I just think Hikari and Nick and pretty cute together idk man.
This is a game I've owned since my first trip to Japan eight years ago, but this month's TR theme finally pushed me to play it (I had always considered my Japanese not quite good enough to try it previously). A Japan-exclusive game I mostly knew for being one of Nintendo's worst selling first-party titles ever, it was only recently after playing moon that I learned that Captain Rainbow was the same dev team of Love De Lic alumni who made Giftpia and Chibi-Robo. With the combination of those two factors, I set to work at last playing through this oddball adventure game that I'd had on my shelf for so long. After 13 or so hours, I found my way to the good ending of the game.
Captain Rainbow is the story of the titular Captain Rainbow, or more accurately, Nick, whom Captain Rainbow is the alter ego to. He used to be a big shot TV superhero, hero to children everywhere, but as soon as a new big hero came onto the scene, Captain Rainbow found himself unloved and looking for answers. In his quest to regain his glory days, Nick builds a raft and sails off to find the legendary Mimin Island, where it's said wishes can be granted. Through some more shenanigans, Nick finds himself not just on the island, but also as the arbiter of wishes to the many other people who've come to the island. Those other people just also happen to be washed up Nintendo mascots from older games (a motley crew of characters from the nameless protagonist of Nintendo's "Golf" to even someone as recognizable as Birdo).
Captain Rainbow is an adventure game with some light action elements, and going around Mimin Island is how you'll experience his quest for renewed glory. Nick can transform into Captain Rainbow to use his yo-yo powers to destroy obstacles, but you have a timer on this and you'll need to eat fruit you find all around the island to refill your meter. If Nick chooses to help out the islanders with their problems and gain their trust, he can then take them up to the top of the island and have their wish granted (or he can just grant his own wish and get a bad ending). The only real action parts of the game come in this wish granting sequence, where you need to get to the shooting star that's landed (once you collect 20 little stars hidden around the island) and avoid evil ink-like darkness creatures who wanna steal the wish for themselves. Faking out these guys isn't too hard, especially if you're being Captain Rainbow to bop them in the face with your yo-yo. It's not super engaging, but like Chibi-Robo, Captain Rainbow's action segments are an element of the that doesn't exactly harm the game but definitely does feel out of place.
There are 12 islanders in total, and the length of just how much you'll have to help them with their problems varies from character to character. You actually never really see their wishes, and all you really see is Nick helping them improve their lives and qualities about themselves. Even as you go through the game, you end up playing as Captain Rainbow less and less as Nick is better equipped to solve their problems. The game's message is largely one around this, about how you don't need to be a super hero to help people out, and how you don't need some magic wish to make your life visibly better. All it takes to make things better and help people around you is to have the willingness to do it. It's not a story or message done quite as well as something like in moon or Chibi-Robo, but it's still a sweet story that I enjoyed most of.
That said, while the quality of the writing itself is often quite good, or at least charming, it often wanders into the realm of crass and even downright perverse. The game's treatment of Birdo may not be the most transphobic thing I've seen in a game (it's a disgusting caricature as opposed to being outright hateful/demonizing), and it honestly didn't ruin the game for me entirely (as it's out of the way fairly quick), but like how I feel with Mother 3, it's a black mark on the game's quality and is a HUGE caveat to anyone interested in playing it.
The game's presentation is very much in line with how Giftpia and Chibi-Robo look, but more towards how the former does things. The island is a super colorful but small location that you'll get to know pretty quickly, and the super deformed representations of other Nintendo characters is a mix of charming and uncanny. The music is also pretty good, and it suits the environments well. The themes of each of the islanders are also fun renditions either remixed from or inspired from (I think) the game's they're actually from, which is another nice touch.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. This is a pretty solid adventure game (no real moon logic to be found), and I enjoyed my time with it for the most part, but with the language barrier as well as the spotty writing, I don't think it's one super worth going for. If what I described sounds like something you'd be up for, I wouldn't call you a weirdo for wanting to experience the game yourself. But if the choice of your time is between this or most else of the Love De Lic alumni's library, I'd say this is definitely one you don't really need to give your time to. It's pretty good, but it's not THAT good, and it's no huge deal that English speakers never got this game.
Captain Rainbow is the story of the titular Captain Rainbow, or more accurately, Nick, whom Captain Rainbow is the alter ego to. He used to be a big shot TV superhero, hero to children everywhere, but as soon as a new big hero came onto the scene, Captain Rainbow found himself unloved and looking for answers. In his quest to regain his glory days, Nick builds a raft and sails off to find the legendary Mimin Island, where it's said wishes can be granted. Through some more shenanigans, Nick finds himself not just on the island, but also as the arbiter of wishes to the many other people who've come to the island. Those other people just also happen to be washed up Nintendo mascots from older games (a motley crew of characters from the nameless protagonist of Nintendo's "Golf" to even someone as recognizable as Birdo).
Captain Rainbow is an adventure game with some light action elements, and going around Mimin Island is how you'll experience his quest for renewed glory. Nick can transform into Captain Rainbow to use his yo-yo powers to destroy obstacles, but you have a timer on this and you'll need to eat fruit you find all around the island to refill your meter. If Nick chooses to help out the islanders with their problems and gain their trust, he can then take them up to the top of the island and have their wish granted (or he can just grant his own wish and get a bad ending). The only real action parts of the game come in this wish granting sequence, where you need to get to the shooting star that's landed (once you collect 20 little stars hidden around the island) and avoid evil ink-like darkness creatures who wanna steal the wish for themselves. Faking out these guys isn't too hard, especially if you're being Captain Rainbow to bop them in the face with your yo-yo. It's not super engaging, but like Chibi-Robo, Captain Rainbow's action segments are an element of the that doesn't exactly harm the game but definitely does feel out of place.
