Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (1989)

Preliminary: Right off the bat I'm enjoying the Halloween-y music and NES tight controls, moving along briskly and quickly smacking anything that leaps out at me, and I absolutely love how the "Experience" system is such a simple UI on top of just how many enemies you gotta defeat to raise your hitpoints.

However, I do wish that there was more of the gore of the first one, which I was so impressed by, and the enemies were more brutal. Like, the dancing vampire just isn't doing it for me tho I realize it's a parody. And I wasn't a fan of how it was basically just a battle of killing a bunch of summoned regular enemies, same with the book part those were my least favorite parts of the original Splatterhouse too (the poltergeist items flying around scenes). But I like this girl on the bed part and it seems I'm sticking with the game so here goes nothing.

And ok I really dig this between-stage screen and the wording lol

Day 1

The platforming controls feel a bit "loose" especially when moving around edges of platforms but for the most part it feels quite tight. I wish there were more tunes, as nice and Halloween-y as this main one is. (Oh nice, the sewer part has a nice new tune tho it's not creepy ha). As much as I haven't been loving the cheesy kiddy Halloween theme, and the game just feels like it's missing an oomph at all, I do really like this town at night Halloween vibe and the pumpkin enemies here :-p

It's surprisingly forgiving with the frequency of health drops. Honestly tho the mechanics of the regular levels and the bosses is kinda boring and just blah. I just started Stage 5, time for my usual break on calm time days, but yea. I'm sure I will finish it despite the blah-ness, just was hoping for more when I think about how good the first Splatterhouse is!

The collision masks for the broken bridges in Stage VI were pretty bad, especially since you gotta go back to the beginning of the level from them.

Well I didn't realize there are different endings but just read up that I accidentally did what I was supposed to to get the good ending :-p Woopsie. But also yay :-p

Even tho I'm not loving the game, it has kept my interest and maintained a reasonable difficulty even at the end. Plus it has a nice style of respawn for enemies, instead of that infinite respawn feature that so many late 80s action games had. And it has a nice balancing where there are obvious places meant for grinding exp or health etc. like Castlevania was conscious of.

The final boss was underwhelming and repetitive, like many of the bosses. I remember not loving those aspects of the original Splatterhouse either tho this one was considerably worse with that. But ooo cute idea of "it all being a movie" type situation. I had to look up what the Japanese text meant ha. And some nice jingles (and an absurd comment about drugs) at the end. The special/crystal ball ending didn't add much but it's all good.

Look: 7.5/10 Cute, and I love the homages to the original Splatterhouse, but I was looking forward to so much more. Still, above average for most NES games.

Sound: 7.5/10 Some nice jingles in there, but mostly nothing special. I didn't mute it tho and that's good for NES ha, one of the consoles I've expected the least from the Sound.

Play: 7.5/10 Mostly bland and repetitive, but I still got that platformer hook and after a brief break, I otherwise didn't have an inclination to drop it. Plus, it fortunately never got ridiculously hard like so many of its contemporaries.

Feel: 8/10 Cute and humorous, tho I expected more from a Splatterhouse sequel.

Attachment: 7.5/10 If Imma replay an early Splatterhouse... Imma replay Splatterhouse. But this is neat and I doubt I will forget it.

Overall: 7.6/10

Completion: Main Story + Extras

Playtime: 1 hour

I have lots and lots of vinyl records that I don't listen enough. I also have my gaming set-up in a different room as the record player, which doesn't help the record-listening situation at all. Luckily, I at least have my Switch hooked up near the record player so I can play that if I want to have something other to do than just basking in the sweet sounds. Ironically, my Switch even has a lot of games I haven't played enough. However, even that doesn't often entice me to the living room to actually play games I have bought whilst actually listening to records that I have also bought. Life is tough, as you can imagine.

A while back, I again did something that makes the situation even worse: I bought lots of new records. In fact, I bought every studio album by the soft rock band Pablo Cruise. Why? Well, I'm a bit of a loony. Anyway, for some reason, this time I was really eager to go through this discography (in chronological order no less) and see how the band developed during their time together. Thus, I was actually spending time in the living room and looking for something extra to keep me entertainment.

Now, you can probably deduce where I'm going with this, since I'm writing a review for Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti?

Yes, I did play Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti whilst I was cruisin' thru my Pablo Cruise albums. I had it on the Namco Museum Archives: Vol. 1 collection. Also, I liked what I played.

The game is a cutesy Splatterhouse spinoff (that's definitely a concept for the ages there). It's fun, fast, simple and goofy in the right ways. You run, jump, attack enemies and see crazy levels, enemies and bosses. Occasionally you'll find a fun little shotgun that rightfully obliterates the enemies to... oblivion. Being a fan of older horror movies, I really liked all the references the game throws at you. It even has a boss based on The Fly! The game was also quite chill with its difficulty and rarely did I feel that the game was cheap or annoying. And it was quite short, I think two albums long or so. Only thing I was kinda missed out on was the music and sound but I think I'll play through the game on its own at some point. It's definitely a fun silly romp I'd recommend to check out if you have nothing other to do whilst listening to some Pablo Cruise.

Also, was this a stupid, rambling review? Surely. Yet, I regret nothing.

This was a Japan-only release for the Famicom (NES) that I can now play on the Switch via the Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 (not to be confused with Namco Museum, also on the Switch). The game is just a beat-em-up side-scroller, so no worries about a language barrier.

Splatterhouse is best-known as an arcade brawler full of grotesque violence, monster guts everywhere. So how did something like that make it to the Famicom? They chibi-fied everything. So there's plenty of grotesque violence and monster guts, but it's all very cute-looking now. It's pretty funny, actually.

The game itself plays fine. I think it's a step up from the original entry gameplay-wise actually -- everything certainly moves much more quickly, at least. It's no Castlevania sound-wise, but it's okay. Bosses are pretty annoying for the most part, but they're fun to see. All in all Wanpaku Graffiti is a simple but amusing diversion, not quite offering enough to make me want to replay it but for what it is it's not bad.

This is a NES game that's stylized in the SD (superdeformed) trend.

It's a rather cute game and rather funny. It seems to be themed around Halloween.

It has dozens of references to various horror movies.

It plays a bit like it looks, and is a rather forgiving game because you have lots of halloween candy to eat and burgers...

and if you are in a tough spot you can continue, or use a password given to you at the end of each level. (You can even exploit the game by replicating food by walking just off the edge of the screen then coming back for another burger) But this is a solid game. It is actually one of the better games I've played for the NES that is a side scrolling action game. It feels a little River City Ransom inspired in how.you can engage with the environment in some clever spots and there are a few easter eggs that are very amusing. At times it feels less than linear (wrong paths will take you back a bit until you figure it out.)

Dancing Geisha show is a great reward for discovering a secret!

Some of the bosses are tough. They move fast and you do not have a very long range with your cleaver.

The final boss took several tries. There are a few endings (and best I can tell they are based off a few secrets)