While horror in video games has been widely used, there are a few genres that do not lend themselves to horror based games. I don’t know if any sport game has horror themes. Beat um ups, in which a side scrolling characters has to fight waves and waves of enemies, have not had many horror based games. Altered Beast is pretty close, but it’s more of fantasy then horror. To find the true horror beat um up, we have to travel back to 1990. The company Namco, now known as Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game is Splatterhouse.
Rick Taylor loses everything in a few seconds after stepping into the West mansion. His girlfriend Jennifer is taken by the inhuman creatures who populate the house. Rick himself loses his life. He has picked a pretty good place to die as this is also where the Terror Mask dwells. It fuses onto Rick and brings hims back to life with renewed power and strengh. It promises that if he destroys the monsters, he can get Jennifer back.
There are two distinct versions of Splatterhouse.The first was the arcade version and the port that came to TurboGrafx-16. Since we have both versions available, the only difference was that the port was heavily censored. This is understandable as the game is visceral and bloody. Your life meter is a row of human hearts. The monsters range from decomposing corpses to a runaway hand. Even the sound effects sound like ripping flesh.
The game is influenced by a lot of the horror classics in America. The Terror Mask looks like something that Jason Voorhees would wear on his jaunts around Crystal Lake. Some enemies seemed to crawl right out of The Evil Dead. You don’t have to be an expert in American horror to enjoy the game, but it does give it a little something extra if you notice it.
Splatterhouse spawned two sequels and then a more modern remake in 2010. For a game that seemed created solely on how far could it push the envelop, it surprising had a little bit of staying power. Some even confuse screen shots of the game with a Friday the 13th video game that never existed. Rick’s quest through the West mansion may not end happily, but it was a hell of a ride to get there.
