Splatterhouse (Halloween Special)

Developer: BottleRocket/Namco Bandai
Publisher:  Namco Bandai

After spending a short time in development hell, this ill-conceived reboot of the Splatterhouse franchise was launched with little to no fanfare and there's a good reason for that: The gameplay is terrible.

You'll spend most of the game fighting the same enemies and using the same moves over and over and the hit detection is just awful... and yet this game became one my guilty pleasures, it's kind of like watching a low budget 80's horror movie, the story may be pointless, dialog bawdy and cheesy but there's blood and guts everywhere and you get to see some pretty gruesome stuff like having your arm ripped off and then picking it up, and beating your foes into submission with it, or how about the part where you ram your arm inside a giant four-legged beast's anus and pull out it's sphincter from the inside? 

This game is pure schlock and it knows it, making it an enjoyably bad game, hell, it even goes as far as motivating you to hunt down hidden nude photos of your girlfriend, Troma would be proud.

The characters and voice acting are all pretty standard stuff with one HUGE exception: The Mask, voiced by Jim Cummings of Winnie the Pooh and The Lion King fame and I can't tell you how awesome it is hearing his constant teases, sex jokes and blood jokes.

Every once in a while the game tries to mix things up by adding some 2D platforming sections, but these are hampered by poor physics.

I'm not sure what to rate this game, it certainly isn't what I'd call good, but it is enjoyably so, I guess it should be rated below average.

Trivia: The game comes with the arcade version of the original Splatterhouse as well Splatterhouse 2 and 3, that alone makes it worth a purchase if you ask me.

Pros:
- Blood, guts and nudity reminiscent of 80's horror B-movies
- The mask is voiced by freaking Jim Cummings

Cons:
- Repetitive, questionable hit detection, repetitive, poor enemy variety, repetitive
- 2D platforming sections feel wonky and glitchy due to poor physics, oh and have I mentioned that the game is repetitive?

Final Score: D

Flashy boxart aside there is absolutely nothing interesting about its package... well I guess there's the ad for some Splatterhouse themed Globe sneakers, that's pretty unique if nothing else.

Packaging Score: C






Scariness Rating:

The game may be extremely bloody and feature some interesting creature designs, but in the end, said creatures are the ones getting punched and having their sphincters forcibly removed, not me. So it's not particularly scary, I rate it two screaming Marilyn Monroe's out of a possible five.









Halloween Feel:

If you're the sort of person that fires up old 80's slasher flicks during Halloween then this is the game for you, the talking mask is the sort of guy Freddy Krueger would love to have a beer with. I rate it three and a half Jack´o Lanterns.