There are 12 islanders in total, and the length of just how much you'll have to help them with their problems varies from character to character. You actually never really see their wishes, and all you really see is Nick helping them improve their lives and qualities about themselves. Even as you go through the game, you end up playing as Captain Rainbow less and less as Nick is better equipped to solve their problems. The game's message is largely one around this, about how you don't need to be a super hero to help people out, and how you don't need some magic wish to make your life visibly better. All it takes to make things better and help people around you is to have the willingness to do it. It's not a story or message done quite as well as something like in moon or Chibi-Robo, but it's still a sweet story that I enjoyed most of.
That said, while the quality of the writing itself is often quite good, or at least charming, it often wanders into the realm of crass and even downright perverse. The game's treatment of Birdo may not be the most transphobic thing I've seen in a game (it's a disgusting caricature as opposed to being outright hateful/demonizing), and it honestly didn't ruin the game for me entirely (as it's out of the way fairly quick), but like how I feel with Mother 3, it's a black mark on the game's quality and is a HUGE caveat to anyone interested in playing it.
The game's presentation is very much in line with how Giftpia and Chibi-Robo look, but more towards how the former does things. The island is a super colorful but small location that you'll get to know pretty quickly, and the super deformed representations of other Nintendo characters is a mix of charming and uncanny. The music is also pretty good, and it suits the environments well. The themes of each of the islanders are also fun renditions either remixed from or inspired from (I think) the game's they're actually from, which is another nice touch.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. This is a pretty solid adventure game (no real moon logic to be found), and I enjoyed my time with it for the most part, but with the language barrier as well as the spotty writing, I don't think it's one super worth going for. If what I described sounds like something you'd be up for, I wouldn't call you a weirdo for wanting to experience the game yourself. But if the choice of your time is between this or most else of the Love De Lic alumni's library, I'd say this is definitely one you don't really need to give your time to. It's pretty good, but it's not THAT good, and it's no huge deal that English speakers never got this game.
i wish more people played this now that the translation patch has been out for a WHILE
from the brilliant minds that brought you "what if mario get HIGH from MUSHROOM" and "Sonic For Hire" comes the game that isn't very good
Mechanical minimalism is much more successful here than in other similar games. The point isn’t to make your game completely bare, but to populate it with pointless stuff. Truly leisurely empty “strolling” needs to have places to stop your trip, aimless landmarks. The feeling of a slow vastness needs to be evoked by the colourful emptiness reflected in elements, not in the absence of such objects. You evoke the soft candid drowsiness through the opaqueness of colourful materials. Animal Crossing, and, of course, studio Skip’s other works like Chibi-Robo and GIFTPIA excel at this (haven’t played the latter. A translation is completed but hacking needs to be done to make it a patch you can apply to ISOs).
A kind of sleepy pleasure, a game that kidnaps you into its rhythm. It’s hard to not become frustrated at its leisurely pace sometimes, but I wonder how much of that difficulty lies with how turbulent and lost most days spent in the digital non-places have become. Nowadays I often start a game to "get it off the checklist" (and sites like backloggd have gamified the exhaustion with which I play these days). A strategized plan made schedule, a ready-made bullet point formatter for what gaming should be. I check how long it takes before starting, I multitask and listen to podcasts while playing. All of this has made me increasingly impatient, and harder to curate a more intentional experience where I just sit down with a game for a couple of hours. It was seemingly impossible to not have every game be a haze of multimedia engagement, with different things going on in the background and at the ready, the procedural downloads of things outside the experience. Not that any experience is pure, but that it should be curated, intentionally embarked on, instead of a hallucinatory daze of "getting it over with". I haven't played a game normally in a while now, not like I used to anyways. Media consumption overdrive: tab out, check your phone, start a download, open up a stream - the game muddled irreparably on ghost copy presences, wireless gunk installs and mounts greyness. Lost in digital deep time. Suffocating electric mist is the norm, buzzing foam of static – sleepy vague executions of tired eyes, causing the game to bleed steadfast into a thousand simultaneous "goings-on".
Of course, games today encourage this fluidity, this "muddling". It’s worse to have a game that truly ends, instead of seamlessly merging in the grey gunk of the digital. A game gains much more in becoming a passive element than a contained experience. It's better to have people starting up the game to do their dailies, get their log-in bonuses, and finish the battle pass than having a more consistent but shorter game. Ultimately it gains in becoming a grey part of your life (even if this is particularly the case for multiplayer competitive games, and the features I listed are pretty much restricted to those, singleplayer games have also succumbed to the pressure of maximizing interconnectivity. Constantly platforms logging in your achievements, little quests for completing tutorials, etc etc. The game doesn’t trust you to go 5 seconds without a fresh notification going off. And some of these “connectivity features” while harmless and fun, like seeing that your friends are online, seeing the percentage of players that have completed a certain task, sharing screenshots and art or something; I nonetheless feel like it becomes harder for a game to sit by itself, to just be, for a second).
Captain Rainbow makes you slow down. A comfy boredom that manually reset my media consumption habits. The development of the game’s pace is clearly intentional: there is no way to run (you have a charge button but it makes your character trip and fall), you routinely stop to eat, and at some point you get a car but the only thing you can do is push it, which is just as slow (the developers are personally reprimanding the player for wanting the game to go faster, so they give you a van you can push, but not ride). Characters are also on a day and night cycle making you take your time. All this culminates in a gaming experience that is extremely effective at making its slowness enjoyable. Washed-up classic characters from Nintendo’s past provide a relaxing and familiar (although purposefully uncanny, like the cursing Birdo and Fat Little Mac) landscape. Also, you fish and catch bugs. Maybe bug catching is the aesthetic figure that represents a perfect middle ground between minimalism and action. Bug catching as rhythmic concept, as genre, with or without bugs.
