Graffiti Kingdom First Look

Graffiti Kingdom is the upcoming 3D action game from Taito and publisher Hot-B. The unique game blends traditional third-person-action gameplay and role-playing-game elements with the unique drawing mechanic last seen in Taito's Magic Pengel. But while the original Magic Pengel offered an engaging but modestly linear experience, Graffiti Kingdom takes a much more expansive approach that's an improvement over its predecessor in the unique doodling genre that Taito pretty much invented.

Graffiti Kingdom features the next step in Taito's doodling gameplay mechanic that was introduced in Magic Pengel.

While the title would lead you to think Graffiti Kingdom has some bizarre urban twist and features an all-star cast of urban archetypes eager to "keep it real," this is thankfully not the case. You'll take the role of the young Prince Pixel, monarch-to-be of the mighty Canvas Kingdom, who is on a quest to save his parents and his future kingdom. As is usually the case in games of this nature, the peaceful Canvas Kingdom is given a dangerous makeover when an ancient evil is loosed and subsequently nabs Pixel's folks.

Yes, this is all a pretty hefty chore for a prince who's not used to adventuring outside the palace, but, fortunately, a little serendipity mixed with old-fashioned luck winds up leaving the prince well-equipped to face the task at hand. You'll meet up with a "box dog" who turns out to be a loyal companion, although he may be packing a bit more attitude than your average devoted pooch. More importantly, though, Pixel finds a magic wand that lets him bring anything he draws to life, in addition to letting him change into one of three forms of his choosing on the fly. If that's not enough, the veritable Swiss Army wand also lets Pixel temporarily assume the shape of any enemy he encounters, as well as learn the enemy's powers.

While it may sound like Pixel's box dog and magical abilities would tip the odds in his favor on this quest, guess again. As a general rule, recently unleashed ancient evils are in pretty foul moods and are more than willing to dish out the hurt to anyone foolhardy enough to try to thwart their plans. So you can expect to face off against a formidable collection of tough foes, which will range from the cute to the beastly, as you attempt to get through the game's 22 different levels that are broken up into themed areas.

Prince Pixel will be accompanied by his loyal box dog.

The core gameplay in Graffiti Kingdom is of the hybrid variety, so it takes platformer and action RPG elements and then enriches them with a refined doodling mechanic. The bulk of your time is going to be spent adventuring through the different areas in the game while bashing your foes and collecting items and experience. The doodling mechanic will come into play by letting you draw alternate shapes to morph into (on the fly) as you go about your business. Besides offering the expected boost to your melee combat, the different shapes will eventually let you perform more-powerful attacks, defend yourself more effectively, and, most importantly, access new areas.

The three different gameplay elements appear to mesh very well, based on our demo. The melee battles we saw yielded experience that powered up our different forms and also let us unlock more doodling tools. As you earn more tools, you'll be able to enhance or overhaul your current forms to gain improved abilities (you'll find up to 160 different attack moves). When you're in a pinch, such as facing off against foes that your current array of forms aren't a match for, you can shift to Pixel and then ding your opponents with your wand. This lets you assume their shapes and powers, which evens up the odds.