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Splatterhouse: Wanpaku
Graffiti
Game Info | Screenshots | Weapons & Items | Characters | Codes & Passwords | Additional Info
Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco
Year: 1989
System: Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Switch
THE GAME
Not too many people are aware of the fact that the very first Splatterhouse
game for a home console was for the Famicom.
It used super-deformed characters, and didn't play like the arcade game
at all. It was a completely new Splatterhouse, titled Splatterhouse:
Wanpaku Graffiti. Unfortunately, like a lot of Famicom games, it never
made it over to the U.S., like Gradius II, Crisis Force and Konami Waiwai World, for
example (see my site The OPCFG for more info on Famicom games that never made it to the U.S.). Given the subject matter, why this one didn't make it overeas is understandable. Nintendo of America would never have allowed it without major censoring, and that would have ruined the game.
I did bid on a copy of it on eBay some time ago and
won! It comes in a hard plastic case, which it seemed
that only Namco used for their Famicom games. It also
includes a set of stickers, which you can see in the Additional Info section.
Truth be told, I'm not exactly where this fits into
the rest of the Splatterhouse series continuity-wise, or
even if it does. Based on the ending, it very well may be a prequel to the original, if it is truly part of the canon Splatterhouse storyline. The game starts off in a graveyard.
Jennifer is there mourning Rick, who somehow ended up
dead, don't ask me how. Suddenly the wind starts
blowing, lightning flashes, and a bolt of lightning
strikes Rick's grave. The grave bursts open and Rick sits
up (at this point he is wearing the Mask). He looks at
Jennifer, who starts jumping for joy. Suddenly a bolt of
lightning strikes the grave to the left of Rick's and
a giant jack-o-lantern comes out of the ground. This jack-o-
lantern, the Pumpkin King (aka Pumpkin Daio, or Great Emperor Pumpkin, takes Jennifer and flies off
with her. Rick jumps out of his grave, and takes off in
pursuit of the Pumpkin King.
Once again, you control Rick as you hunt the Pumpkin
King through seven stages. It plays quite a bit
differently than the arcade game. You have a life bar to
the left of the screen, and a level meter on the top of
the screen. Believe it or not, you gain levels in
Wanpaku Grafitti, and the more levels you gain, the
longer your life bar gets. This is a good thing, as
you only start with four bars.
The graphics are excellent. Despite being super
deformed, a lot of gore is still present (gotta love the
headless chickens and especially the hanging zombies -
their bodies drop off and chase you while their heads
shoot at you), and the backgrounds are very well done: the background even scrolls independently on several of
the boards, which was almost unheard of on the NES. Rick
himself looks excellent. It's a perfect SD rendition of
the character, although I think they used a little too much
orange on him. The bosses in particular are
extremely well done. One of my favorites is the evil
priest that attacks you in the church on level three. He
summons cool looking little dragons to attack you, then
he turns into a goat and tries to beat the crap out of
you. I also like the "disco vampire" that's the
first level miniboss: he summons zombies that dance
around on his disco stage with him, and then they attack
when the dance is over. The Pumpkin King himself is also
extremely well done, for a giant flying jack-o-lantern at any rate.
Musically, Wanpaku Grafitti is a bit of a mixed bag.
The level themes are done very well, probably some of
the best music I've heard come out of the NES. There's
some slight repetition, but the quality of the music is
so good that it never becomes annoying. The sound effects
are pretty good too. There's some good splat sounds
whenever you whack a monster.
Rick controls beautifully, as well, responding
perfectly to your commands. I'd have to recommended that
you use a turbo controller, though. It's quite helpful.
The way Rick controls and the overall feel of the game
reminds me a lot of Monster Party, one of my all time
favorite NES games. You only have one life to go through
the game with, but you do have continues - only four
continues, but they're more than enough,
as the game is pretty easy. There is a password feature
as well. At the beginning of each level, you're given a
four digit password. If you run out of continues and put
your password in to start the level that you were last
on, all of your continues are restored, but your levels
that you've built up are gone, to a point. You won't
start on level 8 with the same measly four life bars you
started the game with. You will have more, just not as
many as you had. This is the only drawback to the
password system that I can see.
One of the most interesting (and funniest) things
about Wanpaku Grafitti is all of the movie parodies that
are sprinkled throughout the game. The movie parodies Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, The
Fly, Alien, The Exorcist, Jaws, The Burning and Friday The 13th. The Friday The 13th parody isn't just
because of the character design (for the uninitiated,
Rick, in all of the games, resembles Jason Voorhees, the
killer from the Friday The 13th series). For example, one of the
levels is called "Diamond Lake" - hmmmm. What
do you think? The Alien parody is interesting. There's a girl - who may or may not be Princess Ki from The Tower of Druaga - whose chest bursts open and all of these little spider/facehugger
things come swarming out (interestingly enough, when you
kill them all, her chest seals up and she walks away.
