Splatterhouse
スプラッターハウス1990Splatterhouse
スプラッターハウスA student battles monsters in a haunted mansion, with plenty of gore.
Splatterhouse is a horror beat 'em up. Namco first made it as an arcade game in 1988. The PC Engine version arrived in Japan in April 1990, and it keeps the arcade structure and most of its look.
| RELEASED IN JAPAN | 3 April 1990 |
|---|---|
| ARCADE ORIGINAL | Namco, Japan, November 1988 |
| PLAYERS | One |
| FORMAT | HuCard |
| SETTING | West Mansion |
You play Rick, a university student. He punches, kicks and jumps. His special dropkick slides along the ground and hits enemies in its path.
Weapons such as clubs and cleavers lie in the stages. Throwing weapons break after one use, but melee weapons last longer. When hit, you can drop your weapon and pick it up again.
Levels move left to right, with some sections that scroll on their own. Holes and ladders offer alternative routes through parts of the mansion. Each level ends with a boss fight in its own room. The PC Engine version gives more health and longer invincibility after each hit.
Two students, Rick Taylor and Jennifer Willis, take shelter from a storm in West Mansion. They search for the missing parapsychologist Dr. West. A Mayan artifact called the Terror Mask brings Rick back to life and fuses with him into a monster.
Jennifer is attacked too, and when she turns into a monster, Rick must kill her. Rick then tracks the remaining monsters through the mansion, which turns out to be alive.
Namco made the arcade original. The PC Engine port lost some graphical detail and some sound. It changes enemy placement and map layouts, and it cuts some music.
The port also adds a weapon that appears only in the fourth stage's boss fight. The ending changes too. The mask-breaking scene becomes a shot of the burning mansion and an End title.
Famitsu's cross review gave the game 26 out of 40, and Marukatsu PC Engine gave it 34. In the 1993 PC Engine Fan reader poll it ranked 42nd of 485 titles.
The North American version was criticised for its toned-down gore. The PC Engine version came to PlayStation 3 and PSP in 2011. The TurboGrafx-16 Mini added the game in 2020.
It shows how the console handled large, dark sprites in an action game.
- The North American TurboGrafx-16 box carried a warning that the horror may be unsuitable for young children and cowards.
- The Japanese PC Engine version kept more of the arcade's look than the North American release did.
- The arcade game ranked sixth in Game Machine's December 1988 chart.
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