Revived by his girlfriend's grief and a flash of lightning, Rick must chase down the Pumpkin king and save his beloved Jennifer once and for all! A parody of the bloody horror beat-'em-up Splatterhouse, Wanpaku Graffiti assumes a much cuter appearance but retains the same fast-paced action of the original.
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This is a game I've been meaning to play for a good while, and was kinda just waiting to stumble across a physical copy until Prfsnl told me that it's included on one of the Namco collections on Switch! it also happened to be on sale for 4 bucks, so I snatched it up right quick, and I used it as a chaser in between Atelier games about a week ago X3. It's a pretty short game, as I beat it in around 40 minutes, but it's a pretty tough one too. I was pretty proud of myself that I was able to beat it in my first set of continues without needing to resort to save states or passwords (which, for the record, I was absolutely willing to do if it came down to it XD).
Wanpaku Graffiti is a cutesy parody of Splatterhouse that sees a "super-deformed" chibi-styled cutesy Rick clobbering his way through a handful of levels to save his girlfriend. The overall Splatterhouse-ness of the story is there, but in cutesy parody form, as there is a ton of silly stuff on top of the cute stuff. Some stuff is still a little creepy, such as fighting the poltergeist boss (one of the tougher ones), but a lot of it is also very tongue-in-cheek, such as the boss of the first stage: a vampire who, instead of fighting you himself, summons a bunch of zombies to dance to a legally distinct version of Thriller to before sending them to fight you (and then he descends back down into the floor once you're done fighting and he's done dancing XD).
The gameplay is a pretty bog-standard action platformer, though it is thankfully of that late-Famicom variety of "reasonably challenging platformer" rather than "lmao go die in a hole" platformer XD. You go through stages, left to right (and sometimes even climbing upwards!), fighting enemies, mini-bosses, and proper bosses. You can collect candy from killed enemies to refill your healthbar, and killing enough enemies extends your maximum amount of health. While you only have one life per continue, and you only have 5 continues, there are passwords between each stage and the checkpoints you go back to when you die are always very generous, so the game does a very nice job of feeling challenging while usually not feeling unfair.
You don't punch like normal Splatterhouse, but instead you have an axe to swing at them, but you can also get a shotgun powerup sometimes as a sort of directed screen-clear superpower. The shotgun does take some care to not fall into a hole while using, as it knocks you back a fair bit when you fire it, but the biggest mechanical stinker is the axe. The platforming, enemy placement, and boss design are all pretty darn good, but the hitbox on your ax is absolute jank. Especially for flying enemies and bosses, it can be very frustrating to land a hit made at a flying enemy or landing a hit while jumping. It isn't a game-breaker, but it's a very persistent annoyance that brings the game's overall quality from "pretty darn good" to "memorable but only okay" for me.
The presentation is quite good, especially in the graphical department. As with most late-Famicom platformers, they really knew how to flex the hardware to get some really nicely detailed sprites. I'm not sure how the Switch version affects the hardware slowdown at all, but at least in this version of the game, it also runs pretty well too. The music is fun and boppin' for what it is, and the Thriller part at the beginning of the game absolutely steals the show in that regard X3
Verdict: Recommended. Especially if you can pick it up on this little Switch Namco collection, this is a Famicom game well worthy of your time. It's not super unique mechanically, sure, and it's pretty short as well, but it's a cute, fun romp that will likely give a good bit of entertainment to anyone who likes action platformers~.
Wanpaku Graffiti is a cutesy parody of Splatterhouse that sees a "super-deformed" chibi-styled cutesy Rick clobbering his way through a handful of levels to save his girlfriend. The overall Splatterhouse-ness of the story is there, but in cutesy parody form, as there is a ton of silly stuff on top of the cute stuff. Some stuff is still a little creepy, such as fighting the poltergeist boss (one of the tougher ones), but a lot of it is also very tongue-in-cheek, such as the boss of the first stage: a vampire who, instead of fighting you himself, summons a bunch of zombies to dance to a legally distinct version of Thriller to before sending them to fight you (and then he descends back down into the floor once you're done fighting and he's done dancing XD).
The gameplay is a pretty bog-standard action platformer, though it is thankfully of that late-Famicom variety of "reasonably challenging platformer" rather than "lmao go die in a hole" platformer XD. You go through stages, left to right (and sometimes even climbing upwards!), fighting enemies, mini-bosses, and proper bosses. You can collect candy from killed enemies to refill your healthbar, and killing enough enemies extends your maximum amount of health. While you only have one life per continue, and you only have 5 continues, there are passwords between each stage and the checkpoints you go back to when you die are always very generous, so the game does a very nice job of feeling challenging while usually not feeling unfair.
