First time Completion: Splatterhouse (TG16)

US Release: April 21, 1990
First time beaten: June 2012

Though I'm aware of the platform, and some of the associated classics, I never did delve into Turbografx games, even with the Virtual Console service. Recently, I decided to play a TG game, and randomly gave Splatterhosue a shot. I heard of the series beforehand, but don't know much about it aside from its horror, gory tone. It seems to have a bit of a cult following, but I expected little of out of it. It didn't turn out to be that great, but it's strangely enjoyable.

The game is a very simplistic beat-em-up where I can only move left to right, punch a baddie, and pick up the occasional weapon. I can't move up or down, and the controls can certainly feel stiff. It's a short game too, but the later half feels a bit rushed. The weapon pickups are nifty, but there were no more of them on the last 3 levels. Some like the shotgun seem like wasted potential when it's only used for a five minute level. The final level and boss also felt very anti-climatic, after having been through some literal hell, and went through a lot of lives and continues just to reach the climax.

In spite of the faults, there is something I find charming about it that made me stick to it. Maybe I was just in a mood for something that simple where I simply wanted to move left-to-right and beat up the undead with no fancy movesets. And it's probably because I never delved deeply into the platform, but I find the visuals to be impressive for the time. I dig the variety of enemies, and the way the way they animate when they just fall apart after killing them. Maybe it's because I also I never saw the arcade version, which has more content and greater gore. I suppose ignorance is bliss since this allowed me to enjoy the TG version more for what it is.

I'm not really a big fan of beat-em-ups, and don't know why some randomly just stick to me. Classics like Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, or Final Fight (except 3) seem to hold my little attention, yet worse games like Splatterhouse do. Maybe the game just has some strange magic to it or it's evilness tampered with my mind into liking it.