289. Mizubaku Daibouken (Taito, Arcade (PS2), 1990)

Mizubaku Daibouken ("Mizubaku Adventure", released internationally as Liquid Kids) is a cute action platformer starring a platypus (who looks more like a pug). The game features big bright colorful graphics that I'm sure looked cutting edge in 1990, but still hold up nicely today. The main feature of Mizubaku Daibouken is your ability to throw big water bubbles that will disable enemies and allow you to knock them into each other for a combo. 

After about 30 seconds with Mizubaku Daibouken and my history with the Taito Memories series made something abundantly clear: this is basically a combination of two previous Taito games: the popular Bubble Bobble and game #76, Jigoku Meguri. Mizubaku Daibouken borrows the enemy disabling/combo chaining with water mechanic straight from Bubble Bobble, and the linear platforming stages with your main attack being throwing giant balls form Jigoku Meguri. I will also say that the platforming and level designs felt very reminiscent of The New Zealand Story with angular, often cramped stages and a jump with almost no horizontal distance.

But Mizubaku Daibouken works a lot better than Jigoku Meguri because, for one thing, the Bubble Bobble chain mechanic is fun, and the levels are not to difficult (at least early on) and set up in a way that exploits the bubble/combo mechanics in fun and novel ways. You can throw 4 bubbles that bounce 3 times before they break, usually this is enough that you can just go wild and throw a constant stream with reckless abandon. The super fast projectiles make up for the slow jumping and movement speed. The jump is at least precise and feels decent, even if it doesn't get you very high.

In addition to just clearing the screen of any enemies, your bubble attack can be used to interact with the environment in different ways. You can water flowers to make them grow, manipulate water wheel platforms to change their direction and speed, and in one level there is even a water wheel-powered boat that you can ride around. Unfortunately, the third stage really amps up the platforming challenge in a way that was not fun. I had a good time with Mizubaku Daibouken's end-of-level bosses, who were challenging but fair and had somewhat interesting (if few) attack patterns.

4/5, a cute mashup of previous Taito games with a neat water mechanic