#MacabroGamers: A Monstrous Reunion! Monster Party on Nintendo and Its True Origin.

By: Mario Ayanami (@MarioZala17)

In this space, we've been dedicated to remembering some key gems from yesteryear for the development of survival horror in the 1990s, such as Sweet Home and the Atari library. However, today we'll look at a curious case of some of the earliest signs of censorship and localization in a video game: the story of Monster Party, a cult classic for the NES released by Bandai in 1989 that we remember in America as an innocent experience full of pop culture references — until 2011, when we learned of its grim origin in Japan.

Monster Party's story is somewhat generic: you take control of Mark, a boy on his way home from a baseball game who is kidnapped by a gargoyle seeking help to get rid of the monsters that inhabit its dark world. Although the boy seems skeptical at first, the creature lets him know that his baseball bat is the ideal weapon to take care of everything (seriously). To boost his power, the two will merge, and within the game, Mark will be able to transform into the gargoyle to overcome certain obstacles.

Across its eight levels, the game will put you to the test with its action-platformer gameplay style. What's interesting is its use of horror characters, both Western and Japanese. We'll face zombies, vampires, gorgons, mummies, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Death itself, and urban-legend entities like the Jinmenken — which, according to Japanese folklore, are dogs with human faces, the product of some scientific experiment, or the spirits of those who died in a car accident. But by the time you reached the boss at the end of each stage… you'd realize something was definitely off — or is it normal to fight a giant shrimp or a cat that hurls other cats as projectiles?

Many mysteries surrounding this design were resolved when, in 2011, a prototype of the original Japanese version was found, titled Parody World: Monster Party. Prior to its release, several magazines had anticipated its debut in that country, but it never saw the light of day due to its dark design, blood-covered title screens, ghostly enemies, and different parodies. One of the most notorious was the carnivorous plant you faced. Originally, it had a microphone in front of it and a karaoke machine behind it, referencing Little Shop of Horrors. Another is the giant pumpkin, which replaced an ape from Planet of the Apes.

However, Nintendo's strict policies regarding dark and violent themes prevented it from ever arriving. This didn't stop a release in America, since they saw a potential market on our continent thanks to the references to classic American cinema, provided they toned it down considerably — though it never managed to establish itself as a major sales success. As for the Japanese version, it's been leaked online since 2014, and it's a macabre experience you shouldn't miss if you consider yourself a fan of all things retro.