Here Comes the Suna
One of the greatest things about emulation is the sheer number of HORRIBLE games you might otherwise never have gotten the opportunity to play. I was playing MAME last night and discovered a company called Suna that put out four or five arcade titles in the late 80s to early 90s. Their flagship title is a game called Hardhead, in which you play a…hillbilly caveman in a unitard or something. I don’t really get the point of the game; collecting treasure and busting bricks with your head seems to be about it, but I was blown away by the absolutely horrible controls. When you jump, Hardhead lunges forward just before hitting the ground, making judging your jumps frustratingly difficult — there are several areas requiring precise platform jumping, but they forgot to give the character the ability to jump precisely. Second worst to control was the art direction, with some of the ugliest graphics ever. That’s what caught my eye.
I couldn’t play for long it was so bad, but I HAD to see what other games Suna had released. Fortunately Hardhead was so revolutionary it apparently warranted a sequel. It plays slightly better, but still not any fun.
Suna’s only other title worthy of mention is a game called Ultra Balloon, which is a huge Bubble Bobble ripoff. The game itself was nothing special, but once again started off with a bizarre animated backstory.
Sadly, I can’t seem to find any information on Suna online. I think it’s safe to say they went out of business.
EDIT:
Something possessed Nick and I to play through both Hardheads today. We beat the first one, but I accidentally closed the emulator on the fifth level of the second one and we didn’t have the heart to try again. Here’s a screenshot from the brilliant ending of Hardhead 1.
January 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
my friend
January 11th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
that sucks man
January 11th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
i know right
January 12th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Bill, did you notice that the word __br_ah__ won’t appear in comments but does appear in the recent comments, time to fix your shit, my friend.
January 12th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
CONGRATULATION!