The developer behind the Splatterhouse for Sega Genesis port, Monster Bath Games, has released the demo. I sat down and took the demo for a spin before writing this article. While I have not recently played the arcade version, I did put in some decent time with the TurboGrafx-16 version over the years, even though I have barely ever made it past that second boss (y’all know which one I am talking about), Splatterhouse has been a regular on my playlist for light horror entertainment.
Splatterhouse is not a fast-paced game, well your character, Rick, is not fast moving. Some of the enemies you face will be and they will certainly use that to their advantage.
Prepare to see the title screen a lot as you start over.
Rick may look like a muscle bound badass ready to rip enemies apart with his bare hands, he is not so much a killer. Several hits and he is down for the count, and you lose a life. Lose enough lives and you are back on the title screen preparing to either start over or turn off Splatterhouse.
You will need to take things slowly in Splatterhouse. There is no other way to look at it. Trying to run through the enemies and simply pummel them with your fists, or cut them in half with the cleaver, then you will get hit. A lot.
Rick is not a big old harmless teddy bear. He has his fists and feet for defense when he is without a weapon. Early on you find the 2x4 that you can use like you are up to bat in the World Series swinging for the fences. This board is probably the most common weapon in Splatterhouse.
There is a cleaver that cuts some enemies in half with one swing. Such a handy weapon.
Later in the game you find a shot gun, don’t get too attached as you won’t have it long nor find it often. It is also the most powerful weapon in the game.
You will need everything you can muster to reach the bosses in Splatterhouse. One is literally an Amityville style room come to life to take you out.
The controls are what fans will remember. If you have never played Splatterhouse then you will probably think the controls are stiff. This is a quality of life improvement I was hoping would be implemented but, honestly, it would have probably broken the game if the rest was not adjusted to compensate.
The TurboGrafx-16 version of the first Splatterhouse game was rife with edits/censorship. I have no idea why NEC did that stuff considering it was their console, their playground, and well, sometimes making waves is how you get noticed. One change, the color of the mask, I can understand was more a defensive move against potential lawsuits over similarities with the Jason Vorhees movie character. The rest, I am clueless as to why they did them.
Monster Bath Games are somewhat free from that concern, though honestly, it could rear its head just as easily. Just now, it is much less likely.
Other changes Monster Bath Games are making are the bodies in the foreground of level one. The opening cinematic is now closer to the arcade version. The transitions between levels is much closer to the arcade version as well.
Over on their Itch.io page, Monster Bath Games states they will not be adding anything extra that was intended for the original. No extra blood, no extra enemies, etc. This is apparently planned to be arcade perfect, as much as they can anyhow.
They do state they will do a few things to improve how the game looks thanks to the power of the Genesis – such as adding parallax scrolling.
Basically, this is being treated as if it was a port made back in the late 80’s – not a lot of extras as being close to the arcade was the intent. I feel there is a certain degree of awesome to that.
I do wish the game would have an extra mode or some sort, but well, I am not one putting in the work so I cannot be too choosy. I am appreciative that they are even doing this in the first place.
