Sleeper of the Week:Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti (Famicom)

[maxlords]

Sleeper of the Week: Splatterhouse – Wanpaku Graffiti

What’s that you say? You’ve never heard of any Splatterhouse games other than the original arcade and TG16 one? Maybe you’ve heard of the two for Genesis, Splatterhouse 2 and 3. But what’s this? Wanpaku Graffiti? Is it a combination of Splatterhouse and Jet Set Radio? You wish. Nonetheless it is a Splatterhouse game, and the only one that didn’t get released domestically. That’s right, we’re talking imports this week on the Sleeper. Famicom imports to be exact, as Splatterhouse WD is an excellent adaptation of the Splatterhouse series onto the Famicom.

Released in 1989, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti is a super-deformed version of the Splatterhouse games. Yup, big heads and total cuteness, combined with the gut busting hacking that Splatterhouse made famous! The storyline has little in the way of words, but it doesn’t really matter. Rick is conveniently resurrected from the grave while his girlfriend looks on in joy. However, just as he awakens, a giant flying pumpkin/king kidnaps her and now Rick (i.e. you) must save her. Stage 1 is predictably a cemetery, where you’ll fight various ghouls and Dracula as well. Beware his flashy dance moves, they’re virtually hypnotic! Each of the stages is a kind of comedic perversion of classic horror movies and the Splatterhouse series itself. Rick has a cute little axe, and eats candy and hamburgers for health. He can also get a couple of guns, open doors, and destroy objects as well.

For the Famicom, I found Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti to be very advanced. The hit detection is a little off, but the game is hilarious, challenging, and most of all, fun! The music is decent, standard sort of NES-style music, and the graphics are pretty solid for the time. And for those of you looking for an added bonus, there’s some absolutely great Engrish in the game, such as Stage II’s opener: “BE GARBAGE OF CESSPOOL! HA HA HA....” Really, how can you go wrong!

If you love platformers or Splatterhouse or you just want a good laugh, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti is one of the must have Famicom games. Just for reference, you will need a 60-72 pin convertor to play this game on a US NES system. Convertors run approximately $5-10, so don’t worry about the cost! The game itself averages $20-35 depending on the week. I got mine off eBay for about $25. Complete, it comes in a nifty clamshell hardcase, much like European Neo Geo Pocket Color games, as well as with a set of stickers (Yay!). Go check it out!

FYI, all the pictures of this game were swiped directly from DP’s own Dire 51 from his Splatterhouse site, the West Mansion: http://www.classicgaming.com/splatterhouse/index.html, absolutely the best Splatterhouse site out there!

[jajaja]

I have this game. Its fun But theres something wrong with it. It randomly freezes on my Twin Famicom. Sometimes I get to level 1 and it freezes. Other times i can get to level 4 without freezing.
Wonder if its damaged or what it is.

You also mention that you need a 60 to 72 pin converter to play it on your NES (logical of course). But since the game cartridge is bigger than a normal Famicom cartridge, how do you get to push the game down? I tried a 60 to 72 pin converter, but then I couldnt get the game in my NES because it was too long.

Anyways, I recommend this game to all

[Ed Oscuro]

I just wanted to start by saying that the last Sleeper I hit turned out to be a pretty solid gem - Silent Bomber. This one, however, is one I'm even more enthusaistic about, as I recently played all the way through it.

This is currently my favorite FC game. I bought a copy off eBay, and Forum member 16-bit/Mad-Gear LLC also has a great looking, complete copy up (that's quite a bit less expensive than mine was - what a steal at $60)...if nobody's bought it yet! He's also got a loose one.

It's got everything an NES game should have: sewers, streets, side quests in two historical areas (hmm...did anybody else notice that *sometimes* that volcano erupts? Quite harmless, too), TONS of movie references (from Aliens to The Fly and everywhere in between) and walking pumpkin head enemies that spit tiny pumpkin heads. Most importantly, it has exceptionally smooth play control and great music.

If the regular Splatterhouse games turn you off as being too violent, dreary, and generally disgusting, you need not worry about the contents of this game. It's generally kid suitable (there's a few semi-racy bits and one of the forest stages has some distressingly moody ambient sound and hanged men...otherwise, nothing too bad).

On the style side...there's plenty of skulls and blood to be seen, but nothing too violent happens here, just like Rick's gone trick'r treat'in during Halloween. The insanely gruesome enemies of Splatterhouse are gone, replaced by cutesy ones. Enemy deaths are still impressive, with pumpkins flying into pieces, and the heads of zombie dogs will fly after you (just like another classic Splatterhouse enemy). For health replenishers you have candy (that enemies drop, or that you can get by stomping on trash cans - stomp 'em all when you see them, because it's random), and strategically placed hamburgers.

