The development of Splatterhouse was originally given to Mark of Kri developers Bottlerocket Entertainment back in 2007. Namco snatched the title away early last year and gave it to the team behind 2008's Afro Samurai game. After 4 long years we can finally play Splatterhouse, but was it worth the wait ?, no.
Splatterhouse starts off more or less the same as the classic 80's arcade hit original, protagonist Rick is lying in a pool of his own blood as Dr. West drags his girl friend Jen away. An ancient mask offers Rick a deal, put on the mask and destroy Dr. West and all his creations, if this is done Rick will save his girl friend Jen. From then on the game is pretty much a bad VHS horror movie gone wrong from the 80's.
Splatterhouse rolls around in Lovecraftian themes that feel pretty tired in 2010, but the games slightly goofy sensibility takes the edge off of this somewhat. The game does nothing new and feels standard at best. The game follows the basics for a traditional third-person action game, light and heavy attacks, upgrades and better combos, quicktime kill moves, and hordes of pawn-like enemies followed by one oversized tougher enemy. This is the standard layout for a game like this and Splatterhouse doesn't even attempt to add it's own unique feeling or twist on this traditional layout for a third-person action game. 