If it seems like this review spent more time talking about other games it’s because I felt the negative work of the game, of “taking out the mental trash”, was one of its greatest strengths. It’s also a game that is not interesting to describe. Described clearly the game is boring and empty. And yet it’s none of those things. I can’t bring myself to write about how wacky the characters are and how funny the dialogue is or whatever because, honestly, it’s a mediocre game and the characters are hit or miss. But it successfully achieves a slow pace that is hard to execute, and for trying that, I’m thankful to it.
While other game might cultivate a certain emptiness to give rise to uneasy feelings (walking simulators like Firewatch, Everybody’s Gone to The Rapture, The Stanley Parable), I don’t think there are many like Captain Rainbow. There’s plenty of “cosy chill games”, but most of them are crafting games with pleasant art styles, none of them are truly about mostly aimless interaction.
A kind of sleepy pleasure, a game that kidnaps you into its rhythm. It’s hard to not become frustrated at its leisurely pace sometimes, but I wonder how much of that difficulty lies with how turbulent and lost most days spent in the digital non-places have become. Nowadays I often start a game to "get it off the checklist" (and sites like backloggd have gamified the exhaustion with which I play these days). A strategized plan made schedule, a ready-made bullet point formatter for what gaming should be. I check how long it takes before starting, I multitask and listen to podcasts while playing. All of this has made me increasingly impatient, and harder to curate a more intentional experience where I just sit down with a game for a couple of hours. It was seemingly impossible to not have every game be a haze of multimedia engagement, with different things going on in the background and at the ready, the procedural downloads of things outside the experience. Not that any experience is pure, but that it should be curated, intentionally embarked on, instead of a hallucinatory daze of "getting it over with". I haven't played a game normally in a while now, not like I used to anyways. Media consumption overdrive: tab out, check your phone, start a download, open up a stream - the game muddled irreparably on ghost copy presences, wireless gunk installs and mounts greyness. Lost in digital deep time. Suffocating electric mist is the norm, buzzing foam of static – sleepy vague executions of tired eyes, causing the game to bleed steadfast into a thousand simultaneous "goings-on".
Of course, games today encourage this fluidity, this "muddling". It’s worse to have a game that truly ends, instead of seamlessly merging in the grey gunk of the digital. A game gains much more in becoming a passive element than a contained experience. It's better to have people starting up the game to do their dailies, get their log-in bonuses, and finish the battle pass than having a more consistent but shorter game. Ultimately it gains in becoming a grey part of your life (even if this is particularly the case for multiplayer competitive games, and the features I listed are pretty much restricted to those, singleplayer games have also succumbed to the pressure of maximizing interconnectivity. Constantly platforms logging in your achievements, little quests for completing tutorials, etc etc. The game doesn’t trust you to go 5 seconds without a fresh notification going off. And some of these “connectivity features” while harmless and fun, like seeing that your friends are online, seeing the percentage of players that have completed a certain task, sharing screenshots and art or something; I nonetheless feel like it becomes harder for a game to sit by itself, to just be, for a second).
Captain Rainbow makes you slow down. A comfy boredom that manually reset my media consumption habits. The development of the game’s pace is clearly intentional: there is no way to run (you have a charge button but it makes your character trip and fall), you routinely stop to eat, and at some point you get a car but the only thing you can do is push it, which is just as slow (the developers are personally reprimanding the player for wanting the game to go faster, so they give you a van you can push, but not ride). Characters are also on a day and night cycle making you take your time. All this culminates in a gaming experience that is extremely effective at making its slowness enjoyable. Washed-up classic characters from Nintendo’s past provide a relaxing and familiar (although purposefully uncanny, like the cursing Birdo and Fat Little Mac) landscape. Also, you fish and catch bugs. Maybe bug catching is the aesthetic figure that represents a perfect middle ground between minimalism and action. Bug catching as rhythmic concept, as genre, with or without bugs.
If it seems like this review spent more time talking about other games it’s because I felt the negative work of the game, of “taking out the mental trash”, was one of its greatest strengths. It’s also a game that is not interesting to describe. Described clearly the game is boring and empty. And yet it’s none of those things. I can’t bring myself to write about how wacky the characters are and how funny the dialogue is or whatever because, honestly, it’s a mediocre game and the characters are hit or miss. But it successfully achieves a slow pace that is hard to execute, and for trying that, I’m thankful to it.
While other game might cultivate a certain emptiness to give rise to uneasy feelings (walking simulators like Firewatch, Everybody’s Gone to The Rapture, The Stanley Parable), I don’t think there are many like Captain Rainbow. There’s plenty of “cosy chill games”, but most of them are crafting games with pleasant art styles, none of them are truly about mostly aimless interaction.
Captain☆Rainbow:
I loved what Chibi-Robo offered even though I had some serious flaws with it and I definitely wanted to check Skip's next big console game being Captain☆Rainbow. It looked just like Chibi-Robo but with an amazing premise.
The premise of the game is that Nick's TV Show Captain☆Rainbow got unpopular and so he found his way to Mimin Island where obscure, unkown characters from Nintendo's past lives and wants their wish to be granted.
My favorite thing about the game are characters and how lively Mimin Island is. For example Devil from Devil World on NES wants be evil and you help him just so you can get the items he steals. His dialogue is beyond top notch and the interactions, running animation is so well done. In one of his wishes he wants you to give him 2 pies and so you make Hikari from Shin Osigami on NES make 2 pies and when you give it to Devil he goes to Lip from Panel de Pon and Hikari and throw the pies in their face. Then at night when you talk to him. He tells you how he kind of regrets what he did and might apologize later. He is also funny as hell. Most characters are wacky as hell.