Weird.). Of course, the "disco vampire" bit in
the first level is obviously a parody of Michael
Jackson's "Thriller" video. There's a laughing deer head trophy in the last stage that's a parody of the laughing deer head from Evil Dead 2. The other parodies
are sprinkled throughout the game. In fact, the tagline
for the game is "In the haunted mansion, no one can
hear you scream!", which of course is a spoof of Alien's tagline "In space, no one can hear you scream."
The movie parodies make sense, though, when you reach
the end of the game and you're reunited with Jennifer. As
Rick and Jennifer are hugging each other (and little
hearts are floating to the top of the screen), the lights
suddenly come up, and you see a film crew filming the
whole thing! The director shouts "Cut!", and
the ending goes from there. Rick walks up to the
director, who proceeds to congratulate Rick, saying
"That was some damn fine acting! This'll be a great
movie! Nice job!". Rick jumps up and down, and the
director leaves the room. Rick tosses of the mask and
walks out, then the mask starts floating in the air,
laughing and tossing chairs and lights around. Hmmm... it
appears that there was more to this than meets the eye.
If you've gotten both crystal balls, you get to see
the rest of the ending. The first screen shows Rick and
Jennifer relaxing on a hill. The caption reads "The
2 are happy..." Then the next screen shows Jennifer
running toward West Mansion, with Rick in tow, and he
doesn't look that happy about it. The caption here reads
"until tragedy strikes."
Or, to quote the back of the U.S. Splatterhouse 2 box,
"It begins again!"
    
During the course of the game, you can
find two hidden crystal balls that will give you two new
screens during the ending. The first one can be found by
doing the following: after beating the Fly boss at the
end of level three, Devil Town, DON'T go to the far right
of the screen. If you do that, you'll just go to the next
level. Instead, walk around by the left hand transporter
(the one with the open door that the Fly came out of) and
push up on the controller. Rick will walk into the
transporter... and you'll wind up in Japan. You then
fight your way up to the top of a pagoda, fighting
Japanese demons and tea cup throwers (?) all the way.
When you reach the top, you'll encounter a girl in a
kimono that you'll sit down with for tea. While she's
doing her thing, you can press A and B to make Rick fart.
After a minute or so, she'll say "Gee! How rude you
are! Go home with crystal ball!" (if you don't fart, she just welcomes you and givs you the crystal ball). You'll then proceed
to level 4, Diamond Lake. That sets you up with the first
one.
To get the second crystal ball: while in
the last level, Hell House, you'll encounter the same
wizard from level three that I mentioned earlier.
Whatever you do, don't attack him. Follow him until you
reach a door, then go into it. You'll find yourself in
Egypt, in front of a pyramid. Go inside and work your way
through the pyramid until you reach the High Priestess.
She'll writhe around on the floor for a minute, then say
"Welcome to Egypt! I will give you crystal ball!
Good luck to you!" Press the A button, and Rick will
grab the crystal ball and proceed to a point close to the
end of the level.
 
 
Read the Lost in Translation article to find out more about the enemies and storyline of the game.
From Gruesome
Rick:
Just thought I'd tell you in case you didn't know,
that "Wanpaku" means "Naughtiness" in
Japanese.
So the best way to say Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
is just Splatterhouse: Naughty Graffiti.
It's called "Naughty" to go along with the
SD Theme, since Rick, Jennifer and even the Monsters are
obviously kids. The SD Artwork was called "Graffiti"
due to the art style and the fact that it's a cartoony
take of the original Splatterhouse.
Recently I recieved an email from one of the guys
responsible for translating the Splatterhouse: Wanpaku
Grafitti ROM, Spinner 8. He just wanted to let everyone
know that he and a guy by the name of Xeur were
originally responsible for the translation, and if
anyone's interested in checking out other translation
patches for different ROMs besides Wanpaku Grafitti (which is also
on the site under NES translations), drop by romhacking.net.
From AlanB2099: You left out one of the parodies in Splatterhouse:
Wanpaku Graffiti - the name of the final level is a parody of both
the movies The Legend
of Hell House (1973) and House
on Haunted Hill (1959, remade in 1999).
From Arnold Rimmer83: ...before browsing your page about SD Splatterhouse, I wasn't
aware you
could make Rick fart during the scene with the princess in the
hidden Japan
level. If you sit through her dance without farting her dialog
is different.
Instead of calling you rude, she says "Welcome to Japan! I will
give you
crystal ball. Good luck to you!" Just a little interesting
tidbit I thought
you'd be interested in.
From Brick McBurly: Also, a fun little fact is that the Japanese Castle in the first secret level of Wanpaku Graffiti is Heijyo-'Peace Castle'. It's also an older name for the city of Nara (usually Heijyokyo).
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