Splatterhouse
Reviewed by Michael LoCascio
Poor Rick and Jennifer were simply out one night, looking
around an old, abandoned mansion, when they were suddenly
ambushed by unseen villains. Predictably, the girl is taken
away, while the guy is left for dead. Rick wakes up in a
pool of blood and discovers that some sort of strange mask
is stuck to his face (don't you just hate when that
happens). Not to worry though - this is a good mask, not a
bad mask. With newfound superpowers granted to him by this
strange mask which is stuck to his face, Rick sets off to
find Jennifer.
And so begins Splatterhouse - a beautiful, heartwarming game
about a young man who uses two-by-fours, shotguns, and
whatever else he can get his hands on to brutally murder a
myriad of disgusting monsters in his quest to save his
girlfriend and get that mask off his face. A simple beat 'em
up at heart, the horror element in Splatterhouse takes the
game to an entirely new level. In all seriousness, this game
can be suspenseful, violent, and downright disgusting. Yes
folks, this is one excellent video game.
Splatterhouse is made up of seven horizontally scrolling
stages. The game play doesn't deviate from its fighting game
roots in any level - just pound on the monsters, one after
the other, until you beat the boss and move on to the next
board. However, most of the levels feature a number of
different paths that ultimately lead to the boss - and every
single path contains some sort of gruesome creature or
shocking surprise.
The monsters -particularly the bosses - are extremely well
done, and they have quite a few tricks up their sleeves. For
example, at the end of Stage Two you must defeat a spirit
that has taken control of various pieces of furniture (which
it utilizes to crush and stab you with). Once the you bash
on the furniture enough times, the spirit flies out the
window and all is calm again. Or so you think. A couple of
seconds later a huge chandelier comes crashing down from the
ceiling.. only when you dodge this final surprise are you
allowed to progress on to the next level.
The graphics are excellent in this game - Rick and most of
the monsters are quite big and well drawn. The music is
superb as well, consisting of a variety of spooky, scary
tracks. It sets the mood perfectly. As you would expect from
a game that mainly features big, bulky characters, the
controls are a bit rough at times, but they're decent enough
that you won't be able to blame them if you fail on your mission.
Splatterhouse is a worthwhile and challenging action game
that has decent replay value (you'll probably want to see
what kinds of evil creatures roam the halls of the paths
that you skipped over during the game). This game comes
highly recommended, and I do hope that you manage to snatch
up a copy and take on Rick's quest. After all, would you
want to live your life with a mask stuck to your face?
Overall: 8 out of 10
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