VGR Splatterhouse Part 2

Sorry for the delay :P
This one took me longer than I expected!
It sure was a pain in the a$$ to finish this one, I was kinda stuck in the middle and then in the end of the game...

Anyhow! Here's the 2nd Splatterhouse review!
(don't worry about the review of the "other" Splatterhouse, it will come out later on, at some point)

VGR: Splatterhouse Part 2
From Namco
Played on Megadrive
Also available on Virtual Console

Type Sidescrollin' beat 'em all
Year 1992

The sequel to Splatterhouse!
Splatterhouse 2, also called part 2, is exactly what you'd expect from a sequel. Mostly similar, longer, harder, a bit better looking and pretty much respects what came before and tries expanding upon it.
Let's have a look, shall we?

Rick has some unfinished business with the Terror Mask....

Three months have passed since Rick escaped from the mansion during the events of the first game.
He has litterally gone through hell and back and lost his girlfriend Jennifer in the process...or does he?
Since his escape, the Terror Mask, which helped him a lot in the past let him go... Rick tried to go back to a normal life...but he keeps dreaming about Jennifer... Did she really died, possessed by the demons previously? Are those just dream or is Jen really calling to Rick through his dreams?

The Terror Mask calls to Rick as well, and offers Rick the chance to find and bring back Jennifer's soul into her body.

Like Splatterhouse 1, the story is told through in-game animations and "cutscenes". It simplistic and gets the things going on.
Unlike the SNES, most Megadrive games didn't really had in-game text anyway! (which is a good thing, in my eyes, since most games weren't translated in a lot of countries and it only required our imagination, not english lessons :P)

In this game, Rick goes back to the old burnt mansion, from the first game (which was destroyed in Splatterhouse 1's climax) and tries to find his way to the second hidden mansion. Yep. There's a new mansion! Or is it the "spirit" of the original one which re-spawned away? Who knows...

With his Mask on, Ricks' the ultimate slasher-monster!

Splatterhouse 2 picks up just where the first one left, it's only natural the gameplay did the same!
This game doesn't require a lot of buttons, but it does get tricky in its own way.
You can still only jump and attack. But it's quite enough for this kind of game!

Rick punches monsters to death and made them explode under his fists. He can kicks and slide-kicks them too if you jump or try a little tricky input.
There's also a helluva lot of different weapons/objects to use. A bat, some wood, a chainsaw (sadly just for a boss sequence..), a shotgun, etc..

It's mostly similar grounds.
And it may also be this game's problem...
The game came out in '92. Beat 'em all were more complexes by then! