Liquid Kids

Liquid Kids[lower-alpha 1] is a 1990 platform arcade video game originally developed and published by Taito.[1] Starring the platypus Hipopo, players are tasked with travelling through the land of Woody-Lake throwing water bombs, jumping on and off platforms to navigate level obstacles while dodging and defeating monsters in order to rescue Tamasun from her captor, the Fire Demon. Although first launched in arcades, the game was later ported to other platforms, each one featuring several changes compared with the original version, in addition of being re-released through compilations and digital distribution services for various consoles. Conversions for microcomputers were in development but none were officially released to the public.

Liquid Kids
Developer(s)Taito
Publisher(s)Taito
Director(s)Toshiaki Matsumoto
Producer(s)Kazutomo Ishida
Designer(s)Nobuhiro Hiramatsu
Programmer(s)Kazutomo Ishida
Koji Tsunekiyo
Kusago Nagahara
Artist(s)Hiroyo Kujirai
Nobuhiro Hiramatsu
Yoshihiro Iwata
Composer(s)Kazuko Umino
Platform(s)Arcade, NEC PC Engine, Sega Saturn
Release
  • WW: August 1990[1]
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)
Arcade systemTaito F2 System

Liquid Kids enjoyed success in arcades among players, garnering positive reception from critics, while its home conversions were also met with similarly positive response from gaming magazines who reviewed it as an import title.

Gameplay
Arcade version screenshot.

Liquid Kids is a platform game where players assume the role of Hipopo, a platypus (referred as a hippopotamus) who fight his way across various stages set in the land of Woody-Lake against enemies led by Fire Demon in search of his missing girlfriend Tamasun while rescuing other platypuses along the way.[2][3][4][5] Hipopo is armed with water bombs that can be thrown at enemies to soak and damage them. Once soaked, enemies can be kicked and destroyed completely.[4][5] Undefeated enemies will dry out and recover after a short time period. Small plants also appear on certain levels which can be "watered", causing them to grow and creating new platforms. He can also collect cakes and other items to gain more points.[4][5] Getting hit by enemies results in losing a live, as well as a penalty of lowering Hipopo's status to his original state and the game is over once all lives are lost, unless players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing.[4][5]

Release

Liquid Kids was first released in arcades by Taito on August 1990, using the Taito F2 System board.[1] The soundtrack was composed by Kazuko "Karu" Umino.[6] On January 21, 1991, an album containing music from the game and Space Gun was co-published exclusively in Japan by Scitron and Pony Canyon.[6] The title was first ported to the PC Engine by Taito and released exclusively in Japan on January 17, 1992.[5][7] It is a faithful conversion that retains most of the gameplay elements from the arcade original but a number of graphical effects were removed such as the time transitions and parallax scrolling.[5] This version would later be re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in 2008.[8] A near-arcade perfect port was developed and published by Ving for the Sega Saturn on October 22, 1998.[5][9] It was also included in the Taito Legends 2 (Taito Memories 2 in Japan) for Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows in 2006.[5] An Amiga port was completed by Ocean France, but not released by Ocean Software.[10][11][12][13] Likewise, an Atari ST version was also in development but never released by Ocean.[10][11]

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Liquid Kids on their November 15, 1990 issue as being the seventeenth most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles such as Parodius! From Myth to Laughter and Magic Sword.[27] The arcade original was also met with positive reception from critics since its initial release.[28] The PC Engine conversion was met with positive reception from critics.[29]

Legacy

Hipopo makes cameo appearances in Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders.

Notes
  1. Also known as Mizubaku Adventure (Japanese: ミズバク大冒険 (ミズバクアドベンチャー), Hepburn: Mizubaku Daibōken) in Japan.

