***WARNING***: This is a review of a game that was controversial for it's time and contains high amounts of blood, gore, and violence. In order to do this review properly, I will have to describe some of this. If you do not like this sort of thing, I suggest not reading and I highly suggest not playing the game. If you are reading this review, then enjoy!~


Splatter House! A very controversial game made by Namco in 1988, yes, the same Namco that made Pac-Man, Galaxian, Dig-Dug, and all those cute little games aimed at an audience of basically every age. So, yea, that, in my opinion, pretty cool company, who seems to be Mr. Scrooge when it comes to their IOS games, made this wonderful gore fest. Why is it wonderful and why is it a gore fest? Well, I will tell you why!

In this game, you play as some guy named Rick who's girl friend, Jennifer, gets kidnapped by monsters and so Rick wears this "Terror Mask" and must go through the mansion and kill lots of monsters using different weapons. For controls, you can move left and right, press down to duck or pick up weapons, press up to pick up weapons on a wall, a button to jump and a button to attack. Standing and attacking does a punch, while jumping or crouching and attacking does a kick.

The weapons you will find include a meat cleaver, which will chop enemies' heads off. A 2x4 which will splatter enemies on a wall, a rock and wrench, which both can be thrown at enemies but can not be picked back up, an axe (it is only used in one boss battle, and the boss always has the same "damage" and "death" animations regardless of what you use), and a shotgun, which will blow enemies to pieces.

Some enemies you will find include these red bug-eyed zombie-monster thingies as well as a stronger green variation of them, these brown zombie monster thingies with bloating heads that will charge at you when you kill it, zombie dogs, these weird slug things with some sort of giant slugs with some hideous melting babyish face, and many more.

You get 4 hearts of health, everything will only deal 1 heart. If you beat a stage, you get an additional heart and if you beat a stage with all 4 hearts, it will go up to 5 (but you always start with 4 if you die). You start out with 2 additional lives and you have infinite continues, but by continuing you start all the way at the beginning of the level, as dying starts you in the beginning of the room you are in.

Now with that out of the way, on to the review!

Graphics - 10:
The graphics are awesome for a game made in 1988! The first level has some old, torn stone wall with some weird pale green/yellowish goo hanging from the ceiling. Bent and torn bloody bars with people behind them with torn flesh and clothes, all bloody, grabbing... groaning... wanting to get out (Muahaha!). Some foreground details include people laying on their sides, grabbing at the air for help from Rick (as it seems), with loss of limbs, blood on the ground. Some other background details include men with no arms laying on the wall, dead, with all the flesh of their face gone and dead, unblinking white eyes as well as some brown skeletons with spears through their chests.

The monsters look quite scary with their deep-red eyes, dark flesh, gashes across their legs and arms, smooth animations, and wonderful death animations including heads being chopped off with green blood shooting out from where their head was, being hit against a wall with blood splattered all over as they slide down the wall and disintegrate into blood, and let's not forget blowing them to pieces with the shotgun as their Gibbs fly off-screen.

The other levels look good to with murky water, dusty old brick walls with melted-looking monsters hanging on chains and upchucking green slime before bleeding to death seconds afterwards. One level has a church segment with a shiny marble floor with smooth, cylinder pillars and  torches giving off ambient lighting. One other level has these thick, large, rotting trees in the background. Overall, the graphics are great especially for it's time!


Sound - 10:

The sound effects are scarily awesome! You have the depressed and sickly moans and groans of the monsters as you chop their heads off and hear a 'bowling' sound as you watch them fall to the floor, that "smack" sound when you punch an enemy with your fists or splatter them on a wall with your 2x4. The wonderful rain and lightning sounds in level 3, and let's no forget the music!

All the soundtracks are very dark and tense. The first 3 levels have real dark, intense music, while the 4th level has a more suspenseful feel to the music. Some of the boss music is truly intense, especially level 3's boss music when you fight a huge zombie monster weilding 2 chainsaws. Overall, the sound is great and makes the game's atmosphere even scarier.


Addictiveness - 6:

This game is fun with being able to punch and kick your way through enemies while watching their satisfying death animations. The variety of weapons and the constant editions of new monsters, level design, and atmosphere keep the game from getting boring. However, the difficulty, as I will soon mention, makes the game very hard to play if it is your first time and can often lead to you dying too much. But overall, it is a pretty fun game.


Story - 7

The story goes like this: Rick and Jennifer are caught in a rainstorm so they take refuge in an old mansion known as the Splatter House mansion, where some evil experiments where said to be conducted. When they enter the mansion, Jennifer is kidnapped and Rick gets killed. However, this one hockey looking mask called the "Terror Mask" brings Rick back to life in a dungeon in the Mansion, and he goes off to save Jennifer.

I have to admit, the whole idea behind being resurrected by a mask and evil experiments really interested me and I got into the storyline. It just seems so supernatural (which it kinda is). So, overall, it is a pretty well thought-out storyline.


Depth - 7:

As I mentioned, this game has plenty of depth to it. It has, as said before, many different level designs and themes. The different weapons keep the gameplay from getting old. Very little music is recycled and every boss is unique with it's attacks and overall design. Overall, pretty good depth for a game from 1988.


Difficulty - 10:

This game is hard. And I mean hard! You get only 4 hit points, so you can't make a lot of mistakes. Most enemies have long reach and can gang up on you if you don't kill them fast enough, and some enemies are just annoying. Like the zombies with the bloated heads when they are killed, their heads fly at you and the heads are usually difficulty to line up with your attacks, often ending you you getting hit. One slug-like enemy as mentioned before, shoots green stuff at you which is hard to dodge. And Rick's sprite is huge, making it even more difficult to dodge small projectiles and enemies. And some of the bosses have tricks, like the second boss has a chandelier that will fall and instantly kill you if you don't know it's coming and don't move out of the way.

Overall, this game is really hard. But that's to expect from an arcade game, especially an older one.


Overall - 9.2:

Overall, this is a great platform/beat em' up game. Sure, it has some very minor flaws, but it is still a great game never the less. It was also ported to the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990. I would recommend giving this game a go. So, I hope you enjoyed this review! If there is anything I should make better in future reviews, please tell me .