...ugh the cover box arts were awfully designed back then, I mean what were they thinking with a cartoon ghost, a Xenomorph knockoff, and a fricking squid (out all things) as the enemies! Welcome to another edition of Retro Corner and continuing the Halloween tradition, I will review the sequel to the original Splatterhouse. After the TurboGrafx flopped, Namco started to switch their console support to the Super NES and Genesis. Due to Nintendo's strict censorship, Namco moved Splatterhouse to the Genesis as Sega was more lenient about a game having gory content. By 1992, the Genesis was a success now that Sega had Sonic as its mascot against Mario and the Super NES. Unlike the original game, Splatterhouse 2 was developed from the ground up on the Genesis and became exclusive to the console. The plot follows three months later after the first game with Rick getting nightmares from his experience at the mansion. The Terror Mask in these three months constantly spoke to Rick to lure the guy back to the mansion and tells him Jennifer can still be saved. With this revelation, Rick makes his way back to the mansion where the mask gives him its power to save Jennifer. Gameplay The gameplay hasn't changed much since the Arcade game was released in 1989. It still uses Vigilante's style of gameplay which again was even outdated by the last 80's because of games like Double Dragon and Final Fight. The game is set on one 2D plane as waves of enemies from behind and in front come at the player. Just as it was in the original, the player along the levels avoids stage hazards such as spikes coming from underground, pits, and other background hazards. I find it rather annoying that Namco would continue using gameplay that most of the bigger titles like Streets of Rage didn't even use anymore. By 1989, brawlers would usually have a 3D plane and each character had different attributes and attacks from the other. Streets of Rage 2 had this style designed the best compared to other brawlers at the time and even up against Super Double Dragon. Your only attacks here is punch, kick, jump kick, and slide kick and that's it. On top of that, most of the enemies are killed in one or two hits with their only challenge is outnumbering the player. Namco should have used the current standard for brawlers during this game's development as the gameplay feels simplistic. The weapons have the same issue as the original game and it doesn't affect the difficulty in any way. You can already one-shot enemies with regular attacks so again what is the point when Rick is already overpowered. The only selling point for the use of weapons is for cheap shock value because using them causing a gore effect to be shown. Honestly, that shouldn't be your only selling point for the gameplay especially when it doesn't contribute to making me feel engaged. It also doesn't help that Mortal Kombat was in the Arcades when this came out and that had more gore in the gameplay. The bosses have the exact design flaw with using the same pattern every time you face them. Even certain parts of the level such as the Elevator sections will have the enemies use the same pattern of attacks with no change. It just makes the gameplay come off simplistic once you memorize the patterns of each level. When your only additional features are difficulty settings in the Options Menu and a password system, that's how you know Namco was being lazy. Rating: 7.0/10 Graphics/Presentation The game's graphics diffidently saw a nice upgrade from the TurboGrafx port of the original. It's because Splatterhouse 2 was developed from the ground up on the Genesis hardware rather than a water down port from the Arcades. Nothing was censored this time as gore was all over the stages and the dark environments now felt genuine. The use of gore was better this time and the stages even showed this in great detail at times. The elevator corridor came off eerie as the lights flicking on and off would add to this feeling. The fog on the dock stage leading to the mansion was given off a feeling as if something was coming. When you're inside the first part of the mansion, there is a hallway with windows and heads of goats lining up along the walls. The windows showed flashes of lightning as you walked through the hallways, adding a sense of potential terror. The goat heads only made the corridor a little more menacing especially when their eyes glowed whenever vomiting an attack. I noticed that the presentation was a lot better even compared to the Arcade original game. I also love the slow panning of the mansion area and the ropes with dead people or monsters hanging from trees in sacks gave the theme some tension. There are, of course, some issues that plague the graphics and these flaws have yet to be corrected. The art style is still bad for the enemies which most of them still have the melted skin design. Like I have said with the original game, this makes the monsters have a cheap design which in turn hardly makes them appear threatening. Most of the bosses were handled a lot better in comparison to the first game as they don't have the same bad design as the common enemies. However, a few of them did suffer from the melted skin appearance as seen with the first and fourth bosses. If there are any levels that I had issues with it was the first part of the portal stage and it felt like I was going to have a seizure. The waves of purple flicking that fast was annoying so I can't understand why they couldn't use the second part of this level's background instead. Unfortunately, this was the only part of the game that saw an improvement over its predecessor. Rating: 7.7/10 Features/Content The content is lackluster in this installment and I could tell not much thought went into this area. The game has only six stages, three difficulty settings, and a password system. The problem is the regardless what difficulty you pick will only make the gameplay repetitive. Unless you want to hit the monsters two or three times, that is the only challenge that was added. It's good that a password system was developed but aside taking you to any level, that is the only useful thing it had. Namco decided not to program any cheats for the game which could have added replay value. They could've taken Nintendo's example and programmed these cheats using that same password system from something like Metroid. Namco should have developed more levels and additional cheats as the content were bare bones at best. For a game at $49.99, it should've had at least eight lengthy levels rather than these short stages and a few cheats added to increase the replay value. Rating: 6.5/10 Final Rating The overall game felt exactly the same with no change to its outdated gameplay. When there are brawlers like Streets of Rage (the first two was already on the console by this time) and are using the current standards, the gameplay just doesn't feel engaging. Namco was still designing the challenges in a pattern for the bosses and even the common enemies. The strongest highlight is the graphic detail which saw a vast improvement from the TurboGrafx port of the original. From the textures of the sprites to the tiny details in the levels' environments such as fog and lightning as these would add to the eeriness. The gore was very graphic, especially when using a weapon against the enemies or shown on some of the backgrounds. Even the presentation saw an improvement with a slow panning of the mansion and giving the gist of the theme. The content was barely even there as any cheat codes or additional features weren't even a thought. You just can't make a game with six levels only and have no replay value regardless if there are cheats or some features like a level select. Once again, Namco basically copied and paste whatever they designed from the original and repackaged it as something new. Gameplay: 7.0/10 Graphics/Presentation: 7.7/10 Features/Content: 6.5/10 Final Rating: 7.2/10 Solid
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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