Old games used to get overly serious and realistic art.

Arcade games and console games are fundamentally different
in a lot of ways. While the hardware, game mechanics, and depth of narrative
might be the most obvious, there is something at the core of the two that keeps
them separated. Before going in depth with my retrospective review on Mega Man (1987), I’d like to
first analyze the intention behind the design of an arcade game and a console
game.

We’ve written about arcades before. The period from
the late 70’s to the mid-80’s is known as the Golden Age of Arcade Video Games. As the popularity of arcade games decreased by the end of the decade,
console games were experiencing a boom thanks in part to the Nintendo
Entertainment System. Because of this shift, many old NES games feel more like
arcade games.  The fundamental purpose of
a console game is to provide you with satisfaction to justify your purchase of
the game. Games are usually not very cheap, so designers try to make their
product the most worthwhile for your money (ideally, at least). Arcade games,
on the other hand, are all about taking your money in small sums (quarters),
giving you a brief, enjoyable, and difficult experience, and then encouraging
you to play again to go further and get a higher score.

Mega Man feels
like an arcade game. It is so hard that it feels punishing at times and so
addictive that you can’t stop coming back to it. The amount of trial and error
inherent in the classic platformer makes the experience feel like learning a
song. Through your failures and deaths you wind up developing something
resembling a rhythm. You know  which
screen is coming next or which flying penguin is going to dive on you. I wasn’t
able to beat any levels on the first try, but on the attempt where I did beat them, it looked like I was an
absolute professional.

Though the level design was difficult at times, there were
several gems hidden throughout. As an avid player of the Mega Man X series, I knew that each boss gives you a new weapon to
your arsenal. And I also knew that each boss weapon was super effective against
another boss. They usually make sense, barring a few mix-ups (Ice > Fire? I
guess that means… thunder on the ice guy? Okay.) For example, Elecman’s
weakness is the weapon you receive from the truly epic Custman (my only
reasoning is that scissors cut wires?). Elecman’s level is full of these small
platforms with enemies on top that make avoiding them difficult. If you switch
over to the Rolling Cutter weapon, you’ll notice that the odd trajectory of the
attack fits the level design perfectly. The level becomes much easier if you
use the Cutsman’s weapon to get through it. Ideally, by the time you reach the
end of the level you will be pretty comfortable with using it.

I stand by what I said about completing each level being
similar to learning a song. That said, Iceman’s level is like learning a song
and then being expected to flawlessly improvise with someone else who is also
improvising. Everything is typical Mega Man gameplay, and then this happens…

Those platforms shoot sideways. Okay, okay, annoying, but
whatever it’s a challenge. Oh, but they also move in a completely random and
erratic pattern. Well that just doesn’t sound fair. Oh, and one more thing,
we’re going to throw some robot penguins at you for the last half of this part
of the level. But wait, that might be too difficult. Let’s make sure the player
has a platform to rest on halfway through. Good point, but we shouldn’t make it
too easy for them. This is a video
game after all, this is serious business, not Soviet Russia Handout Land. Let’s
cover that platform in ice. Video game
ice. Which science has proven is twice as slippery as regular old boring ice.

Seriously.

The other issue I have with this game is about rationing out
lives. There is a checkpoint immediately before each end of the level boss
fight. Should you die in the boss fight, you will respawn there with full
health and one less life. The game is so difficult that many times I would reach
the boss, look to see if I had an extra life lying around, and just let the
boss kill me so I could tackle him with full health. That is just poor design.
Also, your health replenishes with each respawn, but your ammo does not. This
means a particular difficult stretch of a level will become progressively more
difficult. The general difficulty of this game is also distributed oddly. It is
very difficult in the beginning when you don’t have any special boss weapons,
and especially difficult in the end (cough, Boss Rush). The middle portion of the game
is by far the easiest. This uneven difficulty may be annoying for some players.

You can tell the designers were on to something when you
play Mega Man. It has vibrant colors,
an excellent soundtrack, and surprisingly rich and deep gameplay, with little
secrets here and there. The game is pretty easy to find. I played the PS2 port
from the Anniversary Collection, but you can also find it on the virtual
console. Though Mega Man 2 is widely
considered better than this game, this is the game that has lent its design to
Mega Man’s character in the new Smash
Bros., as well as the fact that one of the bosses from this game appears in
the new Smash Bros.

Final Thoughts:

Favorite Song: Elecman Stage

Favorite Boss: Cutsman, I actually have a shirt with him on
it!

Favorite Weapon: Magnet Beam, of course.  

Fun Facts: It’s Mega
Man, not Megaman. I’ve been
making that mistake for over a decade.

– Joey Edsall

(@JoeyEdsall)

I know Halloween’s come and gone, but the horror continues!
Once we started doing game reviews, Splatterhouse stood out in my sick little
mind as one that needed to grace this website’s pages. Released internationally
by Namco in November 1988, the arcade cult classic got attention (both positive
and negative, though some say there is no bad press) for its over-the top
themes of horror and gore. Some arcades (back when there were arcades) banned
it altogether by request of parent groups. In fact, when it was ported to the
Turbo Grafx 16 home system in 1990, the box came with a warning:

“The horrifying theme of this game may be
inappropriate for young children… and cowards.”

 Without further ado,
let us jump in to one of the 1980s’ most shocking and controversial bits of
gaming gibbitude.

PLOT/THEME

In Splatterhouse, the player takes the role of Rick, a
parapsychology student who came to West Mansion seeking the great Dr. West.
Upon arriving, Rick and his lovely girlfriend Jennifer are waylaid by West
Mansion’s current inhabitants. Jennifer is of course carried off in what seems
like a predictable plot hinge; Rick awakens later to find that he has been
possessed by a mystical Terror Mask, which apparently provides him with the
power to fight the monsters inhabiting the mansion. Your mission as Rick is to
fight through the game to find Jennifer… or what has become of her, at the
least.

GAMEPLAY

As Rick, you wander through a mostly linear side-scrolling
environment, using punches and kicks as your basic attacks. It is clear that
Rick is barefoot; No sane man would walk barefoot in West Mansion. This is
because in addition to the malformed zombies and mutants, many hazards, from
acid vomit to spinning blades, grace the floors and walls of the mansion.
Weapons can be found and used along the way, everything from boards to
cleavers, axes and even shotguns in one stage. Most levels have a boss monster
of some kind, with a challenging but learnable pattern of behavior. Memorable
bosses include the poltergeist that hurls silverware at you and Biggy Man (that
is his actual name in all official documentation for the game), a meaty-thewed
baghead monstrosity with chainsaws for hands.

Splatterhouse is fun to play, but has a pretty high
difficulty curve; as with most side scrollers of the era, it pays to memorize
sequences and recognize patterns in order to avoid hazards. While most monsters
can be beaten to a pulp, some (like the chained up vomiting skeleton men)
simply function as traps and can’t be defeated, only bypassed.

If you are interested in seeing the gameplay in action for yourself, this is the best playthrough I’ve been able to find.

GRAPHICS

The visual aspect is what drew Splatterhouse most of its
positive and negative attention. Walls of melted flesh, vomiting mutants,
bloated corpses on nooses, and other horrors abound in pretty gruesome detail.
While thrilling to your average teen horror hound, parents and advocacy groups
took a dim view of the gore and horror themes. The game even pushed some other
boundaries; one of the bosses is an inverted cross surrounded by severed heads.

Controversy aside, the game is graphically advanced for its
time and looks great. Animations are smooth and the detail on everything is as
it should be in a horror themed visual: nauseatingly real.

SOUND/MUSIC

While it’s rare to actually hear much of the music when
playing an arcade game in an actual arcade, the music is really good. The sound
comes out in 8 channel stereo, crisp and clear. Many of the sound effects
themselves are a bit cartoonish, but hey, it’s an arcade game. The sound still
adds, overall, to the spooky and lethal feel of the game. A rip of the soundtrack can be found here.

—

While it’s unlikely that you’ll find a working cabinet of
Splatterhouse anywhere but in private hands, the game was released for the
Wii’s Virtual Console in 2007. It was also ported to various home gaming
systems throughout 1989-1990, and spawned two notable sequels (for the
Genesis/Mega Drive) and a remake (for the Xbox 360). All are great games in
their own rights, but none made the impact the original did. The 80s was an era
that weighed morality against freedom constantly; this game is but one
interesting footnote of the era.

 Special thanks to West Mansion Splatterhouse fanpage for reference material and some artwork.