 SEGA DRUNK! Thank you to Anthony for requesting this video via my Patreon page. Today, let's take a look at the Splatterhouse series, starting with the first game released for the arcades back in 1988. However, many people may know it best for the TurboGrafx 16 port, which in turn was ported to the Wii Virtual Console. When you only consider the gameplay, Splatterhouse is painfully simple. It's a single-player beat-em-up that takes place strictly on a 2D plane. You punch and kick and jump kick and slide kick and punch some more, and you get an occasional weapon to kill stuff with, like a shotgun or a simple 2x4. On paper, that sounds kind of dull, but as you can see, Splatterhouse is much more than the sum of its parts. That's because the overall presentation here is unlike anything that's come before it, and to this day it's got its own unique visual style that's held up really well as the signature Splatterhouse visual methodology, so to speak. Now, this may be one of those games, or one of those series, really, where when you talk about it, you have to start every sentence with, well, at the time, but I think Splatterhouse holds up great today, because of, like I said, the entire package, including the visual design and the soundtrack. The enemy and boss design here seems to be pulled straight from the brain of someone like David Cronenberg or HP Lovecraft, and the backgrounds and settings are inspired as well. The music remains legitimately unsettling and anxiety-inducing, even when playing today. Another aspect that stands out is the story. Rick and his girlfriend Jennifer head to this mansion to find out what happened to the famous parapsychologist Dr. West. And of course, things don't go well, Jennifer is abducted, Rick is knocked out and wakes up covered in blood with this crazy mask on his face, known as the Terror Mask, which was the subject of many of Dr. West's studies. So Rick, guided by the mask, so to speak, goes on a rampage destroying all kinds of hideous monsters to find his girlfriend. I may have badmouthed the gameplay earlier, and it is very bare bones, but there are at least some fun special effects put in here, like swinging a weapon like a baseball bat, and watching an enemy go splat against the background wall, a precursor to an effect you see in a game like Batman Returns for Super Nintendo. I also got to mention that Splatterhouse is a pretty short game. No saves or passwords, but that's perfectly fine since the game is simple enough. There's also a 2010 remake for PS3 and 360, but I have not played it. But I do think the original Splatterhouse is worth checking out at least once just to admire the inspired pixel art and crazy imagination behind some of the enemy designs, so check it out any way you can. A few years later came Splatterhouse 2, this time making its way to the Genesis and Mega Drive, eventually to the weak virtual console, and this is the exact same style of gameplay as the original, same punches and kicks and weapons and 2D plane and all that. That's totally fine, the game looks a bit better at Genesis, so the atmosphere and presentation here are all that much better. The gore here is just great, if you liked movies like the Evil Dead series you'd really enjoy this. The story continues three months after the first game concludes with the mask somehow speaking to Rick, yeah that's right, this evil mask is sentient and wants you to go back to the mansion saying that together they can still save Jennifer, that's some quality old school horror stuff right there, and the game's intro combined with the music is fan-freaking-tastic. So yeah as you might expect, once again Splatterhouse 2 is all style over substance. Here's the thing, I think dismissing these games as mere shock value is a mistake, I didn't see it as that because I was so amused by the creativity here, the same way I was for a game like Doom. Some of these monsters and zombies had me laughing out loud like how do you even conceive something like this? It's great, and similarly if you're playing this for the gameplay you're probably missing the point. You gotta play this for the crazy visuals, the gore, the zombies, the mutants, the flying disembodied heads, the monsters, and beating the ever-loving crap out of them with a blunt object. My only qualm with this game is that it is way, way too difficult, but there is at least a password system here to help you out. Other than that, if you like horror games and horror imagery, you can't go wrong with Splatterhouse 2. Not too long afterward came Splatterhouse 3, again for Genesis and Mega Drive and again for the virtual console. And if you were waiting for a more traditional beat-em-up with a Z-access, a la Streets of Rage, then here you go. This game is a little more advanced in terms of gameplay, but it's still a beat-em-up. We're not exactly solving logic puzzles here, but still it's nice being able to grab an enemy for a good old fashioned headbutt or a suplex once in a while. And again, I know I sound like a broken record here, but the incentive to play through this one is the crazy-ass Lovecraftian enemy design. I mean, look at this boss here. His head falls off, only to reveal another mouth with a frickin' arm coming out of it. I mean, good God, how does someone think of this stuff? It's frickin' great. I can't help but admire the ideas and the creativity. Splatterhouse 3 does have another little bit of a twist in comparison to the previous games in that the story offers multiple endings. It takes place several years after Splatterhouse 2, and Rick now has a son named David. And of course, he's abducted and all that, but interestingly, the game is structured non-linearly, so you're not just walking to the right. You're searching from room to room using a map to find your destination. But don't waste too much time, because each level has a time limit, and if you don't clear the level before that expires, that's a bad thing, and you'll get a crappy ending in return. There's four different endings you can earn, with only one of them being the true quote-unquote good ending. This game is pretty tough as well. Not as tough as the second game, but still difficult. There is at least a password system here as well, though. So yeah, I do think all three 16-bit Splatterhouse games are worth checking out today. And to reiterate, if nothing else, it's just to marvel at the crazy ingenuity of the backgrounds, the enemies, and the bosses, as well as how, well, imaginative this gore is. This isn't just shock value in my opinion, it's sheer craziness that you don't see in many other 16-bit games. I will say if you demand more substance to your gameplay, then you should probably stick to Splatterhouse 3. But if you just want some quality, evil, dead-style gore, then you can't go wrong with any of the three Splatterhouse games.