The Splatterhouse thread. Come on, you knew this was coming!

[Dire 51]

Yes, I had to start this thread. Splatterhouse is one of my favorite game series of all time (as you must know if you've visited West Mansion, the internet's #1 Splatterhouse resource - you may all applaud now ). I've talked a lot about all of the games on WM, so what I'm going to do is invite all of you to throw your hats in the ring and talk about the series. There's already been a "favorite Splatterhouse" poll done here, so rather than just say what your favorite was, why not talk about favorite moments in the games, any memories about them, or whatever else comes to mind?

Just to stoke the fires, so to speak, I present to you a piece of fanart from the WM archives, done by Adrian Mims:

[Sotenga]

Splatterhouse... holy crap, I do NOT know where to begin. Guess I'll start with a rant that I posted on another board... Dire, this is a familiar story.

It all started sometime around... I'll say 1999, maybe earlier. I did not own a Turbografx 16 back then, and I didn't even know that the system existed. I was, however, enlightened to the Magic Engine, which, back then, I didn't think was an emulator, but rather a special PC-only program.

That's beside the point. The point is that I wasn't as great a classic gamer then than I am now, but I found this a rather fun program nonetheless. There were quite a few games that caught my eye on this thing, such as Bloody Wolf and Keith Courage in the Alpha Zones. Also, I played the hell out of Air Zonk, and almost beat it, but what a tough final boss!

However, my most played game on the Magic Engine, hands down, was Splatterhouse. I thought it had an interesting sounding name... sounded violent enough. Back then, lots of blood in games attracted me, even if it did give me the willies at times. It's also the reason why I was quite a Doom fan back in the day. Now, I do know that it is the games that make the gore, not the gore that makes the games.

I digress again. When I ran this game, the logo popped up, and I was like, "EEP." The bloody logo made me realize that I had to check this game out at least once. I pushed the Run button, and then, the most eerie music that I knew of at the time played as lightning crashed outside of West Mansion. I could have very well pissed myself, but I decided to push on and see what else this game had to offer.

Keep in mind that I was about ten years old when I first played Splatterhouse, and while I wasn't too scared of the bloodiness and numerous corpses... actually, I wasn't as scared as I was fascinated. The macabre designs got me hooked to the adventures of Rick, who, back then, I just assumed was Jason Voorhees' long lost cousin. My ignorance of the back story didn't detract from the game at all, and the more I played it, the more it distinguished itself from an exposition of violence. I actually started to become familiar with the gameplay mechanics and the stages of the game.

The bosses really impressed me, they did. The Bore Worm room, I thought, was gross, what with all the entrails in the background and the eyeless, big-mouthed worms leaping from them. I warded them off with my limbs and nothing but, and it worked... until the final worm leaped out of the hanging corpse and hit me. At least, I think he caught me by surprise, but I didn't die, and was allowed to advance to the next stage. Fighting my way through the zombies and hanging bodies, I got down to the sewer. Smashing the sewer monsters with my 2 by 4 was such an excellent feeling.

This brings us to the Haunted Room, which took me a bit of practice to get through. I had to keep playing through it until I learned where the bottles fell from, when the chair attacked, and when the painting of the eye tried to beat me. I did finally pass it... BUT, and this is the part I'll remember forever... I was on my last heart, and I was standing in the middle of the room. The goddamned chandelier fell on me, and I had to start all over! FUCK!

Don't worry, I persevered and got out to the forest that is stage 3. It felt good to use that shotgun and blow the yuppie dogs to hell... until I ran out of shells and had to use rocks to kill the zombies. This is back before I learned that using crouching kicks could conserve the ammo, but I got to the end... and met Biggy Man for the first time! I was in awe against this giant sonofabitch... I think I was actually scared for the first time in this game. The intense music didn't help much either... I was afraid that BM was going to slice my own face clean off after he was done with Rick.

Maybe it wasn't his design that scared me so much as the fact that I didn't think I was ever going to get past BM. Even though I unloaded a full eight shells into his ugly bag head, he was still going! When it came down to fisticuffs, he shredded my ass to bits. I think when I finally did beat him, it was through dumb luck and I only had one heart remaining. Onto stage 4, the hallway. I'm pretty sure I kept falling into the Bore Worm pit, dammit. If that didn't get me, the rotating blades on the floor would. And then there was the hall of mirrors. Damn, I was ignorant back then... a nice, clean shiver rushed down my spinal cord when my mirror image tried to beat the hell out of me! It didn't help that he was difficult to kill, but I was wise with striking him at the right times... the I had to fight two more. Dammit.

Then I entered the cathedral... I knew this couldn't be good. I found myself with one of the most bizarre bosses I had beheld, which was, of course, the Evil Cross with the grotesque heads surrounding it. And it was trying to kill me by launching these heads at me. I was weirded out beyond belief, but thank god for the Golden Cleaver that was provided for me. This guy wasn't easy, and it took me a while to work out the timing, but I hacked my way through the chewy blasphemous center of this boss, and I had time to pray as the peaceful organ music played.

................ AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

When the music came back in one of the most frightening tones my ears have ever suffered, I think I started to cry. Good thing this wasn't the arcade version, or I'd have post-traumatic stress disorder of Jennifer's screaming... I reluctantly moved on into stage 5, which wore me to rags. The chairs in the beginning, they weren't so bad. Then we got to the room with the hands... this wasn't so easy. The room with the faces that flew out at you from the paintings wasn't much easier... or the second sewer scene... or the room of the Necromancer... or the room with lots of zombies and dogs... or the third coming of the Bore Worms... and I didn't even know there was a second mirror hall back then!

This brings us to what became one of my greatest antagonists back then, the level five boss, the Jennifer monster. Sure, I was scared that she transformed into this great beast, but then I became really, really pissed off because I could never beat her! Yep, my tale here is coming to a close, as I couldn't beat the bogus Jennifer. No matter how hard I tried, I lost all my continues against the bitch, but tried again countlessly... and when I think I finally clobbered her, and she changed back to normal, she went back to the monster, and I thought she was invincible by this time! I also assumed she was the final boss, but little did I know that two more stages were after this. I wouldn't get to know, however. As time passed, I lost interest in the Magic Engine, and it was eventually lost from my computer at the time... thus, Splatterhouse began to fade from my mind... and yet, it was locked away somewhere in the dank recesses of my cerebrum. Gone, but not forgotten...................................

That was my first ever experience with Splatterhouse, Chapter 1, if you will. This tale sure as hell ain't over yet! Splatterhouse would eventually resurface later in my life... but that's for another day. Sorry kiddos, Uncle Mike is feeling drowsy and must now take his medication. *gulp* Ah, good ol' Cyanide... oops. *dies*

... what is this thing on my face? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.........................



CHAPTER ONE OVER. FLIP TAPE OVER TO B SIDE.

[Funkenstein]

Ow. My eyes.

Anyhoo, Splatterhouse was one of those games I wanted as a kid but my either mother wouldn't let me get because I was "tto young" to play it, or I didn't have a system that a Splatterhouse game was on. Now that the classic systems are on the cheap, and my mother doesn't have a stranglehold on my funds, I bought a TG16 specifically to play Splatterhouse, and I bought a Famicom specifically to play Wanakpu Graffiti. (though I got screwed out of a power source so I haven't yet) I also bought 2 and 3 for the Genesis (accidentally bought 2 three times - don't ask) and play them pretty regularly. So yeah, big Splatterhouse fan.

[Dire 51]

Mike - yes, I recall that story quite well.

Funkenstein - you ever get to play WG at all? Even on an emulator?

So, anybody else? I may very well post some of my own thoughts later.

[Funkenstein]

Funkenstein - you ever get to play WG at all? Even on an emulator?

Nope. I don't really want to play it bad enough to hunt down and download an emulator and a rom on this drip-drop 56k. I never knew there was a Splatterhouse for the Famicom until I read it on a site and unless I'm mistaken it was yours (before I ever knew DP existed). So wanting to play WP made me buy it and the Famicom to play it on, and trying to find a power source for it led me to join DP. So... well thanks. :

[Dire 51]

You're welcome.

Anyone else? Come on!

[Vigilante]

I REALLY enjoyed splatterhouse when I was a kid. I got my tg-16 for Alien Crush, but the sheer gore factor made this game truly rock.

I know I'm drawing a blank here, wasn't there a boss that had these arms that came out of the dirt and swooped over 3/4 of the screen. I'm not sure if that was the last boss.

I haven't played in awile, but I think I'll dig it out of the closet and play through it over the weekend. Good call, man I miss that game!

[jerkov]

I got a TurboGrafx about six months ago, and one of the first games that I started looking out for was Splatterhouse. Found it with case at a gaming store for about $15, so I snapped it up. I also got WG, mostly because of the praise that you gave it, Dire51. And, of course, it's an awesome game. I love the horror movie references and the spoof-ish atmosphere of the game. Definitely worthy of an import. I've had Splatterhouse 3 for Genesis for awhile, and damn does that game get hard after awhile.

All of the Splatterhouse games that I've played are great. I guess the one that I'm missing is Splatterhouse 2, which I haven't played since I rented it back when it first came out. I'm still on the lookout for a cheap copy of this one.

Splatterhouse is another of those awesome series, much like Kid Icarus, that is long, long overdue for another entry.

[Dire 51]

I know I'm drawing a blank here, wasn't there a boss that had these arms that came out of the dirt and swooped over 3/4 of the screen. I'm not sure if that was the last boss.

I haven't played in awile, but I think I'll dig it out of the closet and play through it over the weekend. Good call, man I miss that game!

Thanks. And yes, that is the last boss. This him?



Jerkov - glad I was able to expose you to the greatness that is WG.

[Vigilante]

Yeah that's the guy..... ugly lookin! Reminds me of my mother-in-law!

[Dire 51]

Yeah that's the guy..... ugly lookin! Reminds me of my mother-in-law!

[kai123]

The splatterhouse games are some of my personal favorites. The third game is my favorite but the second game will always be a classic too. I wish they would port them to a handheld system.

[Shawn Carr2o]

The Splatterhouse games rock!.