Lemon Amiga Takes a Look at Liquid Kids

For around half a decade from the mid 1980s, Taito were one of if not the kings of arcade platform games. Rainbow Islands, Rastan Saga and The New Zealand Story were just some of the classics released by the Japanese company during this time, and these games are still enjoyed by gamers today.

Spotting an opportunity, UK based Ocean Software would licence many a Taito title for conversion to the various home computer platforms of the day. All three of the above titles, for example, were snapped up by the gaming giant, and saw release either under the Ocean or Imagine brand.

Among their numerous licenses was a 1990 Taito release by the name of Liquid Kids. A colourful side-scrolling platform affair, this was ported to the Amiga by arcade conversion specialists (check out the quality of their Toki and Pang conversions) Ocean France.

I remember looking forward to the release of Liquid Kids for the Amiga, and then, after months of waiting, reading in an issue of Amiga Power magazine that Ocean had decided the market had changed and that it would no longer be publishing the game despite it being pretty much complete.

A number of years later I recall swapping a few emails with Paul Carrington of Vulcan Software, who'd seen a post of mine on Usenet relating to the unreleased Amiga game. Paul was asking for more information on the title and was considering contacting Ocean with an idea of releasing it on his own Vulcan Software label.

However far (if at all) discussions got with Ocean we'll probably never know. One thing I do know is that the game vanished from trace until 2003 when Galahad of Fairlight got hold of a copy, fixed umpteen bugs, spelling mistakes, disk routines and much more besides.

Finally, after almost a decade and a half, the Amiga version of Liquid Kids was available to Amiga users.

So, why am I talking about a game that surfaced on our favourite platform some 12 years ago? Well, one of the recent Playguide and Review videos by the Lemon Amiga team is this very game, and I had a feeling that this may have been a title that had passed a good number of Amiga users by.

If you're one of these people, check out the Lemon Amiga video below, and then continue down for a Liquid Kids download link.

If the above has whetted your appetite for this game you can download the WHDload version for your Amiga via this link on the WHDownload web site.
While I feel the Amiga version of Liquid Kids isn't up to the same standard of polish as some earlier Ocean France arcade to Amiga conversions I still think it's worth checking out and spending some time on. It's a fun little game, and it's a real shame that it failed to see a commercial release back in the day.
Have fun!