After the psychic labyrinths of Psychic 5, we stay within 90s Japanese arcade games but switch genres entirely. Enter Bal Cube for One Credit Challenge #17, a curiosity by Metro Corporation released in July 1996.

A reverse brick breaker

Bal Cube was developed and published by Metro Corporation, a low-profile Japanese studio whose 90s arcade catalog remains largely obscure. The arcade board runs on a Motorola 68000 clocked at 16 MHz with a YMF278B sound chip — modest hardware for a game that puts everything into its core concept. Released in Japan in July 1996, the title never received a home console port and quickly faded into obscurity due to limited distribution outside the Japanese market.

You are the cube

The concept flips the classic brick breaker formula: forget the paddle. Here, you directly control the ball — a spinning blue cube — by altering its trajectory with the joystick. Blocks of various shapes descend from the top of the screen, and your goal is to eliminate them all before they reach the bottom. Death occurs either when the cube falls into one of the holes at the bottom of the screen or when the blocks cross the fatal line. Power-ups are hidden in certain blocks: slowdown, full screen clear, the ability to break steel blocks in a single hit… Puzzle elements gradually appear in later levels, making the game more demanding than it initially seems.

The One Credit challenge

Bal Cube is easy to pick up, but mastering the cube’s trajectory quickly becomes extremely challenging as the speed increases. Finishing it without continuing requires mastering momentum — something only dedicated practice can achieve. Grab your joysticks.

For more technical information about Bal Cube, check out its Recalbox MAME DB page.

🏆 Challenge rules

Your objective is to achieve the highest score using a single credit.
The challenge runs from May 1st to May 15th, 11:59 PM. You may attempt it as many times as you like.

📢 How to participate?

• Launch the game (ROM: balcube.zip)
• Play and try to beat the highest score
• Take a screenshot or photo of your final score
• Share your score on the #challenges Discord channel, including your username and score

⚖️ Rules to follow

To ensure fairness:

The score must be achieved on a single credit, without save states, rewind, cheats, or auto-fire (unless built into the game).

Gentlemen’s agreement: the use of glitches that artificially inflate the score is also prohibited.

🎁 Rewards and fair play

The goal of the challenge is above all to discover games, share tips, and of course have fun — all within a competitive spirit.

The winner will receive a game key (GOG, Steam, etc.) to choose from a list of around 100 titles.
If you have won a challenge within the last three months, the reward will go to the next player.

Your ranking will be added to the One Credit Challenge leaderboard.
The Season 1 champion will win either an RGB Dual 2 or a one-year Recalbox Patreon subscription.

Good luck to everyone — may the best score win!