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Splatterhouse is a beat 'em up arcade game, released by Namco in 1988 only in Japan. It is also subsequently the title of the entire series of games released in home console and personal computer format.
Story
The game takes place within the West Mansion, nicknamed "Splatterhouse", in which a parapsychologist, Dr. West, conducted experiments and later vanished under mysterious circumstances. Curious and brave individuals who dared to enter the mansion for various reasons never managed to escape from its confines. None have lived to tell the tale of what might have befallen them while inside.
Two local university students, Rick Taylor and his girlfriend Jennifer Wills, happened to be majoring in parapsychology and were familiar with Dr. West and interested in his research. The two decided to visit the site of the mansion as part of a school project. As they neared the mansion, they were met with a sudden downpour of rain and an accompanying thunderstorm which managed to force them to seek shelter inside of the mansion as quickly as possible.
Shortly after they entered, darkness enveloped the area completely. It was broken by a sudden flash of lightning outside, accompanied by the noise of a frenzied scuffle and a shrill scream. Something inside the house had managed to abduct Jennifer and in the process managed to leave Rick lying unconscious (presumably dead) and covered in blood on the floor of the mansion.
Hours passed, and Rick soon awoke to the sight of his own blood. The more terrifying sight and revelation to him though was that a mysterious mask had become affixed to his face somehow. He had recalled reading about this mask, deemed “Terror Mask” (also called the "Hell Mask"), in material written by Dr. West. An ancient Aztec sacrificial mask, West had believed it to possess unknown spiritual powers.
Rick, taken aback, resolved that the power the Terror Mask held was his only hope and he chose to rely on it to instill him with the strength and courage he needed in order to find and rescue Jennifer from the clutches of her sinister captors.
Ports
Splatterhouse was released in various home version ports on the Turbografx-16, NEC PC and FM Towns Marty. There was also a LCD handheld version released but it is not a port and is considered to be an original Splatterhouse game in and of itself, though many elements in it are similar to the original game. Also to note the LCD game calls itself "Splatter House" instead of the conventional title.
Gameplay
Splatterhouse is a sidescrolling action/adventure game in which the player controls Rick, a parapsychology student who was murdered by hideous creatures inside West Mansion (aka "Splatterhouse"). After his resurrection by the Terror Mask, Rick must make his way through the house fighting off the hordes of creatures in an attempt to save Jennifer from a grisly fate.
The following weapons are scattered throughout the game. Note you'll drop these when you leave an area:
Axe: Does some damage, and can decapitate weaker foes.
Meat Cleaver: Similar to the axe. Replaced by a 2x4 in the TurboGrafx-16 version. In the LCD handheld game, you're permanently armed with this weapon.
Golden Cleaver: Only found in the TurboGrafx-16 version. Exactly the same as the regular cleaver
Knife: Not really much of a weapon. Serves as a projectile.
Stone: Pretty much akin to the knife.
Harpoon: An actually useful projectile weapon. Impaling an emeny on these kills them instantly.
Pipe: Moderate damage, and can slam some enemies against the background.
Shotgun: You get 8 shots on picking one up, and it'll do major damage, blowing away most foes. Note that it has a minor recoil.
Parental Advisory Disclaimer
Due to its violent nature as well as some questionable enemies, including the boss encountered in the fourth stage, an inverted cross, Splatterhouse was the first game to ever get a parental advisory disclaimer in 1988 (four years before Midway's Mortal Kombat would be released).
Trivia
Rick makes a cameo appearance in Point Blank 3, and Rick's Mask is an equippable item in Namco x Capcom. Many fans lamented that Rick was not included in the playable roster for the latter game, when many lesser known Namco characters were.
The manual for the Japanese PC Engine port of Splatterhouse gives Rick's and Jennifer's last names in English, though it's possible Jennifer's is supposed to be "Willis".
In the Turbografx-16 port, the mask Rick wears is colored entirely red. This is widely believed to have been changed in an effort to deter people from mistakenly referring to Rick as Jason Voorhees.
Splatterhouse and its sequels are considered to be titles that helped define and shape the genre that would soon come to be recognized as "survival horror".
Splatterhouse's developers seem to have been inspired by many known and a few not so known horror film franchises such as:
- Friday the 13th films: The third boss ("Biggy Man") wears a bag for a mask just like Jason Voorhees did in the second installment of the film series and Rick's mask resembles the well-known and iconic hockey mask that Jason wears in the later movies of the series.
- Poltergeist: The possessed room may also have been inspired by this movie.
- Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn: Notice the disembodied hands in some areas? If you watch them at some points, they have an idle animation after leaping in which they give Rick the finger. In Evil Dead II, when Ash was trying to kill his severed hand, it accidentally got itself caught in a mousetrap and began flailing about. Ash laughed at it, only to be rewarded by the hand hopping up to cling to the bit of wall it was under and flick Ash off.
- Other references to films are entirely possible, especially given how many were spoofed in Splatterhouse SD. Keep in mind though some cases might just be common thinking between people regarding horror.
Dr. West is largely believed to be Herbert West who was featured prominently in H.P. Lovecraft's story Herbert West: Reanimator, who was subsequently featured in the "Re-Animator" film series.
In Hail to the King, one of Ash's quips in the game is "Splatterhouse."
In the game Kid Chameleon, there's a powerup that turns the character into something very similar to Rick.
A heavy metal band that goes by the name "Splatterhouse" have been stated to have been inspired by the games, to the point where one of the CD covers ("Gruesome Stuff Relish") resembes a scene from Splatterhouse 2.
A //splatterhouse.classicgaming.gamespy.com/shtginfo.html comic ad was made for the TGFX 16 port of the game. Sadly, it seems to bear little resemblance to the game's tone.
Though Rick is commonly shown as being bald while wearing the mask, later games showed that without it on he had a full head of hair, namely the ending for Splatterhouse 2
External links
- The KLOV entry on the game
- West Mansion: The Splatterhouse Homepage - An extensive fansite
- Splatterhouse Series at MobyGames
- The Arcade History Database entry on the game
- Sega-16's retrospective on the series
See also
1988 arcade games | 1990 computer and video games | Arcade games | TurboGrafx 16 games | Namco games | Survival horror games | Scrolling fighter games | Splatterhouse
"Splatterhouse"