The name couldn’t be more appropriate, as the game exudes a charming irreverence that perfectly complements its wacky art style.Īs the game begins, we see a short establishing scene of Jennifer mourning at Rick’s graveside. Think Dennis the Menace or Bart Simpson and you’ve got the gist of it. In the Japanese language, “wanpaku” is a word indicating naughtiness, particularly of a childlike and innocent nature. It was not just the only original Splatterhouse game ever produced for a Nintendo system, but also the first in the series to come out for any home console, predating the better-known arcade port for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 by some eight months. The result was 1989’s Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. Rather than attempting to copy the arcade Splatterhouse’s gruesome and gritty look, Namco instead embraced what the Famicom did best: Bright colors and squat “super deformed” characters. The only problem? A faithful recreation of the arcade smash was all but impossible on the most popular home system of the time, Nintendo’s aging 8-bit Famicom. More or less Irem’s Kung-Fu Master by way of a Cannibal Corpse album cover, it was the figuratively eye-popping 16-bit graphics and literally eye-popping carnage that put it over the top and made it a fondly-remembered hit.Ī console game was inevitable. The first Splatterhouse was an incredibly basic game, even for the time. Who says there’s no such thing as truth in advertising?
He accomplishes this by walking to the right and…splattering things. In the game, college student Rick, aided by a possessed “terror mask” that grants him superhuman strength (and bears a more than coincidental resemblance to the one worn by cinema’s most famous homicidal ice hockey enthusiast), must rescue his missing girlfriend Jennifer from the army of bloodthirsty ghouls inhabiting a creepy old mansion. A side-scrolling beat-’em-up with light platforming elements, its primary claim to fame was being one of the first truly gory releases by a major publisher. Namco introduced the original Splatterhouse to Japanese arcades right around Halloween time in 1988. I wanted to keep the October spook train rolling, but needed a bit of a palate cleanser after the complex, innovative, and seriously intense Sweet Home.
Aww! Impending doom has never been so adorable!
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