Game: Mizubaku Daibouken
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito
System: PC Engine (HuCard)
Release date: 1992
One way to translate the Japanese title of this game into English, or so I've been told, is to call it Water Bomb Adventure. That's certainly an apt way to describe this quirky little platformer, which stars a platypus--yeah, I know the folks at Taito say he's a hippopotomus, but there's no way the paunchy protagonist is anything other than an Ornithorhynchus anatinus--who throws, you guessed it, giant balls of water at innumerable foes as he waddles through levels pulled from the pages Platformers for Dummies. His journey--to save his kidnapped girlfriend, naturally--begins easily enough, with straightforward stages filled to the brim with enemies who put up little to no resistance, but it rapidly rachets up in intensity. That's OK, though, because the Parasol Stars-esque sights you'll see and the hummable tunes you'll hear along the way help make it all worthwhile--assuming, of course, you didn't drop too much cash to procure your copy of the game (an unfortunately all-too-common occurrence given its Bubble Bobble connection).
See also: Previous 'Great Gaymathon' posts
