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Monster Party is one of those games that at first, second, fiftieth glance defies all explanation. I mean, much of the offbeat humor just doesn’t make any sense, like a screwy pumpkinman dressed in a ghostly white cloak telling you to “Please don’t pick on me,” or a fallen spider apologizing for its unfortunate disposition: “Sorry, I’m dead.” Around the time you encounter deep-fried, blood-soaked shrimp and onion rings, you know that you’ve entered into another dimension and crossed over into the Twilight Zone.

Although a pretty decent platform game in its own right, the game would have been otherwise forgettable if these quirks didn’t exist; freaks like myself probably wouldn’t hold this party in such high regard without the demon spawn prawns.

But there’s more to the madness, more to the story than you may have originally thought. Let’s get this monster party started in here.

Fellow Philadelphian and Nintendo player, Shmorky of SomethingAwful.com fame, contributed this Flash movie a few years back to emphasis just how nuts this game is.

Despite being so “out there,” can you believe that Japan, the land of tentacle testes and ballsack-soaring tanuki and Takashi Miike, never got to play Monster Party? You can buy used schoolgirl panties from a vending machine, but not this game, because it was only released in North America in June of 1989.

There have been rumors of a Famicom version ever since Japanese magazines published photos of the beta in ’88. The game at that time was called Parody World Monster Party. “Parody” is the key word, as the game would have mocked popular horror movies and cliches much like Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti did. I assume you can account for some of the final game’s strange humor as a stripping down of these parodies during the localization process. The rest you can attribute to I Am Engrish.

And then things really took a turn for the weird on May 31, 2011.

That’s when the mythical Parody World Monster Party finally surfaced on Yahoo Japan Auctions from a seller named “minidomino” and fetched 483,000 yen, or roughly $6,000.

I told you that the Japanese were sick people.

The scary part is, I unknowingly got into a bidding war recently with one of the under-bidders of this auction. Suffice it to say, shit got messy.

Savor these photos, as I can almost guarantee that you’ll never learn anything more of this elusive monster. Actually, that’s not entirely true. The buyer, who goes by the Yahoo id handle “Famicom_2008,” wrote in his rating of the seller that all eight stages are present as well as the ending. The password screen is not accessible, and some characters are changed.

The white cartridge and label signifies that this is a sample. The seller claimed to have received the game from a friend working in the game industry 10 years ago.

(Japanese Prototype)

(North American Release)

Not only is this an unreleased game, but it also appears to be uncensored. Although there’s no shortage of blood in the North American release, the title screen showed green slime oozing out of a monster’s mouth. In the prototype, as you can see, it’s pools of blood instead.

(North American Release)

The cursor was originally a zombie head, similar in appearance to the taiko drum dancing zombies you come across in the North American release.

(Japanese Prototype)

(North American Release)

The North American game’s protagonist, Mark, was called “Hiroshi” in the Japanese version, so that big M on his shirt was sewn off in the Famicom prototype.

(Japanese Prototype)

(North American Release)

This is the most interesting change. As I mentioned before, Monster Party started out as a parody game, and there’s no mistaking the target in this screenshot: Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors! It appears as if Audrey II is karaoking, God willing, a tinty version of “Mean Green Mother from Outer Space.” (No shit, Sherlock.)

That all changed in the North American release, as the venus fly trap turned more into an eggplant. An eggplant with less rhythm and soul.

The released game threw out the microphone and speaker but kept the overhead spotlights. The now potted eggplant says something that still sort of evokes Audrey II: “Hello! Baby!”

(North American Release)

The speaker graphic was salvaged and reused for the guitar-playing rocker boss in the North American release.

In addition to these photos, the Yahoo seller also uploaded a YouTube video of the game playing on a console.

Noted differences:

(Japanese Prototype)

(North American Release)

(Japanese Prototype)

(North American Release)

(Japanese Prototype)

(North American Release)

Joining such creatures as Chupacabra, The Jersey Devil, The Loch Ness Monster, and Sasquatch, I am now officially placing Parody World Monster Party on cryptozoology’s top five most wanted list.

So join me, monster hunters. Ask around, see if there have been any sightings. And if you so happen to catch one in the wild, approach with extreme caution—and cash. Lots and lots of cash.