Arcade Archives Splatter House

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Alternating (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Splatterhouse (or Splatter House as it is represented here) is an Action-Platformer released in 1988 in arcades, with multiple home ports following afterwards. This modern release sees the game coming to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2023.

Splatterhouse made a name for itself with its gruesome 2D visuals, with monsters that would literally splatter into gooey corpses when you killed them, backgrounds depicting walls of flesh and suffering things that might have once been human, and a mask-wearing protagonist who seems clearly inspired by the Friday the 13th franchise’s Jason Vorhees.

While the presentation was phenomenal, the game itself was… well, frustrating. You only have simply attacks (not changed much by weapons you can pick up), and little maneuverability. What’s more, the game was unforgiving, forcing you back when you died and even farther back when you lose your last life and continue. The result is a game that is fondly remembered by many, but that hasn’t aged well.

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to score as much as they can in one run before seeing a game over screen. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game includes various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

There is another problem here too – this game is already included in Namco Museum and Namco Museum Arcade Pac on Nintendo Switch. While I deemed the former overpriced, the latter was a better deal at $30 for 12 games including the modern release, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus. Contrast this with Splatterhouse’s individual release in the Arcade Archives series of games for a whopping $8, and that bundle seems like a far better deal, unless for some reason you absolutely need Splatterhouse and only Splatterhouse.

With this being the case, I cannot recommend this release of this game. Splatterhouse was already long in the tooth, with a reputation far greater than its gameplay ever was. But add to that a price that just doesn’t make sense when you have a better alternative on the same platform, and this is a release that deserves to be led to slaughter.

tl;dr – Splatterhouse is a violent Action-Platformer has you fighting off various grotesque enemies as a Jason Vorhees look-alike. It’s okay, but the action is simple and unforgiving, and this release’s $8 price tag seems far too costly when multiple bundles include this game with a far better value.

Grade: D

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