Liquid Kids

Liquid Kids (ミズバク大冒険) is an arcade video game released by Taito in 1990.

Gameplay
Liquid Kids is a single player platform game that features Hipopo, a hippopotamus who must fight his way through a large number of enemy-packed levels in search of his missing girlfriend - rescuing other hippopotamus-like creatures along the way. Hipopo is armed with water bombs which can be thrown at enemies to soak and damage them. Once soaked, the enemies can then be kicked and destroyed completely. Enemies left unkicked however will dry out and recover after a short period of time.

The level design presents moving platforms, collapsible floors, boats and water-wheels all making an appearance. Small plants also appear on certain levels which can be "watered", causing them to grow and creating new platforms. Appropriately enough for a game which features water as the main weapon, many of the enemies and the later levels have a fire thematic. He can also collect cakes and other items to gain more points.

Ports

 * The game was originally ported to the PC Engine by Taito and released on January 17, 1992.
 * A belated Saturn port by Ving followed on October 22, 1998.
 * The game was then included in the Taito Legends 2 (Taito Memories 2 in Japan) compilation for the Xbox, PS2, and PC in 2006.
 * An Amiga port was completed, but not released by the publisher Ocean Software. The original master copy of the game was found in 2003 and the disk image has since been distributed online.

Trivia

 * Hipopo, the main character, appears in Bubble Symphony as a special character and in Bubble Memories as a giant bonus item. One of the secret rooms is built in the image of Tiki, the kiwi bird from The New Zealand Story.
 * The English translation of the original Japanese title is "Water Bomb Adventure".
 * A soundtrack CD for the game (split release with the soundtrack for Space Gun), published by Pony Canyon / Scitron, was released January 21, 1991, featuring thirteen tracks from the game.