Bubble Seahorse Adventures began its life in 2007, when a collective of developers calling themselves The Old Battleaxe decided to enter the PyWeek game jam.

The game was originally known as Barbie Seahorse Adventures, before temporarily being renamed Bubble Kong for its submission to PyWeek. After the game jam, Hassey and company decided to polish up the game with, in Hassey’s words, “a bazillion bug fixes, about 10 new levels and all the lousy levels removed” to create a release initially known as Bubble Kong Deluxe before switching back to Barbie Seahorse Adventures.

In Bubble Seahorse Adventures, you play the role of a seahorse and you have to get to the moon. The exact reason for this has never been made entirely clear at any point during the game’s long history, but this is the world of video games and things don’t always have to make sense.

In order to get to the moon, you’ll need to traverse several different environments a stage at a time, blowing bubbles and collecting shiny things along the way. Your bubbles can be used both to defeat enemies and to help you traverse the levels — enemies trapped in your bubbles can be used as floating platforms! Normally it takes three bubbles to defeat an enemy, but find a power-up and you’ll not only sprout a rather fetching quiff, you’ll be able to bubble enemies with just one shot. Your quiff will also protect you against a single hit from an enemy, but it will power you back down to baby seahorse status.