Gameplay, of course, is what really gets me about this game. Take Monster Party and spruce up the visuals - that's pretty much what we're looking at here. The game is very fast, however, as kid Rick ambles right along at a good pace. On the first stage you'll notice that the foreground is scrolling by very fast - Rick can cover the whole screen in just over 2 seconds (as far as I can tell). The game's not at all gimmicky in this area - there are some incredibly intense battles to be had, such as the Aliens scene, and some bosses are much tougher than others. For weaponry, you've got a cleaver to carry about, and in this game Rick's got enough sense in him not to drop it. Later in the game you'll find shotguns, though picking up more will just refill your gun (to 10 shells), and given that the thing takes out pretty much everybody onscreen you might want to keep it (hmm...I should see if I can keep one until the final boss just for fun). There's no combo system to speak of since all normal monsters die in one hit, more or less. There's one spot in particular where you can fall and do a section a few times over, continually collecting the shotgun.

One major change from other games is in the leveling system - you start out with a middling four hit bars, and over time you can "level up" by killing the number of enemies indicated by the fraction at the top left of the screen. The first three or so levels have you killing ten monsters, but eventually you'll have to kill 60 - at 16 hit bars, you're maxed out. This many will let even mediocre players such as myself beat the final boss, but it's still tricky. Needless to say, this is a game to play through or else you might have to do some old-fashioned power levelling (argh). You've got continues to each game, but they don't give you back your level. As far as I know, any enemies work, so if you're not so sure of your abilities in this game you can keep leveling, but it's quite easy to do yourself in if you lose concentration platforming while getting the game to respawn monsters.

Musically and graphically, it's great stuff, though the last note of the death trill hangs a bit too long for my liking (still, you're NOT supposed to die). Other than that, this is super stuff and I'm wondering where the NSF is.

[Cauterize]

more screenshots for you like i always do!

[Cmosfm]

I have this game as well, and man, is it one FUN FUN game! If you have a chance to get the actual cart, do so, it's well worth the admission price.

One of the few games I still pick up all the time and play through

[MegaDrive20XX]

excellent choice Max, especially since tommorrow is Friday the 13th

[Speedy_NES]

Never played this game...never even heard of it until now in a matter of fact (so it's definitely a sleeper ). I'll be sure keep an eye out for this game from now on, though. Looks interesting...and the screenshots remind me of Chiller for the NES (with the gravestones and everything)

-Speedy

P.S. For me (in Europe), it's already Friday the 13th

[pseudonym]

this is a great game. i have the cart but no system. :/

btw, i found this the other day. it's the dance dracula and the those ghouls do before they start attacking you.

http://splatthriller.ytmnd.com/

[Crush Crawfish]

Take Monster Party and spruce up the visuals - that's pretty much what we're looking at here.

That sentence alone gives me a great desire to track this game down. Come to think of it, I need to buy all the other splatterhouses as well...

[NeoZeedeater]

I loved the arcade/TG16 and Genesis games back in the day and I was surprised to find out about the FC game a few years back since it wasn't mentioned in any domestic mags back when it came out as far as I know. It's a neat game.

[shai hulud]

another great pick this week Sir. this is one of the first imports i ever purchased, oh did the kids think i was cool with my strange japanese Nintendo games. Sadly i lost the cart somewhere between 3 different moves over the last 5 years. I will someday pick up another copy, it just seems every time i decide to buy this game again something new pops up

[Gamereviewgod]

I didn't know about it until I read Dire 51's review here on the site. I went for the ROM.

Whoever said Monster Party is kind of right. It's a lot faster than that. Rick moves at one hell of a clip. The graphics are great, actually capturing some of the style of the other versions while making it work on the NES. It's pretty damned hard too.

[evildead2099]

I wonder how noticible Nintendo of America's uptight censorship policies would've impacted upon the game had it been developed for North American audiences. The graveyard of the first stage would look rather barren in the absence of its many crucifixes and tombstones (Speaking of crucifixes, why did NOA allow Konami to have Simon Belmont use them as boomarangs in Castlevania III?)

[Videogamerdaryll]

Whoa!!..I LOVE this game...I love the box Art..

This game always sits on top of my Slot Machine "no matter how much I change the games I put up there"
(As now the Saturn Burning Rangers has been replaced with RE-4 SE..

[evildead2099]

That's pretty impressive. Do you have a Boong-Ga Boong-Ga unit somewhere in your home as well? :P

Seriously, though, I'd really like to try Boong-Ga Boong-Ga.

[Cthulhu]

I think as far as Famicom-only games go (no foreign release), Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti is actually pretty well known. It was pretty obscure years ago, but internet fandom has changed that.

