Bloody Childhood memories.

There's no denying the greatness of such classic games like Yoshi's Island or Castslevania on the old school game systems. These games and many others like them, shaped the childhoods of the gamers of today, laying the basics for the skills and appreciation that games of today thrive on.

Ever since I saw the advert for it inside one of my comic books as a kid, very few retro games continue to thrill and fascinate me like Splatterhouse.

Click to enlarge

Adventuring into the horror mansion of Doctor West (possibly inspired Lovecrafts Herbert West, from the Re-Animator) our hero Rick finds himself an artifact called the Terror Mask, which transforms him into a hulking mass of bone crushing muscle, aiding him in his quest to save his kidnapped girlfriend Jennifer.

Releasing originally in the arcades in 1988 by Namco, Splatterhouse is arguably the maddest horror title of its time. The game made great use of the generations graphics, pumping in tones of horror movie inspired blood and gore, with baddies straight out of some fever induced nightmare, looking at it now you can see that somehow the game managed to get away with a lot.

Hey baby go home!

Fighting giant dangling foetuses with chainsaws, ripping off the head of animated teddy bears which then turn into blood filled demons, rummaging through cellars filled with cut up body parts, if this were a movie it would have been a video nasty.

The release of Splatterhouse 2 on the Sega Genesis brought the game into the home, which is my favourite of the series. Sadly the port of the game outside of Japan was heavily watered down, but thanks to the goodness of ROMs and such, getting your hands on an uncut version of the game isn't hard. Part three rounded off the series, but not before giving way to some weird spin off game that I can not understand.


Well now seventeen years since the release of part three, a new Splatterhouse will be busting onto our video game consoles, boasting every bit of the blood and gore that was the series trade mark.

In fact, it looks as though this game will be redefining the term "Blood and Gore" for video games, as it has buckets loads of it all over the damn screen. Being developed by Namco Bandi Games, the game is set for a late 2010 release. I've been following this thing for awhile now, and so far it's looking like a title that will definitely be one of my must haves this year. It will follow the same beat em up style of the old series, but with a supped up combat system that developers say will be very brutal. It gets so extream that Rick can now be dismembered, and he can use his limbs as weapons.


There's an official website up for the game, which has heaps of screen shots and videose, as well as a cool model viewer where you can check out some of the new nasties you will be taking on. There's pics of the developers taking part in all kinds of crazy promotions too, like a recent metal music awards show where the game team sponsored some of the awards.

If you want to find out more about the series be sure to check out this awesome fan site, which has lots of details on the titles as well as other cool things such as the ROMs for the games.