Splatterhouse gives its rescuer the appearance of a monster. Rick wears a mask whose power lets him fight through West Mansion in search of his girlfriend, Jennifer. Namco released the arcade game in 1988; its corridors, creatures and violent attacks made horror the setting for a scrolling action game.
Fighting through the house
Rick punches standing up and kicks when crouching or jumping. The TurboGrafx-16 manual explains a more demanding move: hold down during a jump, then attack just before landing to perform a slide kick. Learning when an enemy will reach you matters as much as choosing an attack.
Weapons change the distance at which Rick can fight. In that home version, the shotgun has eight shots, while stones, wrenches and spears are thrown once. A wooden plank can be used repeatedly, but weapons cannot be carried out of the area where they were collected. Picking something up gives Rick a temporary advantage.
The manual describes seven stages, including a dungeon with floor spikes, a sewage canal and a room with spinning blades and mirrors. Hanging bodies and attacking furniture make the surroundings part of the threat. Rick has a heart-based damage meter, so a mistake can cost health without immediately ending a life. These details describe the TurboGrafx-16 conversion; they are not a claim that every version has identical rules.
Ports and separate games
The PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 conversion followed in 1990. Splatterhouse 2 and Splatterhouse 3 on the Mega Drive are sequels, rather than ports of the first game. Retro Gamer’s account of the third contrasts its less linear structure with the second game’s more direct progression.
There was also a different Famicom game, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. It gives Rick a small body and oversized head and uses a comic approach to the monsters. That branch of the series is easy to miss if its history is reduced to the three numbered games. It later appeared in Bandai Namco’s Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1.
Returning to the monsters
The 2010 reboot returned to the title Splatterhouse. In a development interview, artist Dave Wilkins and co-producer Dan Tovar discussed influences including Evil Dead and Re-Animator. Tovar described an action game for horror enthusiasts; those are the later team’s stated influences, rather than evidence of the original designers’ intentions.
The arcade original has also remained available through rereleases. Hamster brought it to Switch and PlayStation 4 in June 2023 as part of Arcade Archives, separate from the reboot and the console sequels.
Sources
- Hamster, Arcade Archives SPLATTER HOUSE: original developer/year, premise and 2023 rerelease.
- NEC/Namco, Splatterhouse TurboGrafx-16 instruction manual, 1990, pp. 2–8: health, controls, weapons, stages and hazards.
- Retro Gamer issue 40, 2007, p. 40: PC Engine conversion and Wanpaku Graffiti. Issue 22, 2005, p. 64: Mega Drive sequels. These are retrospective accounts.
- West Mansion, interview with Dave Wilkins and Dan Tovar, ahead of the 2010 reboot: the later team’s aims and film influences.
- Bandai Namco, Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1: inclusion of Wanpaku Graffiti.