Splatterhouse

Technically messy but definitely likeable. It's fun, satisfying, and silly schlock-horror.

In its simplicity, Splatterhouse remains faithful to its arcade roots, offering modern gamers a fresh take on a classic franchise minus the time limits and limited lives of arcade play.

A respectable action game, that manages to entertain from start to finish also thanks to a nice story with a touch of black humour.

I wasn't expecting Splatterhouse to scare me. That's what Alan Wake is for. Instead, I got an old-school beat-em-up with excessive gore, excessive violence, excessive foul language, and excessive load times – and only the latter is cause for alarm.

Splatterhouse isn't necessarily a bad game – fighting and controls work, yet it lacks things to make it memorable compared to other big titles in the genre. Limitless gore and a mysterious mask that comments on every single encounter just aren't enough to make a great game. If this setting appeals to you, though, you can safely check it out.

It's not perfect, but it hits most of its well-intentioned targets. [Feb 2011, p.74]

Although it surely can't be defined as a masterpiece, this reboot proves that the Splatterhouse franchise possesses an unquestionable potential even after 22 years from its official début. If you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, Rick's adventure, will surely be able to deliver the emotions you're searching for.

Make no bones about it, Splatterhouse is a worthwhile successor to its retro counterparts and a worthy addition to the ever-expanding action genre.

Splatterhouse's most obvious flaw is that many of the abilities that are taken for granted in a modern beat-'em-up, like invincibility frames on a dodge or useful combos, are purchasable upgrades.

The truth is that as a result of Splatterhouse design, its real strength is the combat and the humour lose their appeal with repetition. And the platforming sections... well, it's hard to be kind about them. Not without appeal, Splatterhouse is a disappointment.

Splatterhouse is a strange one because there will be times when you will be having a ball, ripping limbs from zombie clowns or shoving your hand down a gremlins throat, but at other times the frustration of dying on the side scrolling levels and having to wait ages for the game to load up again is beyond words.

While there's no getting around the fact that Splatterhouse feels like something that could have significantly benefited from another six months in the oven, it's not hard to see that the developers have solid ideas that are on the right track.

Flying body parts and buckets of blood form the basics of Splatterhouse. The soundtrack and the voice overs have been done very well but the graphics just aren't up to today's standards.

Gore, metal music and brutal combat. Splatterhouse is a good beat'em up, especially if you're a die-hard nostalgist for this franchise.

Splatterhouse successfully exploits its grisly horror aesthetic by linking it to aggressive and cathartic gameplay, but fails to build a genuinely good game around this central idea.

Splatterhouse effortlessly fulfils its remit as a shlocky, enjoyable but utterly disposable third-person brawler, which is unashamedly bloody, gratuitous, violent, sweary and brutal. While we love all of these things, they're not really delivered in an especially smart or knowing way.

Splatterhouse isn't a bad game, but it's riddled with enough inconsistencies that I can't wholeheartedly recommend it.

As a huge fan of the series it was disheartening that much of what was loved has been removed.

The majority of gamers looking for a satisfying third person action title would be best to look elsewhere.

Splatterhouse isn't an uber-terrible, unplayable game...but its damn close.

This is not a game that will score high with gamer girlfriends.

Above all else, Splatterhouse is a game that screams "competent." Specifically, it screams it with a guttural heavy metal growl over the deafening din of grinding power chords and machine gun blasts of double bass, while simultaneously vomiting a fire hydrant's worth of blood all over the screen.

The recycled brawling mechanics and frustrating platforming don't do anything to support the cliché story and no amount of blood, profanity or nudity can save Splatterhouse from mediocrity.

For Splatterhouse to be a good game it needed to have more depth. For the majority of the game's 10 chapters I simply button mashed until I could activate my special attack, and repeated that over and over.

Splatterhouse is the kind of game that simply falls victim to its troubled development cycle.

Back to the point though, Splatterhouse is actually more satisfying than the original games, even with all of the game's problems. In that way it's a successful reboot.

Splatterhouse starts off strong on a path of giddy puerility, always seeming on the cusp of offering more than misogyny and punching all the blood out of monsters - or at least giving you a sly wink to let you in on the joke - but it never actually comes.

There are definitely areas that the game could see some serious improvement, but overall, I'm not entirely disappointed in this old school revival attempt.

It's hardly the deepest game around, but its combo system, barrage of enemies, and difficulty all dovetail with the endless brutal carnage to recall, in some ways, the Ninja Gaiden remake: If you're good and quick enough, you'll avoid getting hit, but when you get cornered, you'll be walloped.

Splatterhouse is a mediocre remake of a mediocre game and once the main campaign is finished there's not much else left to do other than the Survival Arena Mode which pits you against wave after wave of enemies, which is just more of what the main game had you doing already.

This gore fest is totally spoiled by bad level design, lame AI and frustrating controls.

Take a meatchopper and use it on raw piece of meat for 10 minutes. Then ask yourself if you've enjoyed it. If YES, Splatterhouse is a perfect match for you. [Issue#199]

An uneven mix of satisfying fan service and borderline broken gameplay. [Issue#67, p.88]

If you're buying Splatterhouse (past or present) you're most likely getting it for the over the top gore and violence which granted; should be the main selling feature of the game. Unfortunately the rest of the game outside of combat and voice acting bring down the whole package so much that it becomes mundane and a chore.

What we're left with is an update that is out of date, a reimagining without enough imagination. To be this simplistic, the game needed a masterful melee system and a range of inspiring enemies; it tries, but it doesn't fully deliver on either count. [Jan 2011, p.98]

Splatterhouse is like an undercooked blood sausage. It's sloppy, gooey, and all falls apart under any real amount of pressure.