Parodies of games aren’t exactly common, but they are a thing that happens from time to time. Sometimes the results are pretty cool, kind of dumb, or just plain off the wall. It’s nice to see some game developers taking a break to do something not so serious with their IPs. Take a look at Parodius for example, or Kid Dracula. Those games were pretty cool and a lot of fun even though they made light of their more serious counterparts. So, now what would happen if we took a game that was a bit more edgy than those, maybe something kind of gory and turned it into a cutesy version of itself? You’d end up with this:
Aside from the axe, the title screen doesn’t let you know what’s coming.
Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti, otherwise known as Splatterhouse Naughty Graffiti or Splatterhouse Super Deformed, is a tongue-in-cheek take on the controversial Splatterhouse series. It’s the only version of Splatterhouse that Namco released on a Nintendo console, and you can bet Nintendo of America wasn’t having it at all. It doesn’t quite fit into the canon, but I don’t think anyone’s going to fault it for that. It features cuted-up versions of the games usual enemies, and throws some other stuff into the mix just for laughs. Things like zombies and a vampire that dance to thriller and an ambulatory plunger accompanied by some turds flying out of a toilet.
No one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike!
The game starts out in a graveyard where Rick is dead and buried while his girlfriend Jennifer mourning over him. Lightning strikes and revives Rick but also the Pumpkin king who kidnaps Jennifer. For some reason Rick was buried wearing his typical jumpsuit and the Terror Mask. It might be best to not look too deeply into it.
It’s a Japanese release, but the game’s mostly in “English”.
While the rest of the series was more of a beat-em up, this one is more of a traditional platformer. It’s also not nearly as gory as the rest of the series, either. It wasn’t breaking any new ground in it’s day. There’s seven stages in the game and two hidden stages where you can obtain a crystal ball which gives you a better ending to the game. Some of the stages are based off of the original Splatterhouse, while some are copying classic horror movies. For example stage 4 was Diamond Lake and 5 was Diamond Camp, obviously inspired by Friday the 13th. Several of the bosses are inspired by scenes from The Exorcist and Poltergeist. There’s even scenes modeled after Alien, Jaws, and The Fly.
Come on, name one other game where you fight poo!
Rick wanders through the stages wielding an axe, which is your main weapon throughout the game. The shotgun does appear about halfway through. There is an experience system which gives you more health, although it’s easy to just sit and farm a couple of spiders and max out your health fairly early. The only other power-ups are the occasional pieces of candy that are dropped, hamburgers, and sodas if you can find them. Sometimes there will be traps that send you back further in the stage, so make sure you time your jumps carefully. Most of the bosses were pretty easy, but they rely on a distraction. There’s flying chairs during one that you can break but will come back, and knives that constantly assault you while you’re filleting the headless chickens marching out of an oven.
Your Mother plays MegaDrive in Hell!
There’s lots of little things throughout the game that make the game special. The graphics are pretty good for it’s time, and a lot of the things are creative. There’s buckets that can drop on your head that conveniently have eye holes cut out. They’ll just stay there through the rest of the stage. The sprites are a nice size, giving the game a nice cartoony look. Some of the backgrounds in the stages seem redundant, and every house seems to have that log cabin look to it. It reminds me of Evil Dead or something, actually. The secret stages look pretty different from the rest of the game. One takes place in Japan, complete with typical Japanese monsters. The other takes you to Egypt. At the end, the girls who give you the crystal balls will dance for you. If you mash the buttons enough times you can make Rick fart and they’ll berate you for it.
Poot!
The music isn’t anything special, usually just a few chords repeated over and over. It feels like something you’d hear in the background of a horror movie, which is actually quite fitting. The boss music, especially. The sound effects can get annoying after a while. For a Famicom game from 1989, I guess it’s to be expected. I suppose it wasn’t bad for its day.
After seeing how the rest of the game went, I hope the bucket was empty.
I wouldn’t have thought a parody of Splatterhouse would have been any good, but I actually had a lot of fun with this title. I’ve always been a fan of the classic 80’s horror movies this, and the Splatterhouse series in general, is based on. If you’re a fan of those kinds of tropes, it’s worth checking out. Especially if you’re a fan of Friday the 13th or Evil Dead like I am. While Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti never came out in North America, the Famicom cart is easy to find and not that expensive. The game’s mostly in English, not that it would be hard to figure out if it wasn’t. If you really want to be unique there are some recent reproduction NES carts of the game with a translated title screen and ending. Don’t expect to see a digital release of this, it’ll probably never happen.
And who says games aren’t appropriate for children?
Seen it, beat it, get yelled at by the princess for breaking wind? I want to know! Comment below or send me a message on Facebook or Twitter.