back street soccer

SunA up and vanished as a company for several years, only to reappear in 1996 for two last games, just as obscure as their earlier titles. This time, they take on arcade-style soccer with the same engrish and mutant character design they apply to all their other titles. Instead of playing in official leagues and on the regular field, this time you play soccer on the streets. Soccer on the streets doesn't really seem to vary that much from regular soccer, besides the ability to execute special charge moves and a more edgy, extreme palette. Though the mangled storyline is amusing, just like the hideous outfits the teams wear and the ugly mutant children in the background, nothing about this title really stands out.

Hard Head 2

Surprisingly, Hard Head managed to somehow be popular enough to warrant a sequel, the even more ugly and mystifying Hard Head 2. This time, Hard Head is armed and back with a vengeance, once again attempting to rescue his equally hideous love interest from the giant demon monster that seems to be in the process of eating her. Instead of shooting bubbles, Hard Head starts out with a wimpy kick that can be upgraded if you kill the vase-wielding turtles running through the levels. You usually start out with a spiked club,and upgrade to a mace and a bubble shooting gun, among other things. Also, while you start off in your marioesque overalls, getting hit will strip you of all your clothes, showing off your second, smaller, less than hard head. Though it never reaches hentai-level excesses, there is still something fundamentally disturbing about seeing such an ugly character doff trou, though the foes you fight are also nightmarish and ugly. Overall, Hard Head is a bad ghouls and ghosts wannabe with a special emphasis on melee weapons and displeasing weirdness that unsettles the stomach like cheap sushi.

Super Ranger

Super Ranger, also known by the more erotic name of Rough Ranger, is SunA's take on Rolling Thunder. Though I'm terrible at it, Rolling Thunder is one of my favorite classic games, with demanding yet rewarding controls, and a sleek, well-animated 60's spy vibe. While Super Ranger is nowhere near as polished or balanced as Namco's 1986 classic, it has a unique charm of its own. As per usual, there's a kidnapped girl, this time abducted by baddies straight from the Take On Me video, hardhats and all. You play as a shirtless village person, sort of the more skinny twink equivalent to the bearish Mike Haggar from Final Fight.

As you work your way slowly through the underground base, you can pick up a few different types of gun powerups, though most of them aren't really that useful against the merciless onslaught of construction hatted clones, who outswarm and outmove you. The biggest thing they failed to replicate from Rolling Thunder was the smooth sense of control, making the hero weak and unable to fend for himself for 5 seconds, much less an entire level. Expect to credit feed a lot if you want to get to the end, as the levels are both long and torturous, especially the vertically scrolling ones. Just like previous SunA titles, the music is cheesy midis of classical and other ripped off tunes, and the graphics, while they do have an appealingly chunky and colorful new wave feel, are unpolished and could use a bit more variety. Worth checking out if you are a fan of Rolling Thunder, but expect to hit continue every six steps.

Goindol

Goindol, or Homo, as some bootlegs call it, fares somewhat better than Hard Head. This time, SunA decided to take on Arkanoid/Breakout, but add in some interesting play elements that make it more than just a lifeless clone. Just as in Hard Head, the art style is alternately confusing and terror-inducing, such as the two-headed triceratops seen above. The music continues with the loungey feel, with vaguely familiar pop songs played as if covered by the saddest pachinko parlor karaoke machine in the world. However, once you get past the charming but janky aesthetic, the game itself is well-designed. Though the game has the standard ball and paddle mechanics, it adds on well-designed tables, with a mixture of pinball and shooter touches, including bumpers, slots, and an evil caveman(the titular Goindol)who throws enemies and obstacles at you. If you manage to hit the right spot, you are taken to a shooter bonus round, where you must clear out all the blocks in order to reveal the picture below. Goindol is well worth tracking down, even if you don't like cavemen, dinosaurs, or hideous art.

Hard Head

Hard Head represents SunA's attempt to rip off Super Mario Bros, but mixed in with soccer/football, Bubble Bobble, and the ugliest characters to grace a game since the boxart of the original Mega Man. Just as in SMB, you must venture through many sidescrolling levels and hop on the heads of weird creatures, but you also have the ability to trap them in bubbles, and some of the powerups have a distinctly Bubble Bobble-esque feel to them. Also, instead of a flagpole, you have to hit a soccer ball through the goal at the end of the level, a task easier said than done, given the game's incredibly wonky physics, which also make jumping and navigating incredibly difficult. The game overall has this weird janky offmarket feeling to it, from the nightmarish main characters and enemies to the loungeporn music and general confusing aimlessness. The game is almost worth playing all the way through just to see what strange thing they'll throw at you next, but the horrible controls will probably stop you before the end.

SunA roundup

Just as for every Donkey Kong there is a Sky Ace, and for every Frogger there is an Amazing Adventures of Mr. F.Lea, there is a SunA for every Capcom. While a few companies manage to make it big in the arcade and home arenas, there are also tons of unknown companies that create neglected, little-loved games that only see one pizza parlor in an Ohio pizza place instead of nationwide distribution. I've already mentioned a few of these companies before, such as Zaccariah, but I'm going to spend the next few entries going over the complete oevre of an obscure Korean company called SunA. SunA only put out 7 games, all of which are somewhat derivative knockoffs of other arcade hits, but with quite a few interesting wrinkles. We won't ever get a SunA collection, or even poorly-ported cellphone renditions of any of the games mentioned, but they provide a fascinating glimpse into an otherwise underrepresented country in the arcade scene.