Splatterhouse 2
released on Sep 03, 1992
Three months have gone by since the events of the first game. The Terror Mask, which has reformed after breaking at the climax of the first game, appears to Rick and repeatedly tempts him to "go back to the house", telling him that Jennifer "doesn't have to die". It closes by telling Rick "You need me.". Rick succeeds in rescuing Jennifer, and the House sinks into the bottom of the river.
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Really a downgrade compared to the previous one, the game is uglier, incredibly difficult and uninspired, I honestly think that even the Famicom game looks more fun than this one.
Un paso atras del original.
Achei pior que o primeiro, principalmente pois sua dificuldade ter sido elevada ( pra mim seria impossivel terminar sem save state) , tirando isso mantem as mesmas qualidades e defeitos do primeiro, mas tendo uma maior variedade de levels, só recomendo para quem curte jogos retro e querem dar uma olhada em um dos primeiros jogos de terror dos consoles domesticos.
It's even worse than the original
I ended up really liking the first Splatterhouse, so it was a little bit of a bummer bouncing off its sequel. Unlike its arcade predecessor, Splatterhouse 2 is a console exclusive, and it feels like the devs worked overtime to bump up the game difficulty so the people playing it at the time couldn't beat it in a weekend.
The main character, Rick, was always slow and ponderous to control in the first game, but it generally felt tuned to match your move set. In Splatterhouse 2, I was really straining against what the game design expected of me versus how sluggish Rick is to control. Enemies felt quicker and more aggressive this time around, and often I felt like I didn't have enough time to react and move Rick out of harm's way before eating shit. It's one of those games that really incentivize rote memorization to beat some segments (looking at the elevator segments in particular). There's also less enemy variety overall than in Splatterhouse 1, so you're going to be punching the same weird looking-alien guys a lot.
When you combine that with the fact that you have limited lives, and can't pump virtual quarters into MAME or whatever to breeze past segments, it just compounded the frustration for me. You're going to die and get booted to the beginning of the stage a lot.
I actually wished I like this game more, because there are definitely some cool parts. The bosses in general are more interesting than the first game (outside of one or two really horrendously bullshit ones), and the music continues to be stellar. The plot is also pretty basic, but I do like that it deals with un-fucking Rick's life after the events from the first game. These games do tell a complete story over all three of its installments, which is rare to see in beat-em-ups. Overall though, this was a game I enjoyed way more watching someone else play on Youtube.
The main character, Rick, was always slow and ponderous to control in the first game, but it generally felt tuned to match your move set. In Splatterhouse 2, I was really straining against what the game design expected of me versus how sluggish Rick is to control. Enemies felt quicker and more aggressive this time around, and often I felt like I didn't have enough time to react and move Rick out of harm's way before eating shit. It's one of those games that really incentivize rote memorization to beat some segments (looking at the elevator segments in particular). There's also less enemy variety overall than in Splatterhouse 1, so you're going to be punching the same weird looking-alien guys a lot.
When you combine that with the fact that you have limited lives, and can't pump virtual quarters into MAME or whatever to breeze past segments, it just compounded the frustration for me. You're going to die and get booted to the beginning of the stage a lot.
I actually wished I like this game more, because there are definitely some cool parts. The bosses in general are more interesting than the first game (outside of one or two really horrendously bullshit ones), and the music continues to be stellar. The plot is also pretty basic, but I do like that it deals with un-fucking Rick's life after the events from the first game. These games do tell a complete story over all three of its installments, which is rare to see in beat-em-ups. Overall though, this was a game I enjoyed way more watching someone else play on Youtube.
I'm giving it an extra half point only because of the visuals.
It's still the same basic beat em' up experience from the last one, but this one felt worse, the enemy placement and patterns are even more unforgiving, your own movements are so slow and stiff compared to them that it gets more and more frustrating, especially knowing that if only the reaction time between animations was slightly better this game could be more bearable.
There's also the fact that a lot things feel lazier, there's even less enemy variety and the traps are just... there.
I wish this played better, I wish I liked this more, the bosses look fantastic and the game is still a homage to the gory horror and slasher movies that I like so much, but the cheap things that I can forgive from those movies and even elevate them for me do not save this game at all.
It's still the same basic beat em' up experience from the last one, but this one felt worse, the enemy placement and patterns are even more unforgiving, your own movements are so slow and stiff compared to them that it gets more and more frustrating, especially knowing that if only the reaction time between animations was slightly better this game could be more bearable.
There's also the fact that a lot things feel lazier, there's even less enemy variety and the traps are just... there.
I wish this played better, I wish I liked this more, the bosses look fantastic and the game is still a homage to the gory horror and slasher movies that I like so much, but the cheap things that I can forgive from those movies and even elevate them for me do not save this game at all.