I will admit that when I play games, there is a certain bias that emerges from a game's combination of aesthetic, enthusiast opinions, popularity. If reviews of an old Sega Saturn game with a crayon aesthetic that didn't sell well was highly rated, I would expect the game to be this sort of, "hidden treasure". Then I would play the game with a much more open mind and optimistic point of view. The apparition of a combined asymmetrical communal presented reality, becoming real by my weighted hand.

With Liquid Kids, I totally expected it to be subpar based on middling reviews from mutuals I follow on the site. I immediately started and my brain jumped to; "Oh you have to knock over the enemies and kill them like Mario Bros '83, augh one of my least favorite mechanics". However, there's just so much.....charm to Liquid Kids that transformed my enjoyment fairly quickly. The animation and design of all the creatures and the background sprites are majorly pleasing. Especially the way that the protagonist character has moments with pencil drawn visuals showing. Plus the sound design by Kazuko Umino and Hisayushi Ogura are absolutely adorable and brings a satisfying feeling to the brain when doing things like inserting credits or throwing bubbles.

The flaw in the game that could possibly connect its not-stellar reviews remains in the primary mechanic and increasingly difficult level design. You cannot jump or collide with any enemy that has not already been wet. Due to the increasing difficulty on a single life with enemies continuing to spawn and some lacking communication about how enemies react to water, at times navigating the game can feel unfair. However, the more I played the game it didn't really feel too unfair so much as the difficulty felt very intentionally considered because it was an arcade game made for multiple plays. (Although that form of difficulty design always has some criticisms to take into consideration in its own right). Considering this, it didn't feel much different from playing one of those "brutal"/kaizo games designed to be very intentionally specific about its difficulty.

Liquid Kids charm continued to shine through.

Yet still, even as I neared the end of the game I sought out this fantasy of communal relatability. Where were the glaring imperfections? What was I missing that made it so middling? Was there context with a developer that I am not aware of? Even writing the first half of this review I was tempted to be more harsh on it due to this feeling.

I think Liquid Kids is cool, but I'm not writing this overly convoluted text to defend it. I realize that this pressure to experience something just because others have is a false reality presented by the influence the non-existent entity that is "unified opinion". I just wanted to write out how this cute little game of bubbles and creatures made me aware of how I experience the clash between subjective taste and the illusion of objective truth to create simulacrum of belief. But also, Liquid Kids is cool.