Splatterhouse

Nerdy, weakling college student Rick Taylor lies dying on the floor in the lobby of the massive West Mansion. His girlfriend Jennifer has been kidnapped (the plot of every beat-em-up ever) by the maniacal Doctor West. A mask topples out of a nearby sarcophagus, it speaks to him, promising an extension to his life, and, more importantly, revenge. Upon donning the mask, Rick is not transformed into a green-faced party animal in a yellow suit, but a muscle-bound raging hulk ready to take on any monsters the West Mansion has to offer. There's plenty of splatter, and plenty of house, so, if nothing else, it certainly lives up to the title.

Fortunately there IS a lot more to enjoy. Splatterhouse is probably the bloodiest game of all time and is a great beat-em-up, but it does begin to wither by your third play-through. The gameplay is very. very similar to that of Batman: Arkham Asylum, though nowhere near as polished. And a lot of Rick abilities are similar to that of Alex Mercer from Prototype. It's no secret that the game had a troubled production. Bottle Rocket Games was fired (and rendered defunct as a result) by Namco around early 2009, and it took Namco's in-house team nearly a year and a half to fill in the rest. The game still feels rushed and unfinished. The biggest problem lies with the fact that the game does not install to your PS3, but merely loads off the Blu Ray disc. This creates very, very long loading times that will REALLY drive you mad. Aside from that, you'll have an absolute ton of fun with Splatterhouse.

Pros:

Great script. Great dialogue/characters. Nude pictures of Jennifer. Lots of satisfying blood and gore. Contains the arcade version of the original Splatterhouse as well as Splatterhouse 2 and Splatterhouse 3, which were exclusive to the Mega Drive and extremely hard to come by. It's worth buying for these two alone.

Cons:

Extremely long loading times. Graphics are only in 720p. Some really cheap deaths (wouldn't be such a problem if it were not for the loading times). Seriously...the loading times are a killer. THIS GAME REALLY SHOULD HAVE INSTALLED ONTO THE PS3!!!

Graphics B Sound B Gameplay B Lasting Appeal B+

This game features, as did the original, a young man named Rick who must venture into an old mansion to save his girlfriend who has been taken by the deranged Dr. West. He is basically bleeding and left for dead when we meet poor Rick, but he is offered assistance by a mask that offers him the power to save his girl. Well he puts on the mask and grows into a super sized hulking dude that can tear his opponents limb from limb. Along your quest you will also be able to use pipes, meat cleavers, shotguns, and chainsaws to get you through the strange mansion and at times other locales. For the most part the game is fun, just needs work as it seems the makers of this game rushed its release or something. Along with the fun mayhem you also have to go through some very long loading times and a few glitches that will have you turning off your video gaming console. However, should they make a sequel I think they can do what the Uncharted franchise did. The first one was good, but very flawed, then the second one came out and it quite frankly seemed to read all my complaints and improved upon all of them. They can do that with this one too, as it is fun and simple enough to master as you simply push a couple of buttons and follow the prompts to pummel you opponents into a gooey mess. The monsters you face look cool, though they do repeat a bit to much near the end with nothing really new coming at you the last few levels. My favorite level had to be the fun house level as it was just really fun and had the most interesting level design. I also enjoyed the inclusion of many H.P. Lovecraft references throughout the game such as Dr. West. Seeing the wickerman was cool to. If the makers had only polished this one a bit more I would have given it a higher score, however as it was it was a fun little splatter filled game.