Game of the Month: March 2025 - Liquid Kids / Mizubaku Daibouken

[geise]

LIQUID KIDS

Wanted something that was a platformer, cute, and fun. Also, something by Taito. Here we are. I've played the arcade version quite a bit and love the gameplay. You are a Hopopo which is basically a platypus. You fight your way through a fairly large amount of levels in search of his missing gal. Hipopo is armed with balls of water which can be thrown at enemies to soak and damage them. Once soaked, the enemies can then be kicked and destroyed completely. In a way kinda like Bubble Bobble. Enemies that are left un-kicked however will dry out and recover after a short period of time. This is fairly faithful arcade port for pc-engine standards. Give it a go!

[seieienbu]

Liquid Kids is super bright, colorful, and fun.  I honestly like the PC Engine soundtrack more than the arcade version's.  With that said, I don't own it on PC Engine and the huey now goes for like 4 times what I paid for the arcade board a few years ago.

[HuDuo]

I only ever heard of this game because of a friend of mine loved it. It's an alright game, or at least I thought that before trying out many more platformers for PC Engine. Some like Energy gave me a new perspective, even dumpy old Keith Courage in Alpha Zones is an amazingly well polished game compared to a lot of other lower end platformers of the day. Liquid Kids has that big step up in quality and polish too.

Is it as good as Mario or Sonic? No but it's nice to play if you enjoy Bubble Bobble.

[TurboGrafx-16]

  Fans of this game should also check out Jigoku Meguri.

[majors]

... and the huey now goes for like 4 times what I paid for the arcade board a few years ago.

Preach it brother. Liquid is on my short list of games I want, but current market pricing deters me. Luckly, we have alternate means of enjoying some classic Taito! I've played bit of it before in my past, but never got too far...now I have the encouragement from the forum to devote some time into it. Thanks geise.

<sidenote: with the current price around $150 for a CIB copy, does anyone have an insight as to its increased interest? I understand it's a good game, but so is R-type. Was it a late release or have someone involved with creating it that is famous? Or did some YT personality talk about it and drive up the price?>

[Mathius]

Liquid Kids is an incredibly beautiful game on the Engine but I was never into Bubble Bobble or its ilk.

[geise]

... and the huey now goes for like 4 times what I paid for the arcade board a few years ago.

Or did some YT personality talk about it and drive up the price?>

Some YT ass hat more than likely. It was not a scarce game.

[lukester 3.0]

pretty phenomenal platformer, holds up well against bonk 2 or the sonics. taito definitely improved upon jogoku meguri and new zealand story (botched port aside)
it loses a bit of presentation compared to the arcade and "some" levels don't have both doors, but everything is mostly intact
once change i like is that fire doesn't spread like it does in the arcade version, so certain bosses are not nearly as frustrating

ungodly rare and expensive game just like the other 1992 taito hucards. saturn port is also crazy expensive

[geise]

Pc-Engine port isn't really rare. Youtube made it a popular game since it's a good arcade port. Then the gotta have it syndrome kicked in.