Splatterhouse is an old old school brawler, the sort that keeps you locked to one plane, trudging forward and mashing the same button over and over as a procession of goons slowly make their way towards your fists. Generally speaking, not really my kind of game, but there's something about grabbing an enemy and whipping them against a wall with such force that they become no more than a stain that keeps me coming back to this one.

It's not perfect by any means. Some jumps feel awkward to line up, and the gameplay never really deviates from its incredibly simple style, though it's so short and it's hard to say it overstays its welcome. Sometimes it's nice to sit down with something that takes about a half hour to beat, just mash A and watch hellspawn explode into pools of viscera. Maybe it helps that I have such a strong affinity for slasher films, which Splatthouse does a great job of emulating the look and feel of (the Jason thing is so obvious it's almost litigious.)

I played this one for the TurboGrafx-16 and really enjoyed the look and feel of it. Wish there was more going on with it mechanically, but I still had a pretty good time.