Developed and published by Namco in 1988

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/Al82_Retro
Add me on Google+: bit.ly/1tPwL1u

I still remember the first time I encountered Splatterhouse. As part of the holidays I had with my parents as a child, there would be at least one trip to a seaside arcade and 1988 was no exception; after all, the arcades were the place to experience the best that the video game industry had to offer.

Along the back wall of the arcade, tucked in between Ghosts 'n' Goblins and OutRun, stood a game that I'd never seen before. The attract mode was playing and I remember standing there, transfixed, as a muscle-bound figure proceeded to punch, kick and tear his way through a series of zombie-like foes, each of which burst open in a fountain of green gore. Every arcade game that I'd ever seen up until that point had been bright, joyous affairs designed to appeal to children and adults alike, but this game was something else entirely.

The game's plot centres on two college students, Rick Taylor and Jennifer Willis (Rick's girlfriend), who are forced to take shelter from a ferocious storm inside a nearby mansion. Unfortunately, the mansion has long rumoured to be haunted, hiding the gruesome experiments of the enigmatic Dr. West. No sooner has the door closed behind them when all Hell breaks loose as all manner of horrors burst forth from the gloom, spiriting Jennifer away whilst Rick loses consciousness.

Left for dead, Rick is saved by the appearance of the "Terror Mask", an ancient artifact that has bestowed him with super-human levels of strength and endurance. Spurred on by the thoughts of Jennifer and the power of the mask, Rick enters into the house to do battle with whatever evil lurks within.

The game is set across a series of side-scrolling levels, each containing monsters to defeat and perilous traps to avoid. Make no mistake, this is a fiendishly hard game, at least until the player has put in sufficient practice to learn the layout of each level, monster positions and how best to deal with them.

Having been imbued with the power of the mask, Rick can sustain a number of hits before he succumbs to death. The number of hits he can take is displayed by the 'Life' gauge in the bottom left of the screen. Although getting hit by monsters or traps will cost Rick a life point, it's also possible to earn a single point back by beating a level.

As for the game's combat, Rick can dispose of his foes with a swift punch or kick. It is also possible to execute a powerful slide-tackle that does more damage than normal attacks; the slightly sludgy controls mean that this can be quite difficult to pull off, plus Rick can't be controlled whilst sliding, so it's possible to get into more trouble if used at the wrong moment.

In addition to fisticuffs, Rick will be able to arm himself with a variety of weapons left lying around the house. Right off the bat, the game lives up to it's title by giving you a gigantic meat cleaver with which enemies can, quite literally, be split in two! If the cleaver didn't bring a grin to your face, just wait Rick gets his hands on the two-by-four; hitting enemies with this will knock them into the background, causing them to burst all over the rear wall!

Unfortunately, not everything about the game is a huge success. For one, I'm not a fan of the trial-and-error gameplay mechanics, nor the sluggish control scheme. They're not terrible, but as a coin-op experience, most players would die after after 30 seconds of gameplay and never bother to see the rest of the game.

In truth, I think Splatterhouse's appeal lies not in the gameplay, but in it's presentation and aesthetics. The game is very much influenced by horror cinema, but not just by the down-right gorey - in a nod to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy, there are touches of dark humour to be found.

The game's graphics and artwork are brilliant. From Rick's hulking, hockey-mask wearing visage, to the creepy, corpse-strewn backgrounds, this is a game that looks every inch the horror game that it set out to be. Some of the graphics on show are quite gruesome and far darker than anything that Mortal Kombat would produce.

The game also features some excellent music and sound effects. From the eerily forboding dungeon music, to the uplifiting organ music when Rick exorcises the house's chapel, everything about the game's soundtrack sounds right. The game also features a number of digitised speech samples and audio effects (mostly screams), that mostly sound great, although it's difficult to understand exactly what some of the characters are saying at times.

Splatterhouse remains classic arcade title that dares to thumb it's nose at it's contemporaries with a darkly macabre style that is still quite unique, even to this day. If you like your games tough and gorey, Splatterhouse is most definitely a game you want to try out.
#retrogaming