Splatterhouse (TG16) Review

NEC’s TurboGrafx-16 was a console that I ignored back when it was released. Most of my friends had an NES and either the Super Nintendo or the Sega Genesis. Only one of my friends had a TurboGrafx-16 – even then, it was his brother’s console. My exposure to the console was limited to only a handful of games, those being Bonk’s Adventure and Bomberman. While my friend’s brother did have Splatterhouse, we weren’t allowed to play it since it was “too violent”.

Splatterhouse TV commercial

Released in North America in 1990, Splatterhouse was inspired by slasher films, most notably Friday the 13th, and stars Rick, a character that highly resembles Jason Voorhees. (Though, it’s interesting to note that the North American release is censored to avoid copyright issues, with Rick having a red mask instead of the white hockey mask he wears in the Japanese release.) As Rick, you wake up wearing the mask in a mansion and brutally kill anything and everything (literally!) in your way of saving your girlfriend. To my knowledge, the amount of gore and violence in Splatterhouse had never been seen before in video games. Rick hits the monsters so hard, they either  get split in half with their guts on full display or turn into a pile of fleshy goo. It doesn’t sound violent by today’s standards, but you have to remember that gamers up to this point primarily played only family friendly games on the NES.

Game play wise, Splatterhouse is very simple – you walk right and kill things with your fist, a 2×4, or whatever else you can find on the ground along the way. I don’t think it’s held up over the years and isn’t all that much fun – the ground breaking violence doesn’t have the same impact it did back in 1990. Still, it’s worth checking out if you’re interested in how video game violence has evolved over the years.

Splatterhouse can be purchased on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console or on the iOS App Store. Buying the original TurboGrafx-16 TurboChip (or HuCard, as they’re called in Japan) off eBay can get quite expensive, as Splatterhouse is highly sought after by TurboGrafx-16 collectors.