Liquid Kids / Mizubaku Adventure FAQ Version 1.0 by Carl Chavez (carl@bubandbob.com) and Anthony Greulich (tonyg@cmc.net) Contents * Contents * Game Description * Characters * Moves and Techniques * Special Items * Levels, Maps and Warps * Bosses * Secret Codes * Credits This is a text version (just to be on file). An HTML version is available at http://www.bubandbob.com/liquidkids/lqfaq.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Game Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Liquid Kids, also known as Mizubaku Adventure, is a 1990 Taito release that is a close cousin to the Bubble Bobble series. In it, a creature named Hipopo tries to save the land of Woody Lake from the Fire Devil. Hipopo uses the magic powers of a crystal ball to create water globes that freeze enemies, extinguish fires, and grant several other abilities. Liquid Kids has several elements from previous Taito games. The Fire Devil's weapon looks and acts like the fire cane in New Zealand Story. The globes act like Bubble Bobble water bubbles when popped. The image of Tiki, New Zealand Story's kiwi hero, appears in the game as a hidden level design. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Characters ------------------------------------------------------------------------ +------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+ | Name | Description | +------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+ | Hipopo | You! | +------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+ | | Train on 2a-1; has spikes on its cowcatcher and | | | disgorges girders and train whistles. To get past it, | | | go all the way to the left of the screen. Wait until | | | the train passes by (dodge girders and whistles if you| | Bouken | must) and then _quickly_ follow the train. There will | | | be a little dip in the platform you can hide in since | | | the train will be faster than you when it comes back. | | | Hide in the dip, then go toward the exit on the right | | | once the train has passed again. | +------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Moves and Techniques ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Your basic directional controls control Hipopo. Jump makes him jump, and the duration of button press controls his height. Fire makes Hipopo throw a water globe (aka Mizubaku), and the duration of button press makes the Mizubaku larger. Liquid Kids has no special joystick motions. However, there are special techniques you should know. * Hold the fire button down to make your Mizubaku more powerful. Generally, you can freeze more enemies at once with a larger gush of water. You can also cause more injury to bosses with a larger globe, but in our opinion it's usually better to hit them with lots of small globes so there are multiple water gushes (which usually take out such hazards as small enemies and fire walls). * When you see ceiling spikes attached to a chain, you can walk on top of the spikes when the platform is lowered. * The globes bounce off walls and most ceilings. Try ricocheting globes off walls and taking out enemies with bouncing globes. * Water gushes downward. You can injure or freeze enemies by popping a globe on something above them (usually another enemy!) and causing water to fall on them. * Don't worry about pools of water because you'll pull out an inner tube and will not drown. Watch out for any piranhas in the water, though! * When on a springboard, push up+jump when you bounce in order to bounce higher. SCORING: * 100 pts per enemy killed; if enemy is kicked into another enemy while frozen, scores for each additional enemy kill are increased by at 100 points. The progression is as follows: 100-200-300-400-500-800. After 800, you will either get 1000 points or a special item. * 1000 pts for grabbing boots. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Special Items ------------------------------------------------------------------------ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \ Water pump | Water globe fills up faster. \ \--------------------+---------------------------------------------------\ \ Water bucket | Mizubaku's maximum size increases. \ \------------------------------------------------------------------------\ \ Water pistol | More Mizubakus can be fired (max of 4 globes \ \ | without pistol) \ \--------------------+---------------------------------------------------\ \ Water faucet (AKA | Grants temporary water pump, water pistol and\ \ water cock) | water bucket. \ \--------------------+---------------------------------------------------\ \ Train | Hipopo moves faster. CAUTION: The effect is \ \ | cumulative! \ \--------------------+---------------------------------------------------\ \ Boot | ??? \ \--------------------+---------------------------------------------------\ \ Thunder 1 | All enemies on the screen are frozen. \ \+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------\ \ Thunder 2 | All enemies on the screen are killed. \ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Levels, Maps and Warps ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Secret Rooms: * S-1: a room with two water wheels. A monster is bouncing a spiked ball in the center of the screen, and