Splatter House

This time Jason is a good guy.

Today we take a day off from movies, as the last entry delivered one of the worst films ever made. However, today's entry does have some influence from a certain masked murderer franchise. Splatterhouse (or スプラッターハウス Supurattāhausu in its original language, seriously can you read that name?) is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade game developed and published by Namco. It is also subsequently the title of the entire series of games released in several home consoles and personal computer formats since 1990.

the PC edition of the arcade classic, though censored, it's still entertaining.

The comic strip that introduces you to the game.

Due to its violent nature as well as some questionable enemies, the TurboGrafx-16 port of Splatterhouse had a "parental advisory warning" of sorts  printed on the front of the box. Splatterhouse is nothing but a sidescrolling beat 'em up video game in which the player controls Rick, a parapsychology student (yes, a parapsychology student) who is trapped inside West Mansion. After his apparent death and resurrection by the Terror Mask, Rick makes his way through the mansion, fighting off hordes of creatures in a vain attempt to save his girlfriend Jennifer from a grisly fate. Players of this game will also recognise a number of slasher horror film influences, such as Friday the 13th, and mostly Friday the 13th. So, the story has it that two college students, Rick Taylor and Jennifer Willis, take refuge from a storm in West Mansion, a local landmark known as "Splatterhouse" for the rumors of hideous experiments purportedly conducted there by some evil guy known as Dr. West, a renowned and missing parapsychologist. At the mansion, the two are attacked by demonic creatures that drag Jennifer inside and fatally wound Rick, leaving him for dead.

In SplatterHouse you could kill your enemies with awesome weapons.

This leeches can give you quite a difficult time.

Rick awakens in the dungeon of the mansion to discover that he is still alive thanks to the influence of the "Terror Mask", or in some versions, the "Hell Mask", a Mayan sacrificial artifact from West's house which is capable of sentient thought. The mask attaches itself to Rick, fusing with his body and transforming him into a monster with superhuman strength (strangely the mask doesn't resemble any sort of mayan mask you've ever seen before. The mask is definitely a hockey mask inspired from the one Jason Voorhees wears in the Friday the 13th saga) With the mask's encouragement, Rick goes on a rampage through the dungeon and the mansion grounds, killing hordes of monsters. Inside the mansion, Rick finds Jennifer, prone on a couch and surrounded by a throng of creatures that retreat upon his arrival. After their departure, Jennifer transforms into a giant, fanged monster that attempts to kill Rick while begging him for help. Rick is forced to kill Jennifer, who transforms back to normal and thanks him before she dies. Infuriated, Rick tracks the remaining monsters to a giant, bloody hole in the mansion's floor. Upon entering it, Rick discovers that the mansion itself is alive. He follows a bloody hallway to the house's "womb", which produces fetus-like monsters that attack him. Rick destroys the womb, which causes the house to burst into flames as it "dies".

Evil monsters haunt Rick.

Escaping the burning mansion, Rick comes across a grave marker. The Terror Mask releases energy into the grave, reviving a giant monster named Hell Chaos that claws its way up from the earth and attempts to kill Rick. Rick destroys the creature, which unleashes a tormented ghost that dissipates into a series of bright lights. As the lights vanish, the mask shatters, turning Rick back to normal, and he flees as the house burns to the ground and the credits roll. However, after he leaves and the credits end, the Terror Mask reassembles itself and laughs evilly, staying there for 45 seconds, with the word, "END", appearing on the bottom right corner of the screen.

This is Jennifer Willis, our hero's girlfriend.

Overall, Splatter House is a great game, though its gameplay can seem boring at times (Rick only moves in a one dimensional environment) the action you get from playing is fairly good. Besides, monsters look really cool, they don't look like the old school monsters TV sold us in films like Frankenstein and Dracula.  These monsters are all satan's work  and you do see and feel that for sure. The storyline could perfectly fit the script of one of those late night 80's slasher horror films you could watch once your parents were asleep back in the 80's. The graphics are the best you can get in the 80's and the sound is perhaps the greatest thing in the game. The background music is definitely haunting, and the screaming, killing and evil sounds are really really cool. 

Today you can play  the game, through mostly computer emulators, the Wii virtual console and through your iPhone/iPad. Of course, the game has had its 2010 reboot, but we're talking about the original game here. 

Here's the gameplay: