A whole month worth of shrieks and creaks is right around the corner, so I thought I’d kick September’s sorry ass out the door by reviewing two horrid (horridly awesome, that is) Genesis games at once. Way back when I started doing this for NRW, I reviewed the arcade/TG-16 classic, Splatterhouse.  While that title is a definite milestone in video game history (not to mention one of the best horror-themed games of its era), a lot of our readers will be far more familiar with its sequels. Both are fantastic in their own right, and it’s a valid argument that they even outperform their forebear in terms of playability and presentation.

Splatterhouse 2 and Splatterhouse 3 are very different games, but both are very true to the original when it comes to theme. In Splatterhouse 2, rick is given a chance by the newly-rejuvenated Terror Mask to save Jennifer (whom he failed to save in the original game). He goes back to West Mansion to find it re-inhabited by all manner of gross monsters, and ultimately sinks the whole mess into the lake after saving his lady love.

European box art for 2. Much more cartoony than the first one’s promo art, but still suitably gruesome and chilling.

The game plays very much like the first one, but with a lot more effort put into detail and dynamics. The stages are still mostly linear, and most of the original gameplay elements are present, but sometimes you get a neat surprise like level or weapon specific animations when you kill a monster. The graphics are also a bit more detailed, and the music (composed by Eiko Kaneda) follows suit.  It was the first game in the franchise that I ever played, and I would liken its difficulty to that of the first game, but I would also call it more immediately approachable.

The third entry to the franchise really lets its hair down and stands out as its own title. Splatterhouse 3 continues the tale of Rick and Jennifer, along with their son David. Never released in Europe, Splatterhouse 3 was among the first Genesis titles to receive a rating by Sega’s own Video Game Council… and it understandably got an MA-13. In this one, Rick and his happy family have settled down in a nice mansion in Connecticut about five years after the last game’s events. Of course, that asshole mask comes back again, this time under the service of something called “The Evil One.” After Rick rescues both his wife and his son, he must defeat The Evil One and then finally rid himself of the mask after it reveals its true intentions.

Magazine ad for 3. Rick is looking buff as hell, and he’ll need all that muscle to cut through the monsters and save his family a third time.

Splatterhouse 3 takes the original play formula and cracks it open. Not only are the stages nonlinear, but the game plays much more like a beat em up in the vein of Streets of Rage or Final Fight, affording Rick a bit more up-and-down movement and a crude sort of move-set. Rick can also power-up the mask, saving spiritual energy until he mutates into a sort of Rick/Mask hybrid. This makes him much stronger, but doesn’t last terribly long. There is also a time clock, and how quickly you finish the levels (along with where you end up) can change the cut scenes and endings significantly. In other words, there are multiple endings, which lend significant replay value to the game. These cut scenes are visually impressive, as are the in-game graphics, and the music is all right too. I will say that the audio falls short of Splatterhouse 2, however… but just barely. The sound effects are excellent, though, and go along with the new beat em up format of Splatterhouse 3.

Both of these titles were unlockable as part of the 2010 Xbox 360 Splatterhouse remake, along with their granddaddy, the original game.  Everything I’ve heard and read has led me to believe that the remake just didn’t resonate with fans, which is unfortunate… because the original three games are incredible. Together they form a saga of love, loss, horror, and ultimately, the triumph of good over unthinkable evil. Not to mention that it’s just fun to splatter some monsters once in a while.

Things are gonna get gruesome as hell in my little corner of NRW this month, RetroMonsters. Stay tuned!!!

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.

Biggy Man

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.

“Evil Cross,” one of the game’s more controversial elements.

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.

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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.

A dungeon full of chained-up, vomiting skeletons. Don’t step in the puke!

SPLAT! Hence the name, and all the fuss.

The first boss is just a bunch of these flesh-eating worms, chewing through rotten meat to get to your living flesh.

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

-Bryan Eddy-