[Sardius]

my roommate did a rom translation of this game a long while back, in case anyone's dying to know what the two or so Japanese lines in the ending say. he was nice enough to leave the original engrish intact, too; my favorite is the ass-random WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS message in the credits.

also worth noting is that there's way more to this game than meets the eye, including several secret codes and multiple endings. I like this game a lot, and it's totally worth checking out for anyone who hasn't played it yet.

[Dire 51]

Obviously I just had to come throw my two zenny into this thread.

Not too many people know this, but Wanpaku Graffiti was what finally prompted me to sit down and actually create the Splatterhouse site I'd been wanting to do for a couple of years (which from the beginning was titled West Mansion: The Splatterhouse Homepage. That is the one thing that never changed). I won my copy on eBay and paid nearly $60 for it (they were a lot harder to find back then, and I got caught in a bidding war right near the end - I was almost outbid at the last minute. If that had happened, who knows when I would have started the site?). After playing it for a week and realizing just how damned good the game was, I did some searching online for it, and found next to nothing about it. So I sat down and set up the first version of the site on Geocities. You know the rest.

Funny story about that eBay auction - the woman I won it from got my order confused with another, and when the package initially arrived, I found myself with the two Hello Kitty Famicom games instead of WG! I was royally pissed. Luckily I was able to get in contact with the woman that was expecting the Hello Kitty games for her six year old daughter and we did an exchange. I can just imagine the look on her face when she opened the package and WG fell out instead of Hello Kitty!

FYI, all the pictures of this game were swiped directly from DP’s own Dire 51 from his Splatterhouse site, the West Mansion: http://www.classicgaming.com/splatterhouse/index.html, absolutely the best Splatterhouse site out there!

Thanks for the free plug, max!

We've got an update coming in the near future on WM, but I've received nothing about WG since ArnoldRimmer emailed me the cheats for it quite some time ago.

I think as far as Famicom-only games go (no foreign release), Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti is actually pretty well known. It was pretty obscure years ago, but internet fandom has changed that.

When I started WM in 2001, there was next to nothing online about it, like I said earlier. All I could find was the section on The Whirlpool and a few other assorted bits, nothing major at all. I'd like to think that what I put about WG on WM has contributed to the game becoming a lot more well known.

I loved the arcade/TG16 and Genesis games back in the day and I was surprised to find out about the FC game a few years back since it wasn't mentioned in any domestic mags back when it came out as far as I know. It's a neat game.

The only time I ever saw it mentioned in a domestic mag was in a catalog from The Ultimate Game Club (remember them?) sometime in '90 or so. It was buried near the back of the mag in a listing of Famicom games for sale. All that was there was the name Splatterhouse and the price, no screenshots at all. That was when I first learned about the existence of the game, although years would go by before I was actually able to see it.

(hmm...did anybody else notice that *sometimes* that volcano erupts? Quite harmless, too)

Yes.

If the regular Splatterhouse games turn you off as being too violent, dreary, and generally disgusting, you need not worry about the contents of this game. It's generally kid suitable (there's a few semi-racy bits and one of the forest stages has some distressingly moody ambient sound and hanged men...otherwise, nothing too bad).

It's the only Splatterhouse I've ever played in front of my kids. My oldest daughter likes it - in fact she calls it the "Great Pumpkin game" because of the cover artwork.

Take Monster Party and spruce up the visuals - that's pretty much what we're looking at here.

You've reminded me - I plan to put some Monster Party info on the site, along with some other games that were inspired/owe a debt to/play like Splatterhouse, in a section similar to the Castlevania-like games section Kurt has on the Dungeon.

btw, i found this the other day. it's the dance dracula and the those ghouls do before they start attacking you.

http://splatthriller.ytmnd.com/

That looks familiar - one of the regulars on my forum, The Third Moon, created that about a week ago. I'll be putting it on WM next time we update.

...

In conclusion, WG = great. Play it. Love it.

[imanerd0011]

I used to have this game (complete with box/instructions/stickers), but traded it to another member.
I thought it was a great game, and the 2nd best game released on the Famicom (that didn't get released on the NES). The graphics were great for its time period, and the gameplay was very different, to say the least.
By the way, I am looking for another Famicom game, I think it's called "Yume Penguin" or something to that effect.I know that it involves a Penguin, and the point of the game is to lose weight so that your GF will like you. Does anyone have this game, and is willing to sell/trade it?

[Dire 51]

Yume Penguin Monogatari is the game in question - check out the review right here on DP, written by yours truly.

Unfortunately I no longer have a copy of the game... I wish I did, I can tell you that.