Graffiti Kingdom

"An amazing sequel to an amazing game."

The long-awaited "sequel" to Magic Pengel, Graffiti Kingdom is a 3D platformer with slight RPG elements. The main feature of the game is that you can create your own characters and play with them!

Since the most important part of the game is making and customizing your own characters, let's talk about that first. The system has been completely overhauled since the last game, and it's all for the better. New features include copying and pasting, the ability to delete parts regardless of the order they were created in, complete customization of colors including transparency, the ability to change a part's thickness, color, or functionality at any point, and the ability to copy your creations so that you can toy around with it without accidentally ruining the original.

Of course, to players who are new to the series, that might just sound like a bunch of gibberish. Suffice to say, if you learn how to use the system well enough, you can make whatever your heart desires and play a platform game with it. How cool is that?

The system is fairly easy to pick up, but the in-game tutorials are a bit lacking, so new players might not understand why they can't make a weapon(they have to be attached to an arm) for example. However, if you use it like a toy and just play around with the features, eventually you can figure out how everything works down to the slightest detail.

Of course, you start the game off with only the ability to make non-moving parts, arms, and legs for your characters. As you level up by collecting coins that you can find in the levels or get from defeating demons, you will gradually gain more abilities in the character creation utility, such as being able to add parts that shoot lasers, spinning parts, wings, soft parts, tails, heads, and much more.

Additionally, it's important to add that it doesn't matter whether your an amazing artist or a novice; the game doesn't care. A stick figure can be just as powerful as something a 3D designer draws, so even people who wouldn't say they're good at drawing can enjoy the game and create things without feeling at a disadvantage.

After you create a character, you can then choose from several options to determine how it moves and what its voice will sound like. Then you can assign different attacks to different buttons. For example, you could make X-button Jump, Square-button Kick, Circle-button Spin Punch, and Triangle-Button do a dash attack.

When running around as the main character, Pixel, you can change into up to 3 of your creations at anytime by assigning each a button on the digital pad(pressing the down-key turns you back into Pixel). So you can make a team of 3 characters that have a variety of functions and switch between them at will. Pixel himself doesn't have any attacks, but he can transform into creatures for a limited time by waving his wand at them. What's more is that whenever you transform into a creature you can later add its abilities to your characters. So, for example, if you see a demon that can fly or do a neat attack, you'll want to capture it, and afterwards you can add those abilities to any of your characters at will. It can be fun to try to collect all of the attacks in the game.

As far as the gameplay goes, it's surprisingly good. I had expected the game to be a fairly dull platformer because I assumed that the game would try to ride entirely on its cool character designing abilities. Was I ever wrong!

Not only does the game have an interesting combo system featuring a variety of status affects and tons of abilities that both demons and your characters can use, but abilities can be used in combination with your surroundings to get the upper hand on your opponents. Ice attacks can freeze enemies and solidify water so that you can walk across rivers. Fire causes enemies to run around panicking and can light patches of oil on fire, damaging anyone who gets close. Thunder attacks shock enemies, slowing them down, and thunder attacks that connect with bodies of water will shock all of the enemies inside! There are also abilities to flatten and poison your foe, as well as certain moves that push them away from you. Depending on how you make your characters, you can employ a variety of strategies.

Demons you defeat can drop cards, and if you get a demon's card you can add it to your roster of characters to play as; you can even edit them in the drawing program! There are also secret cards for hidden monsters that you can find, and some monsters are rare and only appear some of the time, so it can be a fun challenge to collect all of the cards. You can even get cards for all of the game's bosses, although they aren't nearly as tough as the ones you'll have to fight against!

The levels are all varied and interesting. For the most part they are all a bit bizarre, and often even nightmarish(in an E-rated sort of way), but they're all fun. There are a few minor puzzles in the game, but most of them are as simple as finding a switch and hitting it to open a door. The music in the game was nice too, especially the fun boss songs.

The plot of the game is fairly good, but I didn't find most of the cinema scenes to be very amusing. However, I have to admit, I did like the ones towards the end of the game, and in my mind that kind of made up for everything I had to watch on the way there. The voice acting isn't so hot most of the time, but there's definitely a lot worse out there. Anyway, you're probably not playing for the plot, but at the very least it's decent.

Once you beat the game you can go keep playing all of the levels and fighting the bosses at your leisure to try to collect all of the cards and attacks, or just to keep creating and playing with new characters. There is also a VS mode so that you can fight against a friend, and you can even trade characters with a friend.

The last thing that I'll add is that the scribbly, cel-shaded doodle style from the last game has been traded in for a more normal and clean style. Some fans of Magic Pengel might be disappointed, but that is one of the differences between these two games. In Magic Pengel, an RPG, you created scribbly doodles. In Graffiti Kingdom, a platformer, you create characters. With enough skill and effort, you can make any character you want. Mario, Solid Snake, Pikachu, Sephiroth...if you can dream it, you can make it, and you can make it look GOOD.

That's really all I have to say about this game. If you buy Graffiti Kingdom, you should buy it because you want to draw characters and play with them; if you ignore the character creation system then you probably won't have a lot of fun. If you've ever drawn a character on a napkin and wanted to bring it to life in a video game, this is your chance! Graffiti Kingdom will please you. The only limits are your imagination.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/24/05