References
  1. Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). タイトー (Taito). アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内•海外編 (1971-2005) (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. p. 44. ISBN 978-4990251215.
  2. "VG: ミズバク大冒険". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 14. SoftBank Creative. November 1990. pp. 128–129.
  3. Satomi, Yasuyuki (November 1990). "Super Soft 6 大特集: New Video Games - ミズバク大冒険". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 101. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. pp. 215–217.
  4. ミズバク大冒険アドベンチャー manual (PC Engine, JP)
  5. Tiraboschi, Federico (October 3, 2017). "Liquid Kids". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 2015-01-13. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  6. "PCCB-00052 | Space Gun / Mizubaku Adventure". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  7. "Mizbak's Adventure". pcengine.co.uk. The PC Engine Software Bible. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  8. "Wii |Virtual Console バーチャルコンソール - 任天堂" (in Japanese). Nintendo. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  9. "セガサターン対応ソフトウェア（ライセンシー発売）- 1998・1999・2000年発売". SEGA HARD Encyclopedia (in Japanese). Sega. 2020. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  10. "Previews - Liquid Kids". Génération 4 (in French). No. 30. Computec Media France. February 1991. pp. 56–57.
  11. Lakin, Paul (May 1991). "Under Wraps: A Drop In The Ocean - Liquid Kids". Zero. No. 19. Dennis Publishing. pp. 24–25.
  12. "The Ultimate Autumn Preview - Liquid Kids". Amiga Power. No. 18. Future Publishing. October 1992. p. 53.
  13. "An interview with Marc Djan". Codetapper's Amiga Site. Mythic-Beasts. October 30, 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  14. "NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: ミズバク大冒険アドベンチャー". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 162. ASCII Corporation. January 24, 1992. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  15. Douglas; Loic (March 1992). "PC Engine Review - Liquid Kid". Consoles + (in French). No. 7. M.E.R.7. pp. 80–81.
  16. "ミズバク大冒険". Gekkan PC Engine (in Japanese). No. 38. Shogakukan. February 1992.
  17. Querleux, Philippe (March 1992). "Console Test: Liquid Kid – CoregrafX". Génération 4 (in French). No. 42. Computec Media France. pp. 120–121.
  18. Demoly, Jean-Marc; Morisse, Jean-François (March 1992). "Test - PC Engine: Super Water Bomb". Joypad (in French). No. 6. Yellow Media. pp. 112–113.
  19. Morisse, Jean-François (March 1992). "Tests - PC Engine: Super Water Bomb". Joystick (in French). No. 25. Sipress. p. 126.
  20. "ミズバク大冒険アドベンチャー". Marukatsu PC Engine (in Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. 1992.
  21. "PC Engine All Catalog '93 10月号特別付録 - ミズバク大冒険アドベンチャー". PC Engine Fan (in Japanese). Vol. 6 no. 10. Tokuma Shoten. October 1, 1993. p. 31.
  22. Scamps, Olivier (April 1992). "Tests De Jeux - Core G.: Parasol Stars II". Player One (in French). No. 19. Média Système Édition. pp. 70–71.
  23. "Sega Saturn Soft Review - ミズバク大冒険アドベンチャー". Sega Saturn Magazine (in Japanese). No. 115. SoftBank Creative. October 30, 1999. p. 191.
  24. "Coin Ops: Liquid Kids - Taito". Sinclair User. No. 101. EMAP. July 1990. p. 56.
  25. Wilson, David (November 1990). "Slots Of Fun: Davey's Corky Coin-Op - Liquid Kids (Taito)". Your Sinclair. No. 59. Future Publishing. p. 70.
  26. MacCandless, David (November 1990). "Dosh Eaters: Liquid Kids - Taito/50p a go". Zero. No. 13. Dennis Publishing. p. 65.
  27. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 392. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 November 1990. p. 25.
  28. "ザ・ベストゲーム: ビデオゲーム フルリスト". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 60. Shinseisha. July 1991. pp. 175–226.
  29. Eggebrecht, Julian (February 1992). "News: Engine-Ereignisse - Liquid Kids". Video Games (in German). No. 6. Future-Verlag. pp. 20–21.
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