Liquid Kids

Overview

Liquid Kids (known in Japan as Mizubaku Daibouken or Mizubaku Adventure) is a side-scrolling platformer developed and released by Taito for arcades on September 1990.

Players control Hipopo, a platypus (although he's said to be a hippo) armed with a barrage of "water bombs" who is trying to save his fellow tribe of the land of Woody-Lake, as well as his love interest Tamasun, from the Fire Devil.

Similar to the studio's earlier The NewZealand Story, Liquid Kids has players navigating each level armed with their weapon-of-choice (which, for this game, is an endless supply of "water bombs") to reach the goal. Water bombs leave a rush of water to further harm enemies, and players can charge larger water bombs (by holding down the Attack button) and upgrade them (by collecting items).

The game was later ported to the PC Engine on January 17, 1992 and to the Sega Saturn (released by Ving) on October 2, 1998, both of which were released exclusively in Japan. Some European computer ports were planned by Ocean, but were ultimately unreleased (although the finished Amiga port was disseminated online years later). The PCE version was later digitally re-released for the Wii (as a Virtual Console title) on September 16, 2008. The arcade version was also included in the international Taito Legends 2 (PS2, Xbox, PC) and Japanese Taito Memories Gekan (PS2) compilations.

Gameplay

Basic gameplay consists of jumping and throwing bubbles. Unlike Bub and Bob's bubbles, Hipopo's bubbles don't float up. In fact, they are filled with water and pop as soon as they hit something. After popping, water flows out and freezes any enemies it touches (enemies will appear out of fiery portals).

If Hipopo throws too rapidly, the bubbles will become small and ineffective until some time is given to recharge. The player can hold the throw button down to charge the bubble. Doing so will increase the size of the bubble, thus letting the water flow further than it would otherwise. Once an enemy is frozen, Hipopo must touch them to defeat them. The enemy is then kicked at a high speed, killing any enemies in the way. Wait too long and they regain consciousness and continue fighting. Most enemies are specific to the level, though there are a few that can be seen throughout.

Levels without bosses are won by freeing a hippo at the end of the level. Each world has three levels (or two if the right doors are chosen) and each world has a boss. At the end of every boss fight, the player has a choice of two doors. They both lead to the next world, but one brings Hipopo to the start, while the other brings him a little further in. Hipopo must make it through all the worlds to finally face off against the Fire Devil.

Items

Throughout the game Hipopo will find items as well. They typically appear out of nowhere, though not all of them do. Items usually temporarily increase water power (so there's no need to charge), increase run speed, clear the screen of enemies, or just provide some points. Some of the items that can be found include roller skates, buckets of water, pig heads, lightning bolts and lots of food.