As I've mentioned the world is very lively too, for example Famicom Soldiers from Advance Wars wants to be the world's best Voleyball players. And you only can help them at day. So at night when you check them they are chatting and such. But you notice that there is a Crazy Tracy Poster who is from Link's Awakening and is the woman that everybody loves in the island. You see one of the soldiers secretly go to her castle at night sometimes. There is also Mappo who is from Giftpia, Skip Ltd.'s first game and Mappo is the police of the island and he detecs different things depending on who you help. Such as he noting down if Devil is doing something evil at night while you are helping him. Or Mappo's interactions with Birdo which is very funny where Mappo put Birdo in prison. And Birdo calls every bad word to Mappo and Mappo doesn't give a shit unless you make him to. This game feels so lively that I couldn't help but feel nostalgic the moment game finished. The ending may tear you apart if you cared about the game as much as I did.
Gameplay is simple and works for what kind of game it is. Since you help a lot of cool characters you are constantly doing new mini-games and interactions with them. You help Little Mac from Punch Out! who became fat train in a rhythm game style mini-game and train him just enough so he doesn't get too slim or fat. In one mini-game you help Ossan from Golf on NES to find his club. You see that Devil took it and you do his evil jobs to get it and play a golfing mini-game to train him to be the best golf player in the world.
Aside from character focused mini-games there is the main gameplay where you control Nick and can transform to Captain☆Rainbow. You explore the whole town and help others. There are side things to do such as fishing and catching bugs to fill the encyclopedia. You can explore the world to gain new abilites that will lead you to new places and find different shaped rocks that will tell you more about the Island and Mimins living it that are the reasons Nick is able to grant wishes. Yes there is a lore behind it, I love this place. Nick also collects sparklies to gain access to the wish star. When he collects 20 of them which can be collected by doing what residents want or just exploring. You choose the resident you gained trust in by making what they want and send them off the island in a cool way while fighting with enemies.
I also love the detail, charm and effort put into this game. Whenever you send somebody off the island you go to this secret beach to see that residents sent you letters and music which thanks you and makes you strangely emotional that you can display in your own Trailer House which is so cool and gained when you send 3 residents from the Island. I also recommend not sending more than 3 residents because the interactions between them are so so unique and charming. The artstyle is unlike anything having different shapes and an artstyle that probably will never get old. Not to mention the amazing OST that resembles the atmosphere you are in so well and has a lot of variety.
As much as I love this game and it is one of my favorite games, there is a big issue. See, this game is a Japanese only title and there is a fan translation for it with a patch thanks to Markass. But this translation is hit and miss. Sometimes it captures the humour perfectly and very well done. Sometimes it just doesnt make sense and sometimes it says " You can open this" as "You can not open this". Some of these werent a big issue and you mostly understood what it meant but my biggest issue with it is that its not completed. Only 90 percent of it is in English and Japanese parts may come as annoying at times. I sometimes searched what it meant cus I was curious.
Overall I love this game, might be one of the most charming and unique games I've ever played, I loved how lively it felt and It felt like I was living there and this game became a "part" of my life while I was playing it. I fully recommend it to you but keep in mind that the fan translation isn't the best.
I loved what Chibi-Robo offered even though I had some serious flaws with it and I definitely wanted to check Skip's next big console game being Captain☆Rainbow. It looked just like Chibi-Robo but with an amazing premise.
The premise of the game is that Nick's TV Show Captain☆Rainbow got unpopular and so he found his way to Mimin Island where obscure, unkown characters from Nintendo's past lives and wants their wish to be granted.
My favorite thing about the game are characters and how lively Mimin Island is. For example Devil from Devil World on NES wants be evil and you help him just so you can get the items he steals. His dialogue is beyond top notch and the interactions, running animation is so well done. In one of his wishes he wants you to give him 2 pies and so you make Hikari from Shin Osigami on NES make 2 pies and when you give it to Devil he goes to Lip from Panel de Pon and Hikari and throw the pies in their face. Then at night when you talk to him. He tells you how he kind of regrets what he did and might apologize later. He is also funny as hell. Most characters are wacky as hell.
As I've mentioned the world is very lively too, for example Famicom Soldiers from Advance Wars wants to be the world's best Voleyball players. And you only can help them at day. So at night when you check them they are chatting and such. But you notice that there is a Crazy Tracy Poster who is from Link's Awakening and is the woman that everybody loves in the island. You see one of the soldiers secretly go to her castle at night sometimes. There is also Mappo who is from Giftpia, Skip Ltd.'s first game and Mappo is the police of the island and he detecs different things depending on who you help. Such as he noting down if Devil is doing something evil at night while you are helping him. Or Mappo's interactions with Birdo which is very funny where Mappo put Birdo in prison. And Birdo calls every bad word to Mappo and Mappo doesn't give a shit unless you make him to. This game feels so lively that I couldn't help but feel nostalgic the moment game finished. The ending may tear you apart if you cared about the game as much as I did.
Gameplay is simple and works for what kind of game it is. Since you help a lot of cool characters you are constantly doing new mini-games and interactions with them. You help Little Mac from Punch Out! who became fat train in a rhythm game style mini-game and train him just enough so he doesn't get too slim or fat. In one mini-game you help Ossan from Golf on NES to find his club. You see that Devil took it and you do his evil jobs to get it and play a golfing mini-game to train him to be the best golf player in the world.
Aside from character focused mini-games there is the main gameplay where you control Nick and can transform to Captain☆Rainbow. You explore the whole town and help others. There are side things to do such as fishing and catching bugs to fill the encyclopedia. You can explore the world to gain new abilites that will lead you to new places and find different shaped rocks that will tell you more about the Island and Mimins living it that are the reasons Nick is able to grant wishes. Yes there is a lore behind it, I love this place. Nick also collects sparklies to gain access to the wish star. When he collects 20 of them which can be collected by doing what residents want or just exploring. You choose the resident you gained trust in by making what they want and send them off the island in a cool way while fighting with enemies.
