Splatterhouse

Platform: TurboGrafx-16
Developer: Namco
Released: 1990
Genre: Beat 'em up

The Game
Rick and Jennifer, a couple of good ol' university kids, get caught out in a storm and decide to take refuge at the scariest, creepiest, most weirdest private residence in the entire town, West Mansion. Once inside, they are beset upon by numerous monsters who mortally wound Rick and steal away with Jennifer for undoubtedly nefarious purposes. Rick wakes up in the basement of the house some time later, alive thanks to a sentient object known as the Terror Mask (or "Hell Mask", if you live in a non-wussified country), which binds itself to his face and transforms him into a hulking monster. With the power of the mask at his disposal, Rick starts to tear his way through West Mansion and the monsters that inhabit it in search of his girlfriend . . .

Splatterhouse is the first of a trilogy and the only one of which was on the TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem, with the other two being made for the Sega Genesis. A remake is currently in the works and due out for the PS3 and XBox 360 later this year, and supposedly the remake package will also include all three of the original games.

Due to the violent nature of the game, a lot of content was either changed or removed outright when it was ported over from Japan. This includes swapping weapons out (a meat cleaver became a 2x4, for instance), toned down violence, and the removal of a few screams, amongst other things. But don't worry, there's still a fair amount of gore and horror to be had.

The Characters
Rick is a university student who nearly gets killed, gets fused with a sentient mask that turns him into a brutal monster, and rips West Mansion a new one.

Jennifer is Rick's damsel in distress girlfriend. She gets kidnapped by monsters at the beginning of the game.

Dr. West is a parapsychologist who's been missing for a while, owns West Mansion, and only gets a mention in the backstory. He might be the end boss of the game, but there's really nothing to indicate whether that's true, or if it isn't, what might have actually happened to him. For all we know, the dude's just off having a vacation somewhere, blissfully unaware that his house became a creepy spook joint while he was out.

The Terror Mask is a self-aware mask that can make people mutate into giant super-strong monsters, and it seems to have plans and motivations of its own, but it's left openended as to what those might be.

The monsters . . . man, I don't know. Maybe they'll explain it more in the other two games. And even if they don't, it seems that the remake will delve further into the mysteries of the mansion, at least. But as far as this game goes, all that's revealed is that they are monsters and they aren't very nice.

The characterization is so thin as to be virtually non-existent. The people are more or less just props for the setting.

The Writing
Having the main protagonist also be the main savage monster of the story is a nice spin, but in the end this is basically your standard low-grade horror movie plot. Monsters take girl, hero battles monsters, so on and so forth. There's a minor twist here and there, but nothing too far out there.

And this is one of those games where that's all it really needs. If more story gets added on in the sequels, that's cool, but this game is more about splattering monsters against the wall than some hoity-toity storyline.

The Gameplay
Pretty straightforward and, in some cases, somewhat disappointing fare. Rick can punch. He can jump. He can kick. He can jump and kick. He picks up the occasional weapon, but they only last for the one level they're picked up on, and they're more just for the cool splatter animations than actual necessities most of the time. There's one, the wrench, that's only found in one spot and can only be used once, as a throwing weapon. Since at that spot in the level there's usually one of the nasty ghoulies right within punching distance anyway, it's fairly pointless to even bother picking the damn thing up.

The Challenge
The game only rarely takes cheap shots, but when it does it can be particularly annoying, especially the ones dealt out by the final boss. Most enemies can be taken out by a single hit as long as you've got a weapon in your hand, and even when you don't have a weapon most of them only need two or three hits at most.

The main challenge, as with a lot of lazier games of the mid eighties to mid nineties, is remembering where everything is. The baddies only rarely switch up their positions from one run through to another, so making it through any given level without getting hit is just a matter of rote memorization. It's fairly noticeable throughout the rest of the game, but it's most blatant in the very last level where all you have to do is time your jumps over burning logs and your dashes under burning guys as they jump over you. No punches or kicks until you reach the final boss . . . just the simple rigors of an obstacle course.

The game is pretty challenging, but not for good reasons.

The Sights
Before this, I had never played a game on the TurboGrafx-16 before. To be truthful and to my shame, I was only barely aware that the system even existed at all. But having gotten a look at Splatterhouse, I'm looking forward to getting to know it. The animations are a bit weak (Rick doesn't really jump so much as he stands still and then suddenly launches up in the air without moving his legs at all), but the sprites and backgrounds are pretty well rendered, almost up to the quality of a Genesis game. The splattered forms of the monsters were pretty neat looking, and the entire house was well decked out with a grisly horror feel.

The Sounds
There were a few voice bits in there, which I wasn't really expecting, mostly extremely short phrases from Jennifer. The music was alright, getting across the sort of B horror movie vibe that most of the game seemed to be going for.

The Bottom Line
Eeeeeeeeh . . . I won't say I'm sorry that I played Splatterhouse or anything, but I really just don't feel it offered anything unique or interesting enough in a beat 'em up game. The fact that I know that I got a watered down version of the game is also sort of a turn-off, making it feel just that much blander, as the violence is supposed to be the main draw of the game.

Overall, it was an average game at best, worth one play through but not any more than that. Hopefully the sequels have some more substance to them, or at least more style. I think I'll also seek out an unfiltered version of the game to see if the changes really made a big difference.

Comix Zone

Platform:  Sega Genesis
Developer:  Sega Technical Institute
Released:  1995
Genre:  Beat 'em up

The Game
Sketch Turner is just your regular rock musician who decides to try and make a comic book when he's suddenly zapped by lightning, which somehow causes him and the big bad of his story to switch places!  Now trapped within the pages of Comix Zone, Sketch has to make his way to the end of the comic, all the while dodging the obstacles put into his path by the sinister Mortus!

