This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006.
Day 5
Splatterhouse
Splatterhouse has had a few iterations over the years, but when I was a kid I thought of it as “the game where you played as Jason.” I was referring, of course, to Jason Voorhees, the killer in Friday the 13th Part: 2 and onwards. As an adult, I can understand how young me came to that conclusion. Playing a cleaver wielding guy wearing a white mask that resembles Jason’s signature hockey mask comes pretty close.
Despite how iconic Splatterhouse was in early video game history, it’s a game that’s relatively simple: there are only seven levels, and each is filled with enemies that have easy to remember patterns. I think a lot of the lasting appeal of Splatterhouse is its art design. It has an unabashedly horror theme that doesn’t shy away from gore and religious iconography–at least not in the arcade version.
Splatterhouse has been ported to home consoles a number of times–originally to the Turbografx-16. This version was heavily censored with a lot of the gore toned down, and religious iconography removed. Despite the censorship, the home console version is a pretty good recreation of the arcade version of Splatterhouse. There were two sequels, Splatterhouse 2 and Splatterhouse 3, but those were only released on the Sega Genesis.
While the console port of Splatterhouse is a little harder to play today, you can actually play the original arcade version easily if you have a Nintendo Switch. It’s released under the Arcade Archives series that is on the Nintendo eShop. If you want to play the console port, you have to get a hold of a retro console, as even the Wii eShop version is now inaccessible.
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