I also love the detail, charm and effort put into this game. Whenever you send somebody off the island you go to this secret beach to see that residents sent you letters and music which thanks you and makes you strangely emotional that you can display in your own Trailer House which is so cool and gained when you send 3 residents from the Island. I also recommend not sending more than 3 residents because the interactions between them are so so unique and charming. The artstyle is unlike anything having different shapes and an artstyle that probably will never get old. Not to mention the amazing OST that resembles the atmosphere you are in so well and has a lot of variety.
As much as I love this game and it is one of my favorite games, there is a big issue. See, this game is a Japanese only title and there is a fan translation for it with a patch thanks to Markass. But this translation is hit and miss. Sometimes it captures the humour perfectly and very well done. Sometimes it just doesnt make sense and sometimes it says " You can open this" as "You can not open this". Some of these werent a big issue and you mostly understood what it meant but my biggest issue with it is that its not completed. Only 90 percent of it is in English and Japanese parts may come as annoying at times. I sometimes searched what it meant cus I was curious.
Overall I love this game, might be one of the most charming and unique games I've ever played, I loved how lively it felt and It felt like I was living there and this game became a "part" of my life while I was playing it. I fully recommend it to you but keep in mind that the fan translation isn't the best.
I really wanted to like this. The premise of helping out forgotten Nintendo characters is so charming and cute and the artstyle is great, I wanted to like this game so dang much. But a lot of the character ideas are so.... lazy. "Little Mac got fat! Tracy's a dominatrix! Trans jokes about Birdo!" Its more like a Newgrounds video than anything else and its so discouraging considering how much work I put into play this at all. It feels like that the people who made Chibi-Robo forgot how to write with charm and care and just thought it'd be funny to make classic characters "dark." What a tragedy.
I always wanted to play this game but Nintendo won't let me. I played it with any translation patches, though, and like its style. But it is for the most part a slow and dialogue driven game, which isn't really my style, so I couldn't get the most of it.
I remember seeing this game way back in middle/early high school in all those sites and youtube videos showing "japans SECRET hidden gems that english speakers are TOO LAME to ever experience", and this game was one of the poster-games that kickstarted me actually getting off my ass to hit the books and learn Japanese. The game does have a fan translation, and ironically, that's actually what I ended up playing so the people watching me play could follow along in english.
Firstly, that fan translation. The website says that it's "95% complete" but imma be real with yall and say it's a good thing I actually knew how to read Japanese for when it shows up, because it really felt 75% complete at best. There were all too many times where the english text just gave up and just went back to JPN characters, and while I feel like enough is translated for someone with no japanese understanding whatsoever to fumble through the rough bits, it's certainly not ideal. The translation itself is also quite rough, there's a fair amount of typos and formatting errors. I can't really fault the game for these things, nor can I really dismiss the large amount of work that goes into fan translating a game in the first place, but it is worth pointing out for those that want to try this game out for themselves.
The premise of the game is absolutely me-bait. A game made by the chibi-robo developers that takes place on an island of misfit nintendo characters and you need to help them solve their problems and make their dreams come true as the titular captain rainbow.
The gameplay is quite unique, typical of skip games. There's like two gameplay modes; one where the game is a typical adventure game where you use your items and abilities to interact with and help the islanders with their various troubles. Eventually, once a problem is solved with an islander, a strong bond will be formed with them and they will give you these star collectables, which can also be found throughout the map. Collecting 20 stars will activate a starfall night, where a large star lands somewhere randomly on the island, and if you can find it, bring it to an islander that you have a strong bond with, and take them up to the heavenly star altar, you can ascend them to the stars, where whatever wish they have will come true. While ascending a character does remove them from the game permanently, the game is structured in a way where it both won't ever run out of collectable stars to activate the starfall nights with, nor will ascending a particular character get you stuck in a dead game. Ascend every character, and you get the good ending! Ironically outside of using the occasional ability and his quicker movement speed, there's not actually much use in playing as captain rainbow instead of his alter-ego, Nick, and the Rainbow transformation is on a timer that kills you if it runs out so I really spent most of the time in Captain Rainbow not actually being Captain Rainbow.
And as for the characters themselves, what a lively roster! There's Hikari from Shin Onigashima, Mappo from Giftpia, the soldiers from Famicom Wars, Takamaru from Nazo no Murasamejo, among other weirdoes and wackjobs from Nintendo's back catalogue. They all aren't the deepest of deep cuts, Birdo is a pretty popular Mario character and Little Mac has found new employment in Smash Bros, but most of the pulls are certifiably B-list. Despite the fact that every character has their own legacy's worth of history and background to pull from, surprisingly enough none of it really matters. You could pretty much replace the entire roster of wackjobs with generic equivalents and literally nothing would change whatsoever. You don't have to have played Golf on NES to know the old golfer mans unhygienic lifestyle, or read up on hours of Link's Awakening lore to understand what Crazy Tracy's deal is. It's incredibly beginner friendly for any newcomer to get into without needing to do piles of old Nintendo research, as the links between the characters and their mother IP is, quite literally, trivial. Did you know that Lip, the genki allergy-ridden magical girl in this game, is from Panel de Pon, the Japanese version of Tetris Attack? You don't need to. It doesn't matter.
Love-de-lic derivative games like this usually have some kind of greater message and theme in them, and I'm not entirely sure what this ones message is. The game is mostly about vibing on the island with a bunch of fellow misfits, all with unfulfilled dreams in their hearts and a whole lot of time on their hands. As the game goes on and more and more characters get ascended, things start getting really empty and lonely as there's just nobody around to give the island its energy. But the islanders have goals they want to accomplish, and while it's nice to appreciate the vibes of just being in that stagnant in-between part of life, by the end of the day it's better for everyone to go and make their dreams come true. And if you send someone out to make their dreams come true, they will inevitably come back. I think that's the kind of message the game is trying to convey.
