Graffiti Kingdom

"The Pen Is Finally Running Out Of Ink"

When you give a child a paintbrush and some paper, he will draw a interesting array of scribbles. That is exactly what Graffiti Kingdom feels like, as the game follows the adventure of a boy and his box dog friend as they hunt down a devil that they unintentionally released.

Prince Pixel has stumbled upon the Graffiti Wand, which "Graffiticians" use to battle demonic forces. Prince Pixel has a slightly different story, which has him using the wand to find three keys to that aforementioned devil's fortress, battle and defeat him an save the people from a lifetime of slavery. The painting mechanic seen in this game is the same as it is in Magic Pengel (which was released in 2003 for the PS2).

The game is as basic as anything I've seen before. Prince Pixel runs around incredibly small levels while defeating monsters with button-mashing attacks. The monsters leave behind experience, life power-ups, and devil cards. Wash, rinse, repeat. That is the entire game. The bosses thrown into the game are, sadly, just a enlarged version of the normal enemies.

What's interesting about this game is that the painting mechanic allows you to draw your own 3D characters and use them to help you. You start by drawing a 2D monster, which turns into your 3D battle companion. You can give your monster different colors, attacks, and a voice.

Moving through the game will give you more options for your creations. I won't give away the new options, so you can figure it out for yourself.

Too bad playing with your creatures isn't exactly as fun as creating them. No matter what you assign to your monster, they all play the exact same. No variety equals easy boredom.

After you beat the Story mode, Graffiti Kingdom offers a Vs. mode that allows you to battle CPU opponents or human opponents with your created monster. Too make matters short, the Vs. mode is incredibly dull and boring.

The graphics, albeit mind blowing, offer a great variety of colorful monsters and environments. Not much can be said about it. The audio, on the other hand, gets incredibly annoying after a very short period. Every time you flick an analog stick and press a button, a happy tune greets you. If you're having a terrible day, hearing these happy tunes might make you want to throw your controller at a wall.

Overall, you got to give Hot B credit for sticking with a interesting formula for three years, but if this game didn't have the monster creator, it would definitely be out of ink.

+Creating Monsters = Fun!
+Card Collecting
-Gameplay Too Simple
-Too Much Button-Mashing!
-Annoying Sound Effects And Tunes

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/05