Red's Adventure 3: Quest of the 7 Rainbows

Red's Adventure 3: Quest of the 7 Rainbows is a platformer game, developed by Vivendi Universal Digital Arts for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox, Gameboy Advance, Windows PCs, and the Leapster. It is a 2004 sequel to the 2003 GBA game Red and the Rainbow of Dreams. While most of the ports are published by Vivendi Universal Games, the GBA port is published by Nintendo, and the Leapster port, by LeapFrog. A port for the HyperScan came out in 2007.

The game has received mostly positive reception. With critics praising the game for its cure visuals and simple gameplay. The game was later released under the "player's choice" label for the Gamecube port as well as the Universal Classics label for the Leapster port. It's along with the gen 3 Pokemon games are one of the last games to utilize an internal battery.

Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to the Kirby franchise. Where you control one of the four playable characters: Red (mixed stats), Rainbow (can glide with rainbow wings), Cyan (who jumps higher), and Blue (runs the fastest) in a 2D environment. Each character can attack by using a weapon they have (Red can wack them with her ponytail, Rainbow has a frying pan, Cyan punches them, and Blue rides on a motorcycle).

The game itself consists of 64 levels. With every 8 levels having a certain theme. At the end of every four levels, you battle a boss and when you defeat the boss, you progress further. Also introduced in Red's Adventure 3 is the introduction of the Rainbow Guardians. A group of four insect-like fairies that are related to the four: Frendi Red (a butterfly), Frendi Black (a Cocoon), Frendi Cyan (a Bee), and Frendi Blue (a roach). You also have a health bar with six hits. When it goes down to zero, you lose a life and when your lives go down to zero, then it's game over.

The Leapster and HyperScan ports are drastically different compared to the other ports. The Leapster port is like the other games on the system, is an educational game that teaches about the colors of the rainbow and mixing colors. The age range for this port is ages 4-7. While the HyperScan port is a compilation game. Aimed at girls (as well as the only game of the system not rated E10+ or T), the game revolves around a young princess named Stella (who later appears in Clay Petalboy) who gets sucked into the Red's Adventure world and she joins the four to fight the Rainbow Bandit. Unlike other HyperScan games, this one doesn't require additional cards. Rather, it uses a password system instead.

Plot
On the mainline console ports, Red and her siblings encounter the Great Rainbow, a rainbow located in a prism that controls the eight islands in harmony, until a mysterious space ship, which holds an evil alien creature named the Rainbow Bandit. eventually, the eight islands spiral out of control. So much so, that they lost track of time. As soon as they collected the seven rainbow gems, the islands go back in peace and they encounter the Rainbow Bandit, who appears to be a white blob with a yellow ribbon on her head. According to Cyan, she came from the same nebula as their ancestors, the Ribbonblobs. Among her defeat, she clings onto the giant prism and transforms into the Rainbow Beast.

The HyperScan port revolves around Princess Stella, a 6-year old princess discovering a rainbow for the first time and when she rode on it, she was taken to Rainbow island. But as soon as she arrives, the Rainbow Bandit, decides to kidnap the Rainbow Guardians and destroy the Great Rainbow.

Reception
Red's Adventure 3: Quest of the 7 Rainbows received mixed to favorable reviews. One of the ports, in particular, the HyperScan port being praised for having a female-oriented game on a platform notorious for having a predominately male-oriented library as well as not utilizing the infamous scan card feature of the system. Ironically enough, it is the best-selling HyperScan third-party HyperScan game.