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

While Rainbow Islands might be comparatively generous in the number of manageable levels it gives you to ease you into things, it is still an arcade game, and as such, designed to kill you swiftly and mercilessly so as to harness more of your precious coins. Which means it can’t have you dilly-dallying around on those easy levels for long, and so each level has a very strict time limit in which it must be completed, or water will start to flood the screen rapidly, soon overwhelming you. You cannot rest easy, as a Rainbow Islander. Life is a constant struggle, a constant need to take action, to assert your existence.