The game certainly has a few qualms (why the hell is that stupid 50 hidden mimin easter egg hunt mandatory), but I did have quite a fun time playing through this game. It has that style of charm that skip/love-de-lic titles usually have, but without very many of the love-de-licisms that drive me crazy. It's just a very comfortable game to just be scooting around helpin people out on mimin island, and I'd definitely recommend giving it a try, jank enough as the English translation may be.
Firstly, that fan translation. The website says that it's "95% complete" but imma be real with yall and say it's a good thing I actually knew how to read Japanese for when it shows up, because it really felt 75% complete at best. There were all too many times where the english text just gave up and just went back to JPN characters, and while I feel like enough is translated for someone with no japanese understanding whatsoever to fumble through the rough bits, it's certainly not ideal. The translation itself is also quite rough, there's a fair amount of typos and formatting errors. I can't really fault the game for these things, nor can I really dismiss the large amount of work that goes into fan translating a game in the first place, but it is worth pointing out for those that want to try this game out for themselves.
The premise of the game is absolutely me-bait. A game made by the chibi-robo developers that takes place on an island of misfit nintendo characters and you need to help them solve their problems and make their dreams come true as the titular captain rainbow.
The gameplay is quite unique, typical of skip games. There's like two gameplay modes; one where the game is a typical adventure game where you use your items and abilities to interact with and help the islanders with their various troubles. Eventually, once a problem is solved with an islander, a strong bond will be formed with them and they will give you these star collectables, which can also be found throughout the map. Collecting 20 stars will activate a starfall night, where a large star lands somewhere randomly on the island, and if you can find it, bring it to an islander that you have a strong bond with, and take them up to the heavenly star altar, you can ascend them to the stars, where whatever wish they have will come true. While ascending a character does remove them from the game permanently, the game is structured in a way where it both won't ever run out of collectable stars to activate the starfall nights with, nor will ascending a particular character get you stuck in a dead game. Ascend every character, and you get the good ending! Ironically outside of using the occasional ability and his quicker movement speed, there's not actually much use in playing as captain rainbow instead of his alter-ego, Nick, and the Rainbow transformation is on a timer that kills you if it runs out so I really spent most of the time in Captain Rainbow not actually being Captain Rainbow.
And as for the characters themselves, what a lively roster! There's Hikari from Shin Onigashima, Mappo from Giftpia, the soldiers from Famicom Wars, Takamaru from Nazo no Murasamejo, among other weirdoes and wackjobs from Nintendo's back catalogue. They all aren't the deepest of deep cuts, Birdo is a pretty popular Mario character and Little Mac has found new employment in Smash Bros, but most of the pulls are certifiably B-list. Despite the fact that every character has their own legacy's worth of history and background to pull from, surprisingly enough none of it really matters. You could pretty much replace the entire roster of wackjobs with generic equivalents and literally nothing would change whatsoever. You don't have to have played Golf on NES to know the old golfer mans unhygienic lifestyle, or read up on hours of Link's Awakening lore to understand what Crazy Tracy's deal is. It's incredibly beginner friendly for any newcomer to get into without needing to do piles of old Nintendo research, as the links between the characters and their mother IP is, quite literally, trivial. Did you know that Lip, the genki allergy-ridden magical girl in this game, is from Panel de Pon, the Japanese version of Tetris Attack? You don't need to. It doesn't matter.
Love-de-lic derivative games like this usually have some kind of greater message and theme in them, and I'm not entirely sure what this ones message is. The game is mostly about vibing on the island with a bunch of fellow misfits, all with unfulfilled dreams in their hearts and a whole lot of time on their hands. As the game goes on and more and more characters get ascended, things start getting really empty and lonely as there's just nobody around to give the island its energy. But the islanders have goals they want to accomplish, and while it's nice to appreciate the vibes of just being in that stagnant in-between part of life, by the end of the day it's better for everyone to go and make their dreams come true. And if you send someone out to make their dreams come true, they will inevitably come back. I think that's the kind of message the game is trying to convey.
The game certainly has a few qualms (why the hell is that stupid 50 hidden mimin easter egg hunt mandatory), but I did have quite a fun time playing through this game. It has that style of charm that skip/love-de-lic titles usually have, but without very many of the love-de-licisms that drive me crazy. It's just a very comfortable game to just be scooting around helpin people out on mimin island, and I'd definitely recommend giving it a try, jank enough as the English translation may be.
This holds a special little place in my heart, a sweet heartwarming gem that I uh...totally...played legitimately.
----------------------------------------INTRO--------------------------------------
This game sports one of the best videogame soundtracks I've yet heard. One listen to the day theme might lead you to join me in this conclusion. Unique, jazz fusion-flavored bass and guitar mixed with a bit of light and floaty ukulele, to give a sense of whimsy. Aesthetically, everything is bright and explodes with color. A vivid, tropical palette. Mixed with Skip (one of my favorite developers) quirky humor, we should have a masterpiece on our hands. Unfortunately, something went wrong here for me. Let's talk about what went right, first, however.
Captain Rainbow is up there in the echelon of unapologetically strange, surreal and colorful. Up there along with the games "Nintendo wants you to forget about", it is genuinely one of the most left-field games published by them. Perhaps we can even call it, for lack of a better term, the most "profane", humor-wise, of Nintendo's library.
