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Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (NES, USA, Japan)

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Title Screen

Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2

Developer: Disco
Publisher: Taito
Platform: NES
Released in JP: July 26, 1988
Released in US: June 1991


DevTextIcon.png This game has hidden development-related text.
SoundtestIcon.png This game has a hidden sound test.
LevelSelectIcon.png This game has a hidden level select.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.


A severely cut down port of the arcade original, although with cutscenes, different level designs, and "KiKi KaiKai Island", which replaces Magical Island in whole.

Unused Text

The Japanese version of this game contains leftovers from an early development stage. The string "SAMPLE VERSION" still exists among other strings in the game.

0001DAF0: 1B 18 10 1B 0A 16 16 0E 0D 26 0B 22 26 0D 12 1C ROGRAMMED]BY]DIS
0001DB00: 0C 18 1C 0A 16 19 15 0E 26 1F 0E 1B 1C 12 18 17 COSAMPLE]VERSION
0001DB10: A5 20 29 18 AA A0 00 BD 2A DB 99 E4 07 E8 C8 C0 .W`O..7.a...>...

Sound Select

Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (U) -!--1.png
Press Up, Left, Right, Down, A, B, A, Up when the word "START" begins flashing on the title screen. Press A or B to select a melody, then press Start to play it.

World Select

Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (U) -!--2.png
Press Left, B, Right, Up, Down, Left, Right, B when the word "START" begins flashing on the title screen. Press A or B to select a world, then press Start to play it.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan US
Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (J)-0-Title.png Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (U) -!--0.png

The US version added a trademark symbol to the title screen and changed some copyright information. The US title screen continues to animate after the sound test or stage select codes are entered, while the Japanese version stops animating instead.

Japan US

The title screen theme was also changed, originally it sounded exactly like the arcade version's High Score name entry, the US version still features some notes untouched though.

Islands 1-4

Japan US

The first four islands have all had their music changed from the arcade version's very "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"-ish motif to something a bit less infringing. Only the parts of the music that could have gotten Taito in legal trouble were changed; the bridges and bass line remain unaltered.

The altered theme went on to be used in future ports and rereleases of the arcade game, including the Master System, DOS, and Arcade Archives versions.

Bubble Island

Japan US

Due to an oversight in the sound code, the music for this stage was broken! The triangle channel in the US version breaks and starts playing garbage shortly after the song begins.

When loading song pointers, a value of 00 is treated as "end of data", which means that no part of a song may start at address $xx00. In the US version, the broken part of this track starts at $8E00, which causes the game to lose its place in the song data and play garbage.

Staff Roll

The US version's staff roll was completely redone.

US Japan JP Translation

NES RAINBOW PROJECT

- STAFF -

- PRODUCER -
KHK

- PLANNER -
SLEEPY TAKASE

- PROGRAMMER -
YUICHIRO.KAWAMUKI
OMAKE KZM
JYOJI.TAKAHASHI

- GRAPHICS -
SLEEPY TAKASE
YAMANA NONO
ITO

- SOUND -
MASAHIKO.TAKAKI
KAZUYUKI.ONUI
MR.YAGISHITA
SHOTARO
P.M.D.C.

- SPECIAL THANKS TO -
MTJ
I.F
MR.M
MR.YASUDA
IKASAMA
TEA
TOUCHAN


STAFF

ぷろぐらま〜
JYOJI,TAKAHASHI
DUNKER,KZM
YUICHIRO,KAWAMUKI

きゃらくた〜
やまな のの
BAITO,TAKASE

さうんど
SHOTARO
MASAHIKO,TAKAKI
KAZUYUKI,ONUI
MR,YAGISHITA

きかく
TAKASE

すぺしゃる さんくす つ〜
MTJ
I,F
ROOM 206
SUPER M
NANNO KHK
♥ TAITO FAMICOM TEAM ♥
かっちゃん、たっちゃん
ろむやき ばぐちえっく
おじゃまむし
げんばかんとく 
SHO,TAKAHASI

P,M,D,C,


STAFF

PROGRAMMER
JYOJI,TAKAHASHI
DUNKER,KZM
YUICHIRO,KAWAMUKI

CHARACTER
YAMANA NONO
BAITO,TAKASE

SOUND
SHOTARO
MASAHIKO TAKAKI
KAZUYUKI ONUI
MR,YAGISHITA

PLANNING
TAKASE

SPECIAL THANKS TO
MTJ
I,F
ROOM 206
SUPER M
NANNO KHK
♥ TAITO FAMICOM TEAM ♥
KACCHAN,TACCHAN
ROM YAKI BUGCHECK
OJAMAMUSHI
SITE SUPERVISOR
SHO,TAKAHASI

P,M,D,C