a rainbow on their head.) Oh, and also, the door to these secret rooms appear at the start of each boss fight, which means they can be used to bypass the boss fights entirely. And this is not some sort of unintended glitch or exploit. This is very clearly programmed into the game as a perfectly valid way to progress. Which brings us to this: the central message of Rainbow Islands is to go out and live your life, your way, and when faced with aggressive bigots, you should slam a door in their face and never look back. Lovely.