E3 (#E3) Reflections – Splatterhouse

So after a long wait it’s finally back, Splatterhouse. For those who don’t know Splatterhouse is a horror based beat-em up that debuted in arcades and on the Turbo Graphix 16 back in the day. Ports have been made and there have been sequels, but nothing spoke to a generation like the gory original. This game holds a special place in my heart because it was one of those rare games that scared me shitless even if I wasn’t playing it or in the room at the time. The genesis titles were good but they didn’t have the same pull that the original had.

This game features a retelling of the first game with some new twists added. I can’t wait to see what they are. The gameplay is a bit more complex than the original but it does include homages to the older versions, such as a berserker mode. It’s standard beat-em up fare with some wrinkles. One of them is that you have to feed your mask and you do that during certain combos you get bloody and the mask feeds on that. Some of the old weapons are in the game as well.

The controls handled well considering it’s a simplified scheme. There’s not much to it, I just wish there was dodge mapped to the analog stick in the build I played. I am not a fan of the block then roll animation. Otherwise, beating your enemies skulls in with their own limbs is quite relaxing in that game. The sound track consisted of hard metal, I am sure that Rick would probably listen to that while wearing his terror mask so I won’t complain.

The game is all single player so once you beat it you’re done. Maybe there’s going to be Easter eggs in there that you could hunt down.  I think it would be cool if they included an original Rick skin in the game, we’ll have to see what happens on release. However, a plus is that the original versions (the uncensored one will be featured in the game),  will be in the included.