--------------------------------------STORY--------------------------------------
The story goes like this. Nick is our hero, who's superhero alter-ego is the eponymous "Captain Rainbow". Captain Rainbow has fallen out of popularity, so Nick goes on a voyage of self-discovery, on a raft, only for a storm to hit him. He washes up on a mysterious island, who meets a woman named Hikari who explains the story of the island. The island is called "Mimin Island", named after the supernatural creatures inhabiting it. Most of the characters living here are retired or forgotten Nintendo characters. Little Mac is here for example, even Crazy Tracey from Link's Awakening. The thing is, each of these characters are heavily caricaturized. Little Mac is now out of shape, and Tracey is now a lascivious woman who wants to seduce every man in the world. Birdo... I can't even describe. Believe me, I completely understand why this game wasn't brought to western audiences. It probably would've changed our perception of Nintendo as family-friendly and innocent.
Every character on this island has a wish. A chosen hero is supposed to be picked by the Mimin for the purpose of granting wishes. Nick eventually discovers he is "the chosen one" who must grant every one of these characters wishes.
---------------------THE GOOD, THE BAD ᵃⁿᵈ ᵗʰᵉ ᵘᵍˡʸ---------------------
It's all building up to be something beautiful. It is something beautiful, aesthetically. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into the pace of the game. My biggest complaint was that the island felt "empty". By empty, I mean there is a lot of space, but not a lot of meaningful space. They got the aesthetic down perfectly, don't get me wrong, but they missed something here.
To use an example of another Skip game, Chibi Robo (the original one, but Park Patrol and Okaeri! work too). Maybe it was the really emotional storytelling of Chibi-Robo that sold me on it, yet, I also think they did something amazing with the space in that game. There was a very meaningful progression from one area to the next. Going into the foyer, you would come across the Free Rangers, egg soldiers whose purpose was to defend the house from intruders. Then in the basement you would find the forgotten pirate, Plankbeard. I liked this because each character played a role in the space they were assigned. Blackbeard, the forgotten pirate, in the strange and shady basement. Free Rangers, the defenders of the vast foyer, near the entrace of the house. This game kind of misses the mark in connecting characters to their spaces.
Sure, each character has a day-and-night cycle and routine, which was awesome. Yet there wasn't enough fascination here with the characters routines in the first place. Much of the action in the game takes place outside. The lack of large interiors (other than Tracey's house) is really interesting, but it also very much limits the game. Most of the interiors here are cramped and don't have much to do in them. I bring this up, because without purposeful buildings, I didn't feel a sense that there was really anywhere to go, or anything new to see. This not only affects the player, but the characters living in this world. What part of their routine defines them and connects them to the island, as well as the other characters? Sure, each character had a routine that very much connected to their, albeit caricaturized, personality. Lip from "Panel de Pon" features in this game. She has bad allergies, so she wears a mask. Funnily enough, she spends a lot of time around flowers. Point being, this was a really funny example of how someone's personality quirks DID connect with their routine and living space.
Still, however, there wasn't enough beyond this limited palette of silly and caricaturized personality to really interest me in the characters. When you talked to these folks, you would often get very short responses. Also, they, as far as I know, would rarely talk or interact with each other. So even if they had lovable and unique personalities, they were isolated, and thus the space felt very cold and separated. In Chibi-Robo, once again, I felt very much attuned to the space and lives of the characters. It was really "lived-in", and my favorite thing was to see how each characters story related to another person or character. The characters are wandering around the island here, but they don't feel in tune with the space, or each other. They are like molecules bouncing around in wide open spaces, gaseous. Their identity, however charming it is, still feels unformed and separated.
Also, there is one sour minigame: Takamaru's meditation. In this minigame you have to press most of the buttons on the Wii remote and nunchuk simultaneously, without letting go of any of them. If anyone figured out how to do this, let me know. I would've liked for the game to have let you replay these minigames immediately. That's not the case. You have to wait a full day to retry the minigames. It makes it a very time consuming game. Other reviewers (Rombouts) have pointed to this as being part of the charm and style of the game, which makes you take your time and just experience things, giving it a living feel. On paper though, it does produce more of a mind-numbing and frustrating repetition than a laid-back appreciation.
--------------------------------------CONCLUSION--------------------------------------
Overall, my opinions of this game are not negative in any way. Skip very much delivers. However, it wasn't for me. It very much feels like the descendent of "Moon: Remix RPG Adventure" (which is a game I also love). It is a sometimes difficult and oblique adventure game. I had trouble appreciating it gameplay wise (aesthetically it's awesome), due to it's somewhat repetitive gameplay, difficulty attaching myself to the characters, and lack of much meaningful activities during the in-between moments. There is animal-collecting, but I wish there was a little something more.
My overall impressions are positive, so I will come back to this one. It is the sole reason I imported a Japanese Wii, after all.
This game sports one of the best videogame soundtracks I've yet heard. One listen to the day theme might lead you to join me in this conclusion. Unique, jazz fusion-flavored bass and guitar mixed with a bit of light and floaty ukulele, to give a sense of whimsy. Aesthetically, everything is bright and explodes with color. A vivid, tropical palette. Mixed with Skip (one of my favorite developers) quirky humor, we should have a masterpiece on our hands. Unfortunately, something went wrong here for me. Let's talk about what went right, first, however.
Captain Rainbow is up there in the echelon of unapologetically strange, surreal and colorful. Up there along with the games "Nintendo wants you to forget about", it is genuinely one of the most left-field games published by them. Perhaps we can even call it, for lack of a better term, the most "profane", humor-wise, of Nintendo's library.
