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Splatterhouse teaser leaves everything and nothing to the imagination
Sometimes a teaser is released that makes the whole, "This game is not yet rated thing" seem a little silly. This is one of those pivotal moments in gaming history. GameTrailers has exclusively revealed the teaser trailer for the upcoming Splatterhouse reboot from Namco Bandai, publishers of cheery games such as Eternal Sonata and Pac-Man ... anything. While the trailer only shows about 2 seconds of what appears to be in-game footage we can safely say Splatterhouse will involve buckets of blood and brutality. Totally getting an "E 10+" rating. You heard it here first.
VC Friday: Sequel week
Game sequels often suffer from a reputation of being weaker than their predecessors, but that hasn't stopped Nintendo whacking a whole pile of them on the PAL Virtual Console this week. The M-rated Splatterhouse 2 leads the charge, bloodied lead pipe in hand, and is joined by Samurai Shodown II, Pitstop II, and Ecco Jr. (okay, so that's not a sequel in the strictest sense of the term, but a spin-off for the kids). Here's what that little lot will cost you: Ecco Jr. -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points Splatterhouse 2 -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points Samurai Shodown II -- Neo Geo -- 900 Wii Points Pitstop II -- Commodore 64 -- 500 Wii Points * * As usual, Australia misses out on the Commodore 64 game.Footage of all four is past the break -- try listening to six minutes of Pitstop II's engine effects without going insane.
VC Monday Madness: SPLATTERHOUSE 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog
Oh, how good it feels to be back. After a brief hiatus (and slight tweak), VC Monday Madness is back and ready for action. Waste no time and get into the video above, then head past the break for even more.
Retail and download releases for the week of August 4th
Wait, what's this? Where is your precious VC Monday Madness? Relax, it's still here, we've just consolidated things a bit. Now, all of the releases each week for the Wii, whether they be retail disc titles or downloads, are going to be located in one handy post. This frees us up to do an extra news post or what have you during the day, hopefully bringing you even more of the content you crave. So, head past the break for the details and be sure to come back later for our VC Monday Madness video wrap-up. Happy Monday!%Gallery-21447%
Virtual Console update adds speed and gore, lacks swords
There's something about this week's update to the Wii's Virtual Console that just seems off. Maybe it's the odd partnering of a blue marsupial and a lumber-swinging madman, or perhaps it's the noticeable absence of Samurai Shodown II, which SNK said last week would be among this morning's additions. While you work out some conspiracy theories, let's take a look at what new oldies are available. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Master System, 500 Wii Points): While Sega's 16-bit original has been available for download for a long while, Sonic's 8-bit port changes things up with a handful of new stages, gameplay differences, and cruddier graphics. Splatterhouse 2 (Sega Genesis, 800 Wii Points): There's many ways that we could spend our time waiting to slip on the Terror Mask and bash demons' brains out in Namco Bandai's Splatterhouse redux, but really, what better way is there than to play through the arcade original's 16-bit sequel? The only right answer here is none.
VC Tuesday: The Infernal Temptations of the Mask
The marquee release on the Japanese Virtual Console this week is Namco's sequel to its arcade/PC Engine horror-brawler Splatterhouse, in which Rick returns to the ruins of West Mansion, only to find -- he's trapped in the mask that makes him awesome once again! And there was another mansion hidden right behind the first one! How convenient! Nobody wants to play Splatteremptylot.Also added this week: Seirei Senshi Spriggan, an anime-based shooter from Compile, and Dig Dug, which is Dig Dug. Dig Dug (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points) Splatterhouse Part 2 (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points Seirei Senshi Spriggan (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
Namco Bandai revives Splatterhouse for 2009
