Ultra Balloon

Ultra Balloon is SunA's take on the perennial arcade classic Bubble Bobble. Though it again features repulsive art direction and puzzling surrealism, Ultra Balloon is surprisingly quite playable, all things considered. Instead of a cute dino, you play as an almost as adorable penguin who must, yes, trap enemies in bubbles in single screen levels in order to advance. This is despite the fact that the story screens feature an ugly little boy, but we should probably be glad to be spared deformed child protagonists ala Hard Head. The game plays exactly like Taito's prehistoric bubble-popping classic, down to the collectible points-giving tchotchkes, trapping bubbles, and swarms of enemies, only with different, more unpleasant graphics. However, the weirdness is actually sort of charming, and the game is smooth enough to be much more playable than the majority of SunA's output. SunA only put out 7 arcade games, only 6 of which seem currently emulatable, and while none of them were classics, all of them have enough quirkiness to be at least worth a quick download. Ultra Balloon and Back Street Soccer were their last titles, and came after a 6 year absence from the scene. SunA no longer exists, probably swallowed up by some random Panchinko company, but their odd legacy still remains with us today.