--------------------------------------STORY--------------------------------------
The story goes like this. Nick is our hero, who's superhero alter-ego is the eponymous "Captain Rainbow". Captain Rainbow has fallen out of popularity, so Nick goes on a voyage of self-discovery, on a raft, only for a storm to hit him. He washes up on a mysterious island, who meets a woman named Hikari who explains the story of the island. The island is called "Mimin Island", named after the supernatural creatures inhabiting it. Most of the characters living here are retired or forgotten Nintendo characters. Little Mac is here for example, even Crazy Tracey from Link's Awakening. The thing is, each of these characters are heavily caricaturized. Little Mac is now out of shape, and Tracey is now a lascivious woman who wants to seduce every man in the world. Birdo... I can't even describe. Believe me, I completely understand why this game wasn't brought to western audiences. It probably would've changed our perception of Nintendo as family-friendly and innocent.
Every character on this island has a wish. A chosen hero is supposed to be picked by the Mimin for the purpose of granting wishes. Nick eventually discovers he is "the chosen one" who must grant every one of these characters wishes.
---------------------THE GOOD, THE BAD ᵃⁿᵈ ᵗʰᵉ ᵘᵍˡʸ---------------------
It's all building up to be something beautiful. It is something beautiful, aesthetically. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into the pace of the game. My biggest complaint was that the island felt "empty". By empty, I mean there is a lot of space, but not a lot of meaningful space. They got the aesthetic down perfectly, don't get me wrong, but they missed something here.
To use an example of another Skip game, Chibi Robo (the original one, but Park Patrol and Okaeri! work too). Maybe it was the really emotional storytelling of Chibi-Robo that sold me on it, yet, I also think they did something amazing with the space in that game. There was a very meaningful progression from one area to the next. Going into the foyer, you would come across the Free Rangers, egg soldiers whose purpose was to defend the house from intruders. Then in the basement you would find the forgotten pirate, Plankbeard. I liked this because each character played a role in the space they were assigned. Blackbeard, the forgotten pirate, in the strange and shady basement. Free Rangers, the defenders of the vast foyer, near the entrace of the house. This game kind of misses the mark in connecting characters to their spaces.
Sure, each character has a day-and-night cycle and routine, which was awesome. Yet there wasn't enough fascination here with the characters routines in the first place. Much of the action in the game takes place outside. The lack of large interiors (other than Tracey's house) is really interesting, but it also very much limits the game. Most of the interiors here are cramped and don't have much to do in them. I bring this up, because without purposeful buildings, I didn't feel a sense that there was really anywhere to go, or anything new to see. This not only affects the player, but the characters living in this world. What part of their routine defines them and connects them to the island, as well as the other characters? Sure, each character had a routine that very much connected to their, albeit caricaturized, personality. Lip from "Panel de Pon" features in this game. She has bad allergies, so she wears a mask. Funnily enough, she spends a lot of time around flowers. Point being, this was a really funny example of how someone's personality quirks DID connect with their routine and living space.
Still, however, there wasn't enough beyond this limited palette of silly and caricaturized personality to really interest me in the characters. When you talked to these folks, you would often get very short responses. Also, they, as far as I know, would rarely talk or interact with each other. So even if they had lovable and unique personalities, they were isolated, and thus the space felt very cold and separated. In Chibi-Robo, once again, I felt very much attuned to the space and lives of the characters. It was really "lived-in", and my favorite thing was to see how each characters story related to another person or character. The characters are wandering around the island here, but they don't feel in tune with the space, or each other. They are like molecules bouncing around in wide open spaces, gaseous. Their identity, however charming it is, still feels unformed and separated.
Also, there is one sour minigame: Takamaru's meditation. In this minigame you have to press most of the buttons on the Wii remote and nunchuk simultaneously, without letting go of any of them. If anyone figured out how to do this, let me know. I would've liked for the game to have let you replay these minigames immediately. That's not the case. You have to wait a full day to retry the minigames. It makes it a very time consuming game. Other reviewers (Rombouts) have pointed to this as being part of the charm and style of the game, which makes you take your time and just experience things, giving it a living feel. On paper though, it does produce more of a mind-numbing and frustrating repetition than a laid-back appreciation.
--------------------------------------CONCLUSION--------------------------------------
Overall, my opinions of this game are not negative in any way. Skip very much delivers. However, it wasn't for me. It very much feels like the descendent of "Moon: Remix RPG Adventure" (which is a game I also love). It is a sometimes difficult and oblique adventure game. I had trouble appreciating it gameplay wise (aesthetically it's awesome), due to it's somewhat repetitive gameplay, difficulty attaching myself to the characters, and lack of much meaningful activities during the in-between moments. There is animal-collecting, but I wish there was a little something more.
My overall impressions are positive, so I will come back to this one. It is the sole reason I imported a Japanese Wii, after all.
R - wacky
A - irreverent
I - culturally dated
N - heartfelt
B - engrossing
O - hilarious
W - varied
One of my favorite Nintendo published games of all time
A - irreverent
I - culturally dated
N - heartfelt
B - engrossing
O - hilarious
W - varied
One of my favorite Nintendo published games of all time
I genuinely love this game. It's relaxing to play and I love helping the people on the island out. The game is really funny, although some of the humor doesn't hold up to this day. Played with a translation patch, too. One frustrating thing about the game is that many of the minigames are too hard to complete. I was unable to finish Little Mac's and the Soliders ones due to mechanics. Takamaru's minigames were an absolute pain to do aswell, genuinely one of the most frustrating things in the game. The shooting star times are very stressful too.I feel as if this would be fixed if I knew Japanese, so if I ever revisit with an understanding, I'll update this review.
Still, overall a fun game that I enjoyed, would reccomend!!!
Still, overall a fun game that I enjoyed, would reccomend!!!
obese little mac
An AMAZING game and concept! Probably my favorite game of all time! The concept of a bunch of Nintendo character living on an island is amazing. Seeing how they interact with each other is something no one wouldve thought. Please pick this one up, thought the fanslation is unfinished I REALLY enjoyed my time with it