You don't punch like normal Splatterhouse, but instead you have an axe to swing at them, but you can also get a shotgun powerup sometimes as a sort of directed screen-clear superpower. The shotgun does take some care to not fall into a hole while using, as it knocks you back a fair bit when you fire it, but the biggest mechanical stinker is the axe. The platforming, enemy placement, and boss design are all pretty darn good, but the hitbox on your ax is absolute jank. Especially for flying enemies and bosses, it can be very frustrating to land a hit made at a flying enemy or landing a hit while jumping. It isn't a game-breaker, but it's a very persistent annoyance that brings the game's overall quality from "pretty darn good" to "memorable but only okay" for me.
The presentation is quite good, especially in the graphical department. As with most late-Famicom platformers, they really knew how to flex the hardware to get some really nicely detailed sprites. I'm not sure how the Switch version affects the hardware slowdown at all, but at least in this version of the game, it also runs pretty well too. The music is fun and boppin' for what it is, and the Thriller part at the beginning of the game absolutely steals the show in that regard X3
Verdict: Recommended. Especially if you can pick it up on this little Switch Namco collection, this is a Famicom game well worthy of your time. It's not super unique mechanically, sure, and it's pretty short as well, but it's a cute, fun romp that will likely give a good bit of entertainment to anyone who likes action platformers~.
Fun little platformer based on the Splatterhouse series. Instead of horror and gore we get cute and hilarious. Not much of a challenge and something of an oddity but worth a look.
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Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8
Yes, the bastard child of the Splatterhouse series. This is another one of those games that really doesn’t take itself too seriously. Of course, that much is obvious from looking at the cute super-deformed protagonist. Even with an axe and a hockey mask, he still manages to be cute. And the whole game is just as silly. Well, not incredibly silly, but it’s silly at various points. Anyway, you’re a dead guy who’s rescuing his girlfriend, and in doing so walks perpetually to the right, and cuts up all kinds of possessed objects and demons on the way to the pathetically easy showdown with the big pumpkin thing and the really cool ending. There’s even a “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” screen in the credits. How damned cool is that?
Yes, the bastard child of the Splatterhouse series. This is another one of those games that really doesn’t take itself too seriously. Of course, that much is obvious from looking at the cute super-deformed protagonist. Even with an axe and a hockey mask, he still manages to be cute. And the whole game is just as silly. Well, not incredibly silly, but it’s silly at various points. Anyway, you’re a dead guy who’s rescuing his girlfriend, and in doing so walks perpetually to the right, and cuts up all kinds of possessed objects and demons on the way to the pathetically easy showdown with the big pumpkin thing and the really cool ending. There’s even a “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” screen in the credits. How damned cool is that?
This game is better than the game it is a parody of
The Porygon episode must have taken a page out of this book. Be careful guys, you only got two eyes so be sure to close them when the game gets a bit silly. Now, about this game...
It's cheap sometimes with sprinkles of unexpected moments. Our little guy here is attacking everything in his path in a non-PG fashion. But don't be led astray, he's absolutely balding. I thought it was mickey mouse sized ears at first but...sigh unebelievable at such a young age. Unashamed afterthought: I can't be only one who saw the "cut" in the epilogue as "cut" but the t becomes an m gasp... Well... Yeah, this is like Moist Critikal level humor I'm so sorry.
The epilogue gives that vibe to me where if Splatterhouse had a sizeable fan community, you'd see "THIS IS A GAME CHANGER!!! THIS HIDDEN GEM CHANGES RICK'S LORE ENTIRELY!!" videos.
By the way, there are some hidden levels. They exist. Do them or else!! (proceeds not to elaborate further).
It's cheap sometimes with sprinkles of unexpected moments. Our little guy here is attacking everything in his path in a non-PG fashion. But don't be led astray, he's absolutely balding. I thought it was mickey mouse sized ears at first but...sigh unebelievable at such a young age. Unashamed afterthought: I can't be only one who saw the "cut" in the epilogue as "cut" but the t becomes an m gasp... Well... Yeah, this is like Moist Critikal level humor I'm so sorry.
The epilogue gives that vibe to me where if Splatterhouse had a sizeable fan community, you'd see "THIS IS A GAME CHANGER!!! THIS HIDDEN GEM CHANGES RICK'S LORE ENTIRELY!!" videos.
By the way, there are some hidden levels. They exist. Do them or else!! (proceeds not to elaborate further).