Graffiti Kingdom

I shouldn't be too surprised that all the way up to 2022, Graffiti Kingdom has remained an obscure gem beloved by a small (mostly Japanese) cult audience. Taito never made a noteworthy name for themselves in the sixth generation of consoles. Especially not in America, which only saw a handful of puzzle and action games. None of which have gotten any traction from critics. Not even Graffiti Kingdom, a colorful adventure where you could create your own creatures, backed by a playful soundtrack made by none other than Yasunori Mitsuda (of Chrono Trigger fame). It doesn't help that Graffiti Kingdom is actually a sequel to Magic Pengel, either, though you wouldn't have known based on this game's story.

The lack of a noteworthy story is one of the game's greatest misfortunes, especially with no way to skip the cutscenes during the first playthrough. The very first sequence of unskippable cutscenes is nearly 10 minutes long, doubling the length of Wind Waker's unskippable intro. All that length to unveil a story that can be told in a few sentences. To summarize, our main character Pixel discovers a magic wand. He tests it out and ends up accidentally releasing the devil that has been sealed underground. It's not very exciting, though I have to remember that Graffiti Kingdom is supposed to be more of an artistic showcase instead of an engrossing tale. That being said, RPG enjoyers will not take this as an excuse to skip over story elements. Beautiful visuals, music, and emotional stories go hand in hand. Skipping over such a vital RPG ingredient means that Graffiti Kingdom must have shifted the focus elsewhere. And boy, did they!

Whatever effort was sacrificed from the story elements were put into the creature creation system. This is the main draw of Graffiti Kingdom. As far as your PS2 analogue sticks will allow, you can draw 3D shapes, with the ability to customize colors and functions for each individual part. The further you get, the more functions you unlock. Eventually, you can add GUNS and WINGS and WHEELS to your monsters, further opening up the possibilities. Additionally, you can customize a monster's entire moveset. These attacks range from punches and kicks to laser beams and explosions. Even for players with little drawing skills or ideas, Graffiti Kingdom allows the player to borrow the designs of the in-game monsters. You can steal the design of the boss character, then change up all the colors and give it a new moveset. It's a good way to burn some time!

I admit that the creation tool is not my favorite aspect of Graffiti Kingdom, nor is the combat. Despite all the cool moves, the combat is stiff and repetitive. Once you unlock the electricity explosion from Sarge in Block Valley, you can basically wipe out the whole rest of the game with it. That's only if you want to take the easy way to the finish, however. The other, more creative options give you some elemental effects to play with, though in general, most of these moves just push the enemies away from you. Besides that, you can freeze, burn, poison, and flatten enemies depending on the move you're using. The flatten moves are hilarious, because you never know what the enemy will look like once they turn into their pancake form.

My main interest lies mostly in the aesthetic choices, including the layouts of the levels, the visual aesthetics of each level, the designs of the monsters, and the music. The presentation is very charming, as the UI makes use of many bright, soft colors. The sound effects are adorable, and the music is filled with playful instrumentation. The very first set of monsters you run into try to spark some creativity in the player. The very first monster, the sponge, is little more than a bouncing ball that charges at you. Shortly after that, you run into monsters that drag through the ground, monsters with tiny legs that waddle around, and monsters with long legs that clumsily stumble towards you.

The player can 'try out' any monster they run into by swiping them with the magic wand. Once this is done, the player will transform into the monster (which also unlocks the monster's moveset). You can also 'steal' the monster's design for yourself, though you need to acquire the monster's card first to do so. This can get annoying, as the only way to get a monster's card is to keep defeating it over and over again until it drops it. This is especially annoying for rare monsters that only spawn sometimes. And even worse is monsters that only spawn in a level once, meaning a full completion will require you to play the same levels over and over again until you get the rare drops. Some monsters simply require you to find and acquire a card that has been hidden in a specific spot of the level. Reimu (from Touhou) makes a cameo appearance as a hidden character (meaning you won't see her as an actual in-game enemy), and her card is one of these findable collectables. Though I'll warn you now, it's hidden on the second to last level, so you don't get to use her for a while!

The design of the levels are the most creative part of this game. Of course, they're very colorful, but the actual structure is what makes them special. The first level is cut and dry, but the second level branches off into two different paths. Fire and ice, which might sound very basic, though this serves as the introduction to Graffiti Kingdom's elemental attacks. The player can choose either side, as they both lead to the end of the level. The monsters and attacks they can collect will depend on which side they took. The ice attacks end up being very useful, as they allow the player to create patches of ice on the water, making the upcoming water-platforming sections much easier.

Later levels include winding towers, a trip through the solar system, an underwater maze, a bowling level filled with cars, and an elemental lego-land. No shortage of ideas there, though there might have been some miscommunication with the design pertaining to the controls. The clumsy controls and combat are an unfortunate part of the experience. With all of the platforming and fighting blending together, these stiff controls don't cut it. This also bites into the collecting part of the game, where enemies that need to be defeated in mid-air become a nightmare for card collection. Good luck getting that card if there's no ground for it to fall onto! During segments with bottomless pits, enemies will usually be nearby to wack the player into the abyss.

This game also uses a leveling system, meaning that on top of the annoying combat, the player has to grind out experience to up their damage. Otherwise, the bosses will take far too many hits to empty their life bar. And are the boss fights any better than the regular combat? Not really. The boss arenas look great, as do the boss designs, but the combat is the same as with every other enemy, with a couple additional gimmicks.

Clearly this is not a perfect game, though it's one that defies any sort of 'objective, bias-free' rating system. Any evaluation of the game will skew heavily based on whatever the reviewer considers more important. Those looking for a worthwhile story and characters will not be impressed. Those looking for good combat will not like this, either. And what is the game going for in the first place? Creativity? Charming aesthetics? As far as those bullet points go, this is a solid 10/10 for me. No matter what angle you come from, this will be a unique experience; One that I'd recommend to most people. Just don't expect your journey to the finish to be a smooth one.