[anigbrowl]

I had the same thought. If it's meant to look cartoony it might be better to just deform a simple box/balloon and map that to the sprite. This is worthy work, I just think it's a little too realistic for the whimsical context and ends up failing to satisfy either criterion.

[fit2rule]

I wonder if perhaps you're not overlooking the trees for the forest here - maybe this effect doesn't apply too well to an 8-bit shooter ship, but there are certainly ways this effect can be utilized in other interesting 8-bit/pixel-style forms. Just adding structural deformation to a platformer, for example, opens up all sorts of interesting new dimensions - between the blocks. Sort of like Gish, I would suppose, and games like it ..