Draw Distance
Have you ever heard the term don't look at the pot but what's inside it? If you said yes then you can probably understand why Graffiti Kingdom is a little drab, albeit original. As the spiritual successor to Magic Pangel: The Quest for Color, Graffiti Kingdom is a better effort from Taito in the gameplay area, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.
You are playing as Prince Pixel, probably one of the least likable heroes in recent memory. When he gets a magical drawing wand that allows him to create whatever he wishes, things get a little out of hand when he accidentally awakes the evil devil. The devil, who ruled over the kingdom many years ago, declares he will now reign over the kingdom and within seconds he morphs Pixel's kingdom in his own bizarre image. Pixel, joined by a dog-like create known as Pastel, eventually decides to save the world from the devil's evil clutches.
If you haven't snoozed by now by the likes of this story, you are probably going to be delighted by this game. Unfortunately for the rest of you, Graffiti Kingdom features some of the most cliche and flat characters in a video game. Pixel is a whiny boy who doesn't really care about what's going on or even show mild enthusiasm. I don't mind those characters who prefer to live in solitude and don't do much, but they are at least appealing or understandable in their motives whereas Pixel is just plain. Pastel doesn't fair much better. All she really does is ranting in her voice, and she has the most lines in the game, you can expect to many inane conversation between her and our "hero".
Graffiti Kingdom is an action adventure game in its core. You have Pixel running around in colorful environments fighting against enemies and also jump on the occasional moving platforms. As Pixel, you are defenseless as he has no noteworthy attacks to defeat the hundreds of creatures in the game. Thankfully there are two ways Pixel can defend himself. For one, Pixel can use his graffiti wand to copy his enemies likeness and even attack for a limited amount of time. Moreover, some enemies you defeat in the game will leave cards behind them. Those cards allow Pixel to not only transform to those creatures, but stay in that form permanently.
The best feature in Graffiti Kingdom, however, is easily the option to create your own bizarre monster. At first your options are basic and you can only create the body and limbs, but as the game progress and you level up your character more by collecting colored spheres, you'll gain many interesting additions such as adding wings, wheels or even the ability to fly. The interface may be confusing at first but players can expect to delve the many creative options they have more so than playing the actual game. The game has a friendly enough tutorial that any beginner can create something nice, but that being said, I was never able to create creatures in the same level of those that are shown in the back of the box.
Besides the task of creating your creature, you can also determine their movement, attacks and even their voices. There are various options to alter your character's movement which varies from quick, nimble and agile to slow, strong and sturdy. Choosing the right set of attacks is the key of beating the game as the most unique attack your character has, the more you'll catch the other characters off guard. It's important to note you will at least need a set of arm and legs to inflict damage properly. I even drew some naughty pictures to see how it'll work in the game and while they serve a nice dose of joy, they end up to be the weakest characters to play as, at least later in the game. As you progress you can modify you character's attack and depend on the way they are built they can even shoot laser beams or perform crazy combinations.
The main problem of Graffiti Kingdom lies at its gameplay. Even you do manage to play as the dirtiest thing this side of a porn flick, you'll found out sooner of later the fights are tedious more than fun. The hit detection doesn't work, especially when you are using a projectile, and that is annoying considering no matter what, the enemies can lock on your perfectly and never miss. Jumping in also a pain thanks to the touchy controls. Each character have a specific distance they can jump and if you miss a little bit, you fall down and have to repeat the entire platforming session again. To add insult to injury, the camera hinders both aspects of the game; You find yourself moving your right analog stick frantically as you try to target the boss character that attacks you but before you finally manage to center it, you lose a life. Jumping is extremely hard as you try to find the platform you need to jump to but the perspective it puts you in doesn't allow you to view it properly.
Graffiti KIngdom is a nice looking game and it's probably its best feature. The worlds are simplistic in their technical design as you can this could have been on the Nintendo 64, but thanks to its uniqueness you cannot fault it. Each world in the game has a zany theme and the many enemies will leave you guessing on what's coming next. The star of the show are the characters you create yourself, as they move like any character in the game which add to the cohesiveness, albeit the animation is crude. The frame rate drops if there is too much action on the screen and the loading times are abundant (especially when you just want to save your game), but it's still a well designed game, even if the levels themselves are not designed well.
In the audio area Graffiti Kingdom falls flat. The music is adequate and cheerful, but lacks any personality or is barely noticeable at times. The sound effect are dim and there are not many of so to speak and you are going to hear the same magical transformation sound whenever you snatch a creature's appearance. The biggest problem is the ridiculous voice acting. I know this game is geared for kids, but the actors overact way more than they should. Pixel and Pastel aside, they mysterious Tablet has a reasonable voice but his delivery, like the rest of the characters, falls flat, but since he is a somewhat main character, it's more apparent. The main offenders are the plentiful boss character that have the most generic voices that have been pulled off from the video game dump bin. Some are easy to point out like a skeleton who has a poor western accent (a lot of howdy y'all's), but some like Telepin who tries to sound Asian just comes off as annoying a grating on the ears. At least it's a good enough reason for the player to beat him to a pulp.
Graffiti Kingdom isn't a very good game and at 4 hours length, it should be only recommended as a rental. The cool concept aside, at its core it's a trite action-adventure game with many problems that will sure to frustrate one point or another. If you like the concept or you just want to hold yourself until Spore comes up this serves as a nice appetize, but all in all, concept alone cannot save this game from having a mediocre label all around it.