Rick is annoyed, and when Rick's annoyed, limbs start coming off. NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe takes great gruesome pleasure in officially announcing the re-imagining of the 1988 arcade flesh-fest Splatterhouse, coming to Europe and the PAL territories in 2010 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation 3. It's a fine line between harmless and arm-less.College beefcake Rick Taylor is on the bloody trail of his beloved Jennifer who has vanished after an ill-advised visit to the eerie West Mansion. While the beasts of the other-world are doing their utmost to cramp Rick's style, he's lucky enough to stumble on the 'Terror Mask' which imbues our hero with the raw power of a freight train and the physical charms of a giant rippling rack of barbecue ribs. With a blood-curdling primal scream, the pure brute force of Rick is unleashed on the legions of foul demonic creatures, who are incidentally starting to wish they'd stayed in their nice warm hell-beds that morning.
“Today's console technology is literally decades ahead of what powered Splatterhouse when it made its first indelible bloody mark on gaming, which means we now have gore like never before for all the fans and the new generation of gamers lining up to get to grips with Rick,” said Hiroaki Ochiai, VP Sales and Marketing, NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S. “If you have the stomach for it, there's nothing more satisfying than beating a hell beast to death with its own leg.”
In Splatterhouse, Rick will stray far beyond the West Mansion in an original storyline written by Gordon Rennie, the critically lauded comic book author behind works including Necronauts and Judge Dredd. Original artwork for the game is created by artist and Marvel contributor Dave Wilkins, enhancing the impeccable comic book credentials of the game's offal-soaked universe.
Players will learn how to harness and focus the juggernaut power of Rick to perform countless brutal attacks and stop his relentless opponents gaining the upper hand, or indeed his actual hand if they succeed in ripping it off. The dynamic combat system will see Rick performing bone-smashing combos and grapples while putting a house full of makeshift weapons to good use, including the series trademark 2x4 and no shortage of limbs ripped from the unwary foes who cross his path.
Despite his heavy musculature, Rick has a new gift of agility which he employs to great effect leaping great distances and swinging from handholds in the environments, which he can now explore with abandon. If the odds are stacked unfairly against him, Rick can choose to reanimate the shattered corpses of his fallen combatants to fight alongside him, adding a new dimension to the tactical bloodshed. With no health bar, the horrific damage Rick sustains is shown on his body as torn flesh, exposed organs and lost limbs. Judicious use of the 'Terror Mask' lets Rick regenerate, affording players the pleasure of watching his bones, veins, muscles and skin grow back in real time.
Splatterhouse is scheduled for release across Europe and the PAL regions in 2010, while those of a nervous disposition would be well advised to stick to the knitting and jigsaws.