Comix Zone is the brain child of a fellah named Peter Morawiec, who first presented the idea to Sega back in 1992 via a concept video called "Joe Pencil Trapped in the Comix Zone".  You can check it out here, which I highly recommend, 'cause it's pretty damn slick looking.  Oh, and by strange coincidence, the movie Cool World was released that same year.  Hmmm . . .

The Characters
Sketch Turner is a typical 90's rock musician/comic artist, and his wardrobe does everything it can to confirm this fact.  He's even got the ponytail and small, round sunglasses.  I can imagine him touring from coffeehouse to coffeehouse, belting out the sounds of alternative rock in between righteous sessions with his sketch pad.  Seriously, dude.

Roadkill is his pet rat, who is also trapped within the pages of Comix Zone and helps Sketch out by finding hidden items, flipping hard to reach switches, and acting as bait for certain baddies.  He's a pretty cool little dude.  Respect the rat, yo.

Alyssa Cyan is the requisite hot chick of the game.  She is the first of the comic's characters to greet Sketch, ignoring his protests in order to send him out on a dangerous mission to defeat the mutants.  She spends most of the adventure back at the New Earth Empire base, radioing Sketch to give him helpful pointers of how to get past particularly difficult spots.

And finally there's Mortus, the leader of the mutants . . . aliens . . . or whatever they are.  Though Sketch doesn't actually face him until the very end of the game, Mortus' presence is still felt throughout as he uses his unique perspective to draw new enemies and other obstacles in Sketch's path, all in a bid to destroy Sketch, become real, and start wreaking havoc in the real world.  He's a bit of a bastard.

The Writing
The story of Comix Zone is somewhat interesting in that there are actually two stories going on at once.  On the one hand, we've got the main story of Sketch and Mortus switching universes and Sketch's quest to get to the end of the comic and get back out again.  And on the other hand, we've got the story of the comic itself, a tale about the human race mounting a defense against invading monster alien mutants.

But who cares, right?  The story is basically just a prop for the game's gimmick and to push the action along.  Still, for all that, it's a very well constructed and entertaining gimmick/action-pushing prop.

Almost all of the writing in the game is conveyed through the use of caption boxes and word balloons . . . 'cause you're in a comic, get it?  It's a pretty neat conceit, actually, right up until some of the word balloons end up hanging right over the action and you're just swinging blindly, hoping you're hitting that nasty mutant alien monster thing instead of the other way around.

The Gameplay
Combat is quick, intense, and nicely intuitive.  There are a surprisingly wide number of combos you can use that don't take horrifically convoluted sequences of button mashings to execute.  It's all pretty simple, moving everything along lightning fast while also being satisfyingly varied.  A lot of fighting games could probably learn a thing or two from Comix Zone, in my opinion.

The item system is pretty basic, but that's all it really needs to be.  You can pick up three items at a time (with one of the items generally being Roadkill, when you haven't got him out and scampering about and he hasn't run off a cliff somewhere), most of which do some sort of damage to enemies and/or objects.  Usually you won't find more objects than you can carry, so that limitation isn't a very harsh mistress.

Sketch's movements are pretty fluid, but he has a tendency to be a little too broad in his gestures.  One wrong tap of the directional pad can mean the difference between a living Sketch standing five feet away from a landmine and a crispy fried corpse sitting on top of the remains of an exploded landmine.

The Challenge
If I had to rate it on a scale of one to ten, I'd place Comix Zone's challenge rating at a definite AW HELL NAW.

I mean come on, guys, I'm pretty sure we were supposed to have left the Nintendo Hard games behind about three or four years before this, right?  I shouldn't be playing a mid-90's game and be wanting to throw my controller and myself out the window!

And what really sucks is how much of the difficulty curve is obviously artificial.  The fact that the bad guys are blocking gods from the very start is bad enough, but the fact that destroying objects - doors, crates, etc., many of which you are absolutely required to destroy in order to continue progressing through the game - causes your life meter to drain . . . well, that definitely takes first prize in the "Cheap Bullshit" competition.

When the developers start throwing in things that you have to do that also hurt you, then you know they've just run out of ways to make their game naturally challenging and just don't care about creating a balanced and enjoyable experience for the player whatsoever.  They might as well just come to my house and slap me in the face personally.  I really don't think it would be any more insulting.

The Graphics
Damn, but this is a pretty game.  It really looks like you're fighting your way through a comic book.  It's not quite as fine looking as the concept movie I linked up above, but I figure that's pretty understandable, and it looks damn fine enough as it is.  Sadly it does have a few minor glitches here and there, but overall every stage is beautiful to behold.

The Music
Man, to be honest, I don't really know.  I was too busy fighting for my life to notice the music very much.  What little I did catch seemed pretty rockin', and having looked up some background stuff on the game, it seems that they developers were proud enough of the soundtrack to release it on CD back when such things weren't as commonplace as they are now.

The Bottom Line
Comix Zone is one of those games that I love to hate and hate to love and all that nonsense.  It's a wonderful idea, beautiful setting, and interesting game mechanic that gets dragged down by it's horrific difficult level and brutal brevity.  It plays much like an arcade game in many ways, like it was designed specifically to eat up the quarters of bratty little kids who have been let loose at the local mall.  But it isn't an arcade game.  It was made specifically for console gaming, and it should have therefore been easier (or at least been given a gentler difficulty curve) and longer.  I'd definitely be willing to play it again, but never to actually beat it again . . . just tooling around in the first couple of stages would be fine for me, leaving my blood pressure more or less unmolested.