Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
It is the 3rd work in the story of the company's Bubble Bobble series and a sequel to Rainbow Islands (1987), and it carries the subtitle "THE STORY OF BUBBLE BOBBLE III".
After joining Taito, he learned the basics of game planning at the Central Research Laboratory from Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ), who had worked on Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands, and read through the specifications of those 2 games.
In the "Cross Review" of the game magazine Famitsu it received a total of 26 out of 40. Marukatsu PC Engine gave scores of 9, 7, 7, and 7, for a total of 30 out of 40. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by PC Engine FAN its rating was 21.64 out of 30, as shown below.
This score also placed it 194th among all PC Engine titles (485 titles in total, as of 1993).
Entertainment Weekly chose the game as the 15th best game released in 1991, saying, "This is more fun to play than it is to describe.
CU Amiga praised the game, giving it 95% and a "Super Star".
Taito has officially stated that an arcade game was never produced.
Mick West (the programmer for the Amiga and Atari ST versions) said that they ported the game directly from the PC Engine by playing it and that he did not know anything about an arcade version.
Ocean initially explained that the developer's computer was stolen in a burglary, but it was later revealed that the game was scrapped after the freelance developer's wife destroyed said computer in a drunken rage, along with the backups of the work.
Nonetheless, Rainbow Islands is indeed the sequel to the original Bubble Bobble, even though said sequel doesn't retain the gameplay from the first.
CU Amiga praised the game, giving it 95% and a "Super Star".
Entertainment Weekly named Parasol Stars the 15th greatest game available in 1991, saying: "This one's even more fun to play than it is to describe: Bubby (or Bobby when two play simultaneously) uses his umbrella to flick bizarre meanies across the screen and turn them into pieces of cake, apples, mushrooms, etc., which he then gobbles up in order to earn points".
In an official interview in 2026, Uchimura said that, seen objectively, the game had not been able to surpass Bubble Bobble, but that he was glad there were people who rated it as a hidden classic.
CU Amiga praised the game, giving it 95% and a "Super Star".
According to Uchimura, home console titles are rarely ported, but this one has been comparatively fortunate, appearing on the Wii Virtual Console and on the overseas PC Engine mini.
According to Uchimura, home console titles are rarely ported, but this one has been comparatively fortunate, appearing on the Wii Virtual Console and on the overseas PC Engine mini.
Ocean initially explained that the developer's computer was stolen in a burglary, but it was later revealed that the game was scrapped after the freelance developer's wife destroyed said computer in a drunken rage, along with the backups of the work.
Nonetheless, Rainbow Islands is indeed the sequel to the original Bubble Bobble, even though said sequel doesn't retain the gameplay from the first.
The passages quoted on this page are taken verbatim from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — reusable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.