Sega Genesis #1: Splatterhouse 2

Developer: Now Production

Publisher: Namco

Release Date: 9-3-92

Splatterhouse 2 is one of those games that many people are going to like without even playing it. Just the thought of playing as a Jason stand-in who violently kills monsters is enough to garner some fans. It’s certainly one of the bloodiest Genesis games and also one that is hard to imagine appearing on Super Nintendo. Its setup can make it a little hard to analyse. Unlike most gamers I am not a huge fan of horror movies, so objectivity shouldn’t be too difficult for me. This is also a sequel that has an original on an odd system. Just like with Street Fighter, the original is on Turbografx-16 so nobody has ever played it. I remember looking for the original when I was a kid and never being able to find it at the rental stores. So what is Splatterhouse 2 really like?

Much like every other Genesis game in 1992 it is a brawler. Brawlers came in many flavors back then, and this one is more the slower side-scrolling type. It doesn’t have the constantly freezing screens like Double Dragon, but that doesn’t mean you can skip anything. Splatterhouse 2 is incredibly difficult. It does have continues and passwords which is a good thing because I don’t see anyone finishing it otherwise. Some of the levels take dozens of tries and absolute precision to get past. They all lead to insanely hard bosses that, if playing on an emulator, are the hit once and then save type. They have some very difficult patterns that are easy to mess up even when you know what you are doing. Still, I feel like this is a game I could beat on the original hardware if I had the time. It’s the fun type of difficult for the most part.

(I sure hated this boss!)

The biggest flaw is the control. I know that you are supposed to be a hulking Jason expy, but that’s no reason to make everything so sluggish. The protagonist moves very slowly to begin with, and the slow movement makes everything more difficult. Why do these old brawlers so often have bad controls? Sometimes you have to turn quickly, or duck and then jump, or jump over obstacles and then quickly attack. It’s made almost impossible to do this without taking damage. It’s a game full of cheap hits and unfair deaths which could’ve been avoided with a little tweaking of the controls. There’s no rule that says a man possessed by an evil mask has to move like he’s walking in glue. It’s frustrating because everything else is good in this game, but I can’t rate it as high because of the sluggish control. Nothing knocks down a game on my list more than bad controls. It’s like a movie with a bad screenplay. Some flaws are just harder to overcome than others.

 

Still, it is going to make it slightly into the good section. I have several Atari 2600 games together near the bottom of my good rankings, and I think I am going to put Splatterhouse 2 just a hair above them at #35. It certainly isn’t as good as Ninja Golf which I realize is another old brawler with sketchy controls. Seriously, how hard was it to make a character turn around and jump? Still it’s a good way to start out with Genesis. I can’t believe it took me 76 games to get around to Genesis. I am a big fan and have many games for it so hopefully I will write about it more in the future. It might even get a few views. You never know.

(images are from thecoverproject.net and mobygames.com)