Still, let's not dwell on the negative. Although this CD-based title's instruction manual pales in comparison to its gameplay, I think it's worth checking out anyway. (As always, click on the scans shared here if you want to take a better or closer look at them.)
Unfortunately, the manual's "story" page, above, isn't as interesting as it probably would've been had Taito published this game instead of NEC Avenue. After all, Taito had a history of producing PC Engine manuals that featured plenty of charming, if strangely childish, illustrations. (The one packed along with the company's PC Engine ports of Don Doko Don, Mizubaku Daibouken and The New Zealand Story are good examples.)
Under NEC Avenue's care, though, Rainbow Islands' manual is crammed full of color screenshots rather than illustrations of any ilk. They're nice enough screenshots, it has to be said, but who on earth would rather encounter screenshots than illustrations while flipping through a game manual? Not me, I'll tell you that much.
At least the designers responsible for this instruction manual provided readers with looks at a good number of the game's stages--and even what I'm guessing is one of its endings, based on the colorfully congratulatory screenshot seen in upper-right corner of the page below.
That said, I would've exchanged all of this manual's color for a few doodles or drawings or other pieces of art. Oh, well, you can't always have everything, can you?
See also: previous 'Manual Stimulation' posts
Hopefully Atlantean is successful enough to spark some more homebrew games! It's awesome to see a new PCE release. I'm in agreement with you on Deep Blue--it was a chore to play but we need more underwater shooters. I'm ready for a new Sqoon game personally.
ReplyDeleteWell, it seems Aetherbyte has made quite a few homebrew PCE/TG16 games so far, Jeremy, so I'm guessing they'll continue making them even if this one isn't a smash success--although of course I hope it *is* a success, assuming the product is worth it, of course.
ReplyDeleteAnd, YES, a new Sqoon game would be amazing!
FYI for anyone who reads this post: I can now confirm that the "ending" screen shown and discussed in this post is only one of the possible endings to this game--and very likely is the "bad" ending. I just encountered its "good" ending during my own playthrough of this title, and it was quite a bit more exciting than a "Congratulations!" screen :)
ReplyDeleteWow I'm actually picking up much of the same games. Except for Uprising. That was the second 3DS game I bought and couldn't get into it. Hopefully you enjoy it though!
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