Click for high-resolution image.Bamco Namdai, er, Namco Bandai has recently announced the resurrection of their horror franchise called Splatterhouse. It was initially a "gross-out" style of horror. Lots of dismemberments, large doses of blood for no real reason ... you know. B-movie stuff. A new title in the franchise is set to hit in 2009, boasting a storyline crafted by comic book writer Gordon Rennie. The premise? Boy seeks kidnapped girlfriend, finds mask that gives him power, violence/hilarity ensues. We presume.Your tools of destruction are your bare fists, initially. A dynamic combat system will let you take out enemies in a number of different ways -- then you can use their limbs as weapons. Or make some weapons on your own out of whatever's around the area. You can revive defeated demons to help you solve puzzles as well as assist in destruction (slightly nostalgic feeling towards Chaos Legion).The gore is updated now, too. If you're overrun by enemies, expect your limbs and skin to fly off, exposing internal organs. Sound meaty? Call upon the power of your mask (insert " Smmmmokin' " reference here) to bring your flesh back to your body in real-time. We'll stay cautiously optimistic, but these types of games normally fall flat on execution. Lookin' at you, Nightmare Creatures 2. Should've been more like the first.%Gallery-24053%
Splatterhouse to feature regeneration mechanic, storyline by Gordon Rennie
Click for MOAR gorno! Namco Bandai made its Splatterhouse redo even more official today, revealing that Killzone scriptwriter Gordon Rennie (better known for Judge Dredd and Necronauts comics, among many others) has signed on to help retell the story of Rick, a college student who attempts to rescue his girlfriend from the evil depths of the sinister West Mansion, only to be transformed by his own inner demons when he dons the ... Terror Mask. Rennie's "original storyline" will deviate from the 1988 arcade game as Rick ventures "beyond the mansion" and into the Sega Genesis sequels to "the ends of the world." But let's be real, this sorta game lives and dies by its blood, guts and gore; not plot twists or character development. Enter: BottleRocket Entertainment.%Gallery-23980%
See the first character model from Splatterhouse
Like good bloggers, we masked our complete lack of excitement for a new Splatterhouse in a milky coating of sarcastic enthusiasm. But after seeing the above character model for the game's (we're betting anti-)hero Rick Taylor ... we kind of wish we'd laid it on a bit thicker. To remove our remaining layers of subtlety: We're saying it looks bad, or, at the very least, underwhelming.But there, in the distance, is that a ray of hope? Indeed it is, friends, because we also learned today that Splatterhouse is being created by bottleRocket, a developer founded by the team that made the excellent Mark of Kri and sequel Rise of the Kasai. We're still not crazy about the license, but we're definitely more intrigued than we were a few minutes ago.
First screen of new Splatterhouse emerges
The first screen of the recently revealed revival of Namco Bandai's Splatterhouse has been uncovered, thanks to 1Up. The new Splatterhouse is set to release in the middle of 2009 and is being developed by BottleRocket (Mark of Kri, Rise of the Kasai). Details surrounding the game are sparse at the moment, apart from the revelation that the game's protagonist, Rick (pictured above) will be making a return. More details -- and presumably many more images -- will be coming in the June issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly.
Splatterhouse resurrected for 'next-gen' consoles
When we think of great gaming experiences that are long overdue for a revival, only one name comes to mind. No, not RocketKnight Adventures (good call though) ... it's Splatterhouse. If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times: storytelling in games needs an injection of creativity! So what better property to invest our trust in than Namco Bandai's Splatterhouse? It's got it all: an evil mansion (the titular Splatterhouse, naturally); a Friday the 13th-style hockey mask ... err, "terror mask"; and a unique protagonist named Rick Taylor fighting gross, puss-filled baddies in a supernaturally enhanced quest to save his girlfriend.With that said, we're sure you'll relish the news – literally bursting through the cover of next month's EGM – that Splatterhouse has had an ancient Mayan sacrificial mask strapped to its corpse and been resurrected for "next-gen" consoles, on a mission to retrieve money straight out of our wallets. But really, Splatterhouse?
Our Splatterhouse Exams
New screens of Namco Bandai's classic-gaming trainer, Our Video Game Exams, reveals a few more gems pulled off of Namco's shelf and excerpted for the DS. Most notable is the bizarre, super-deformed Famicom Splatterhouse game, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. The challenges seen in the screens include picking up some candy and getting a shotgun.Other new games include the Famicom version of Family Jockey, which looks shockingly vintage, especially compared to the Wii version, Namco Classic II golf, and Dragon Spirit. But it's the inclusion of Wanpaku Graffiti that really has us interested. How obscure are the included games going to get? The more comprehensive a Namco history the game is, the better, as far as we're concerned.
