Splatterhouse (1988 original)

Hey gang welcome back to the blog. Well being this close to Halloween I will...not being doing a horror film. Yeah a change of pace. I have also be neglecting my video games section of the Rotten Reelz Reviews so let's find a horror video game then.  Aha!  Loophole!  So with that in mind we journey to the far away time of yesterday in the year 1988.  Yes, they just discovered fire, religion and how to devise the wheel. So grab your terror mask, swing a 2x4 and hope for the best.

This is Splatterhouse.

Hmm this ominously lit, abandoned mansion seems safe enough.

Now many moons ago I reviewed the remake, so today we look at the original by Namco, founders of Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug and Pole Postion so they ventured in with the TurboGrafx-16 handheld console. With this classic side scrolling action, our game is a a beat 'em up as we play Rick, a parapsychology student that was trapped in the spooky West Mansion after fleeing a major rainstorm. The house was owned by the nefarious Dr. West, a parapsychologist known for a host of illegal and evil experiments.

Rick is separated from his girlfriend and fellow student Jennifer as the door slams shut and the lights go out.  Should have brought boomstick and chainsaw.  Friggin amateur.

Hey batter, batter, batter. Swing batter!

Rick wakes from a thump on the noggin in a dungeon to realize he is wearing the legendary Terror Mask, told to give incredible strength to the wearer but at a cost. The Terror Mask just happens to resemble a hockey mask and Rick roids up from not enough to totally buff but he for some further unexplained reason seems to have Friday the 13th's Jason Vorhees' tattered jumpsuit. Right about the time of Kane Hodder playing Jason so hmmm, influence? The mask is supposed to be a Mayan sacrificial artifact that is also sentient so you know that is going to go well.

The mask whispers to Rick, convincing him to go completely sickhouse on these hordes of monsters, wave after wave and give him a berserker like fury. Rick must thump and crush his way from the dungeon, to the mansion grounds and back into the mansion. Using his own massive fists, Rick can also get a 2x4, wrench, meat cleaver and chainsaw to splatter his way through these mobs of monsters.

Standard D pad movement in a 2D environment, Rick can also punch, kick super move dropkick his enemies low punch and kick as well as jumping attacks. You will be sent to various check points throughout the game if you die, instead of having to start all over again. Its popularity spawned two sequels as the mask took on more of a skull look to it.

Later in 2010 the remake gave Rick a whole pantheon of new moves and attacks but if you want to read about that, I suggest you go and check the review.

A first real foyer into the horror survival genre that got parents a little nervous but not as much as the huge clamp down on Sega CD's Night Trap.   Lord what a bunch of hysteria over nothing.

A blast from the past to be sure and was a bit of fun to get through it. I just remember it taking me longer when I was a kid. Must have been complete crap because this run through was about 30 mins. 

Um are you deadites or puddies?  I can't tell.