the bottom half of the room is filled with water and piranhas. The exit is already open when you enter. * S-2: a room with the image of Tiki (from New Zealand Story) created by the platforms. Kill all monsters to open the exit. * S-3: a room with the image of a bear balloon (from NZS also). Kill all monsters to open the exit. There are three known warps: One is one level 1-2 and will take you to the boss on 1-2 via S-1. It is located on one of the little protrusions between the two plant buds. Water the protrusion and the warp will eventually appear. Another is on 2-2 and will take you to the boss on 2-2 via S-2 (the Tiki- shaped secret room). It is located in the area below the teacups on the pillars. The third is on 3a-1 and takes you to the boss on 3-2 via S-3 (the bear balloon room). It is located in the area above the series of falling green platforms above a floor of spikes, and below the pipe which shoots out a monster at intervals. Water the large platform on the left to open the door. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bosses ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *First Boss: The Fire Rabbit The Fire Rabbit is ridiculously silly-looking and should be ridiculously easy to defeat. The Fire Rabbit bounces around the screen, changing direction when colliding with a screen edge or a platform. It is only vulnerable when it divides its head in half and shoots fiery whiskers out of its head. Stay in between the two upper platforms and hit the rabbit's body with globes when possible. If you wish, you can jump onto the top platform to hit the rabbit more often, but be prepared to drop back to the lower platform when necessary. *Second Boss: (I have a name for this off Bubble Symphony but I'm looking for the reference...) The ______ is another very strange creature. *Final Boss: The Fire Devil The Fire Devil appears in two forms. First it looks like a Bubble Bobble mighta carrying a New Zealand Story fireball cane. It is surrounded by a ring of fire which you must extinguish in order to hit him. Sometimes it may dispel its ring shield and bring forth blasts of fire which create fire walls wherever they land. You must hit its body in order to cause damage. Once its body is destroyed, the Fire Devil and you are brought into another room where his fire form spits out many fireballs downward. Fire walls are formed wherever they hit. When the fire form has been hit a couple of times, it will go to the center of the screen and create four arms of fire tipped with fire claws. The arms will revolve around the fire form and cannot be extinguished. Once this fire form is destroyed, you've beaten the game! * How to beat: When in a fire form, extinguish the fire shield to hurt the body. If the Fire Devil is forming a fire blast, quickly fire globes at the cane to extinguish the blast. Continue until the body is destroyed. When the Fire Devil escapes from the body, don't bother trying to hurt it as it sits there because it fully heals when you go to the next screen. After you've moved to the next screen, the Fire Devil will appear in a large fireball form. Do NOT attack it until it is about to stop moving. If you hit it while it moves, it will simply be slightly damaged and will fly away for a while so you can't hit it. Attack it while it begins to shoot fireballs out of its mouth; attacking it at this point will cause a lot of damage. Eventually the fire form will head toward the center of the screen. Pummel it with water globes as it heads toward the center, but do not end up at a 45-degree angle from it when it stops or you may be hit by one of the arms when they extend. Try to hit it as much as you can in the one second between the time that it stops and the time it extends its arms. After the arms are extended, run in the same direction the fire arms are rotating. At some point you will have to counterattack the Fire Devil. When you are near the top and an arm is almost vertical, it's time to attack! Hipopo -> O | Direction of rotation | is NW (arrow is facing NW). | ------------+------------- | | | Attack opportunity example (If you want a better diagram, see the HTML format at the web address above). As you can see by the diagram, if Hipopo throws water globes at the oncoming arm, the globe will burst upon hitting the arm and the water will fall right on top of the Fire Devil. Repeat until dead, and watch out when the arms change direction of rotation! You can also injure the Fire Devil while walking under it. Simply make a small jump and throw water globes while in the air. You'll hit the bottom of the Fire Devil and you may injure it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Secret Codes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ None currently known. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -Carl Chavez Co-writer of this FAQ and main HTML coder. -Anthony Greulich Co-writer of this FAQ; big-time notetaker. -The Game Corner A video arcade in Redmond, WA. Anthony and I played LQ there. This document is copyright © Carl Chavez 1997. Duplication for commercial use prohibited without prior permission. Document may be freely distributed for non-commercial use. Use of this FAQ by EGM or COP-DN strictly prohibited.