The VC Advantage: Spooky Halloween edition
The internet has made it easy to find cheats for games, but we miss the tips pages from game magazines, when the discovery of a new code could inspire you to go back to an old game. These codes aren't exactly new, but oldness is the essence of the Virtual Console! We're bringing back the classic codes every week on The VC Advantage.Today is the perfect day to look at some of the spookier games on the Virtual Console, and then help you face your fears and take them on. It would certainly have been a good day to talk about Ghosts 'n Goblins games, as well, but ... we already did that. Uh, as part of our Halloween special, here's a link to that old VC Advantage! It's ... uh, back from the dead!Luckily, awkward backlinks aren't the only thing we can present for our Halloween edition of The VC Advantage. There are still some gruesome games we have yet to cover! And that means that it's now totally scary time! Turn out all the lights and stuff! We're making weird "oooooo" spooky noises, but you can't hear it, because we'll have written this hours ago by the time you're reading it, and also we're not in the same room as you!Splatterhouse (TG16)Hard mode: What's scarier than a game in which the main character dies, over and over and over again, forced to relive the same horrific period of a few seconds before he's ripped apart yet again by disgusting, nightmarish monsters? Probably a lot of stuff. Dentistry comes to mind. Loneliness. But what's scarier in the context of video game alterations caused by input of preprogrammed button sequences? Probably still some stuff. To access hard mode, hold Select at the title screen until the word HARD appears. Castlevania (NES)Hard mode: Yes, it's another hard mode, but this one seems pretty notable. We had no idea that Castlevania even had one of these, and we doubt anyone else ever would have were it not for cheat devices and ROM hacking-- because you access Castlevania's hard mode by completing the game, and that is impossible. Of all the games to put a hard mode in. Also we heard that if you finish the hard mode, Koji Igarashi will ride a Medusa head to your house and give you a million dollars. And nobody will ever know if that's true.Kid Chameleon (GEN)Level skip: Kid Chameleon isn't really that scary, but it is about dressing up in costumes. And that is the true meaning of Halloween (also, candy, which is delicious, when eaten.) To skip straight to the last boss, find some blogs above the flag in the Blue Lake Woods level and jump to the last one. Then press down, right, jump, and special.[Codes via GameFAQs]
Virtually Overlooked: Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.We recently discussed Mighty Final Fight for the NES, which was a weird, super-deformed remake of Final Fight done in a semi-parody style. It managed to competently shrink down the Final Fight gameplay, adapt it to a completely different style and still be fun.Namco executed a similar NES remake of a beat-em-up in 1989, using as a base a much less likely candidate for chibi-ism: the pioneering horror game Splatterhouse.We miss parody remakes, actually.
VC Tuesday: The Super Splatter Soldier
This week, Japan got three games that we don't have yet in the US-- no surprise there. But we already had Splatterhouse on our Virtual Console, so we totally win in that one specific competition that isn't really a competition.The non-Splatterhouse games include another shooter, a Paleolithic puzzle game that we'd never heard of, and a completely awesome ninja game that we'd love to see over here ASAP. And, since it did come out over here (as Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master), we are not crazy to expect it! Star Soldier (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii points) Flappy (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii points) The Super Shinobi II (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii points) Splatterhouse (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii points)
VC Monday Madness: Beyond Oasis, SPLATTERHOUSE [update 1]
Without any kind of press release, we've been left in the dark for hours, waiting to see what Virtual Console games are available for download. Now that it is past the usual time games are available, we decided to hop on and check what's there for download. What we found surprised us, as two excellent titles are available in download, confirming previous rumors they would emerge on the service. Here's what is on your plate today: Beyond Oasis - Sega Genesis - 1 player - 800 Wii Points SPLATTERHOUSE - TurboGraphix16 - 1 player - 600 Wii Points Excitebike - NES - 1 player - 500 Wii Points So, will you be downloading either of these games? As usual, be sure to stop back later for our impressions.[Update: Nintendo sent word that Excitebike is also available. It was not live the time we checked.][Thanks, VidGuy!]
VC Friday: Climbing turtles
Another week and another round of old school games for your weekend enjoyment. This time, there's some variety, so we'll hope that everyone who is so inclined can find something worth playing. As a special bonus, they're all toward the lower end of Virtual Console pricing, which isn't bad, either. Any of these tickle your proverbial fancy? Ice Climber (NES) -- 500 Wii points Splatterhouse (TurboGrafx) -- 600 Wii points Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) -- 500 Wii points
Splatterhouse, Double Dungeons due next month on VC
It's time to don your Terror Mask and grab a chainsaw. According to Hudson's Virtual Console list, next month will bring rise to Splatterhouse and Double Dungeons on the Nintendo Wii.Splatterhouse is a classic gorefest, full of blood and guts and severed hands that flick you off (an homage to Evil Dead II, to be sure). It's a welcome addition the Virtual Console and one of the few titles guaranteed to earn an M rating. Double Dungeon is a first-person RPG similar to Wizardry.Sega also recently announced four titles, including Vectorman and Beyond Oasis, for release soon, likely in March.
Splatterhouse does the Monster Mash onto US/EU Virtual Console
The Virtual Console is really starting to heat up! We can't believe it, but it looks like American and European fanboys are going to get a great game before Japan does: Namco's gory Turbografx-16 brawler Splatterhouse. This is definitely one of the three best games ever about a masked parapsychology major trapped in a haunted mansion and forced to destroy lots of disgusting monsters with a board, and it's coming sometime in March!We're also getting Double Dungeons-- but as Turbografx-16 lovers, we're trying to put a positive spin on this news article, and would prefer to talk more about Splatterhouse.What Turbografx-16 games are you waiting for? We're dying for Blazing Lazers and China Warrior ourselves.[Via Siliconera]
