RAINBOWS FOR YOUR PSP

Monday 20th November/... Rising Star Games today announced the first details of the next title in the Evolution series, a range of updated videogame classics for the Sony PSP. Following in the footsteps of Bubble Bobble Evolution, Rainbow Islands will be the next title to receive a modernising touch in the form of Rainbow Islands Evolution, marrying the original's much-loved vintage gameplay mechanics with the formidable horsepower of Sony's portable wonder.

Set once again in the titular Rainbow Islands, Bub and Bob are now under the shadow of an evil record company who is polluting the ecosystem with a constant, mass-produced musical dirge. With this cacophony causing the flora to wilt and the fauna to mutate into aggressive enemies, only Bub and Bob have the experience to take on the record company and its seven bosses, setting the stage for an entirely new adventure.

The game environment itself is receiving a major overhaul. The strict vertical ascents of the original have been expanded and extrapolated into three dimensions, with each level's building-block platforms now following perspective and disappearing into the distance. As Bub and Bob negotiate the levels, these platforms will scroll to the forefront as they become accessible. This literally opens up a new dimension for the classic Rainbow Islands gameplay and forms just one of a host of new features, which will be detailed as Rainbow Islands Evolution nears its early 2007 release date.

"We're overjoyed to be updating Rainbow Islands for the PSP." Says Tony Byus, producer for Rainbow Islands Evolution: "We're passionate about keeping the classic gameplay intact, whilst updating and modernising the design without affecting that essential gameplay. In effect, our goal is to produce what Rainbow Islands could have been if the PSP's amazing power had been available in 1987."