Partridge Senpai's 2020 Beaten Games:Previously:
2016 2017 2018 2019* indicates a repeat
1.
Invisigun Reloaded (Switch)
2.
Human: Fall Flat (Switch)
3.
Shantae: The Pirate's Curse (3DS)
4.
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (PC)
5. Splatterhouse (PS3) *
Another game for the 2010 Retro theme, and although it's a repeat, it's been over 8 years since I played it last. It's a game i remembered fondly and had been meaning to play for a few months now, and a friend of mine in America was nice enough to track down a copy to give me when I came to visit (the game never came out in Japan ^^;). I thought I'd remembered a decent bit, but I had forgotten a TON about this game. I went in expecting something just okay, and a decent portion of that my nostalgia, but I left with something better in many regards than I had originally given it credit for. I beat it on normal mode and it took me about 8 or 9 hours.
Splatterhouse (2010) is a reboot of the series that brings it into the 21st century. It's a reimagining of the original Splatterhouse story, as Rick and Jennifer go to visit the creepy Dr. West. Dr. West kidnaps Jennifer, Rick is left for dead, and Rick has to use the Terror Mask to get hella jacked and go beat up a bunch of monsters to get her back. Those are still the broad strokes of the story, but Splatterhouse actually surprised me a decent amount with the level of substance it has to its narrative.
A lot of the dialogue in the game is Rick and the Terror Mask (delightfully voiced by Jim Cummings) chatting as they go through their quest to rescue Jen and save the world. A lot of their conversations at least begin with the Mask taunting Rick for being unused to horrific violence and generally not being super manly. The Mask has a lot of one-liners or snide comments that are occasionally 4th wall-breaking, but I was either neutral or positive towards most of the humor in the game ("Let's show him why we call it 'SPLATTERHOUSE'", was one of my personal favorites X3). One line of taunting in particular is how Rick secretly loves all this and how he isn't grossed out at all, although it eventually escalates beyond simple taunting. The Mask saying how Rick is really a killer and always has been, "in another game, in another life." "You've been secretly wearing a mask your whole life." Rick even begins to start getting wrapped up in just how visceral everything is and how good all this revenge feels.
The game has a lot of broader strokes around analyzing the macho, aggressive aspects of toxic masculinity, but the most focused aspects of it revolve around that line of thinking. Is Rick really a violent person, or is he just doing what needs to be done as a victim of circumstance? As Rick insists to the Mask that he's actually a good, peaceful person despite all the horrible violence he's clearly enjoying partaking in, the game poses the question to Rick, and by extension the player: are who are actions portray us to be, or who we internally insist we truly are?
That said, the game doesn't really go quite far enough in a lot of its other comparisons to really mean much. It tries to compare Dr. West and Rick's goals in a way that could make Dr. West sympathetic, but it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny despite working in the moment. Particularly, the way it sexualizes Jennifer seems to be at least partially in an attempt to dissect Rick's macho, protective attitude towards her, but especially with the collectibles being her nude photos, it's really hard to argue that a lot of her presence isn't just T&A XP. Regardless, while it isn't exactly Spec Ops: The Line, it's a fine commentary on violence in games, and it's something I have to give credit to the game for doing (even if it kinda fumbles the landing).
Aesthetically, it leans pretty hard into being a schlocky, B-movie sorta horror. There's tons of blood (like, a LOT of blood effects), some pretty grotesque glory kills, and the collectibles in each stage are pictures (often topless) of Rick's girlfriend Jen. If you are at all squeamish about blood, gore, dismemberment, then I would say this game is probably going to be a very hard sell for you. The main saving grace for me is that everything you're fighting (in true Splatterhouse fashion) are monsters and not humans, but they are often still humanoid, so it's not exactly like it doesn't look like tearing off a head or an arm XP. I'm not really a metal fan, so I didn't really care for the vocal tracks, but the instrumental and retro-inspired themes are pretty good. Nothing mp3 player-worthy, for the most part, but something I noticed beyond the gameplay and thought was nice (which is a heck of a lot more than I can say for how I feel when I play most other games where the music just blends into the background for the most part).
The game looks pretty good for a 2010 game, and BOY does it suffer for it. The game has some ever-present framerate issues, at least on the PS3 port. Perhaps they're a little better on the 360 version, but I wouldn't count on it being a huge difference. It doesn't usually hinder gameplay to any significant degree, but there are some fights where the game does chug to a near unacceptable level for brief periods. Definitely far from a deal-breaker on a mechanical level, but it really makes it suffer in the visuals department.
SPEAKING of the gameplay, it's Splatterhouse, so it's a brawler. It's certainly not Bayonetta, but it's certainly better than Darksiders despite still feeling a little repetitive at times. The game does a good job of varying up the conditions of when you'll fight enemies so it doesn't feel like exactly the same fight yet again despite the overall enemy variety being decent but not exactly huge. The game is fairly difficult, so you're often on your toes as Rick can't take THAT much punishment despite a generous ability to heal. You have light attacks, heavy attacks, grabs, and a super meter. The super meter allows you to do your health siphoning move, do special super attacks, as well as activate your invincible super form. As you kill enemies, the Mask absorbs blood points which can then be spent on new abilities in the pause menu. Combat flows well and feels nice and meaty despite not being super deep, which is exactly how I like my brawler combat. People who like something a bit more technical will likely feel bored by it by the end, but this was exactly my speed when it comes to this kind of thing.
The game also has a fair bit of platforming, but it often is either pointlessly easy or frustratingly difficult. In addition to 3D platforming sections where your exact position can be difficult to judge, the game also has 2D sidescrolling segments in an homage to the old Splatterhouse games. The 3D platforming sections are definitely the most frustrating, as Rick's jumping doesn't really feel super great, your windows on when you can jump are often not that huge, and the loading times are not exactly short when you die (like 10-15 seconds) (and on that note the loading screen is also this really obnoxious loop of a monster freaking out at the camera and I have no idea who thought that was a good idea but they were VERY wrong). I don't remember being nearly this frustrated with the platforming in my last playthrough, so maybe I was just more unlucky than usual this time through the game, but that was my experience through the game this time nonetheless.
Verdict: Recommended. I wasn't sure how well this game would hold up upon replaying it, but it was actually very pleasantly worth my time. I still hold this up among Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom as Namco's 3 forgotten gems of last gen. It's certainly not perfect and its certainly not going to abide by everyone's sensibilities for gore, but it's a well-realized product and also a great home-collection of the other three retro Splatterhouse games to boot! (no Wanpaku Graffiti, unfortunately). It's getting harder to find (and a bit more expensive as well) these days, but if you can find it for cheap it's definitely worth picking up.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
