Hello friends. Dan Ryan here, you… there. Thank you so much for checking in and if you like what you see please comment and share. Back when Geekade was more than a podcast platform we used to do a thing called 31 Days of Halloween. Every October the entire writing staff would post articles related to Spooky Season through the lens of their particular geek. Mine, obviously, had to do with video games but included movies, music, wrestling, and beer. And honestly, I kind of miss it. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work according to Kris, and brought some great content. So it is in that spirit that I decided to do this column here, every Friday in October, to highlight some of my favorite retro, and retro adjace, “horror” titles. Submitted for your approval this is Friday Night Frights: Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti.

Growing up the fight was always between Nintendo and SEGA. NES v Master System, SNES v Genesis, etc. And while I was definitely a Nintendo kid, I was also very much a TurboGrafx-16 kid. I was the only person I knew who owned one and as such, took it as my responsibility to preach the word and spread the love. Whenever I introduced someone to the system my go-to was Splatterhouse. Splatterhouse is not a great game by any stretch. It’s quite simple, emblematic of the time in which it was released, with the player character Rick moving left to right and smashing enemies with simple attacks. Bosses have easy to memorize patterns and seasoned vets can finish the game rather quickly. Splatterhouse is however, an extremely cool game that felt more adult than anything on the NES. Even with the toned down port of the original arcade version, there is blood and guts galore. There was just no way this game would ever appear on a Nintendo console. So, one could imagine my surprise when later in life I heard about a Famicom version called Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti. What I was expecting, an even more toned down version of Splatterhouse with tighter controls, and what I got, a cute parody with pop culture references, could not have been more, pleasantly, surprising. 

Originally released for the Famicom in 1989, Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti takes the blood and gore of the original arcade game and replaces it with brightly colored, super deformed sprites. Gone is the overly muscular Rick replaced with an adorable kid with big eyes peeking out from a goofy mask. Out = creepy bosses, in = a vampire and some zombie who do a Thriller routine before their fight. See, parody games used to be a thing. While we have certainly gotten some fan made ones in the not too distant past, see the brilliant Abobo’s Big Adventure, publishers used to do them themselves. Things like Parodius, or Mighty Final Fight took elements from other titles and boiled them down to goofy fun. What Kid Dracula is to Castlevania, Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti is to Splatterhouse. As with all reviews here on the blog I will be using the wholly original, not copied at all from any defunct gaming magazine, patent pending SAG Pod Ranking System, which is explained below… 

Graphics: 4.0 Considering the time at which this was released, this is a really good looking game. The characters all animate very well and look great. There is a sense of the original behind all of the designs that shines through the cutesy redesigns. Backgrounds look nice with some nice lighting and scrolling effects. There is some unfortunate flicker present which hurts the overall presentation but there is still a lot to like here.

Sound: 4.0 The major critique holding this back from a 5 out of 5 is the lack of sound effects. That’s not to say that there aren’t any, just that you will notice that most enemies don’t make any sounds and neither does Rick. The soundtrack on the other hand is awesome in my opinion. It captures the vibe perfectly and is a ton of fun to listen to on its own.

Control: 3.5 Control is Wanpaku Graffiti is similar to Splatterhouse proper which does it a disservice in my opinion. The original is more beat ‘em up than platformer and while Wanpaku is not Mario Bros. 3, there is a fair bit more platforming than not. Everything feels a little slippery. I would love to play a version of this where Rick had a bit more weight to him. Now, none of this ruins the experience or makes the game frustrating to play. The controls are simple and work perfectly fine for what needs to be done.

Fun Factor: 4.0 I really love this game. I just wish there was more of it. The 7 levels can be finished in about half an hour or so making this a perfect choice for a retro spooky night session. Recognizing the pop culture references throughout is part of the fun and the overall presentation has a distinct charm. It makes for an interesting back to back with the original and should definitely have a spot in your October rotation. There are plenty of ways to play this game conveniently and we just so happen to be able to help you out in that department.

Famicom to NES Converter (60-pin to 72-pin)

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Famicom to NES Converter (60-pin to 72-pin)   This is a Famicom to NES converter (60-pin to 72-pin). This will allow you to play Famicom...… read more

But I want to know what you think. Join the Stone Age Gamer discord, or you can find me on Bluesky to let me know your thoughts. In the immortal words of Billy Joel, “Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes; I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.” See you soon.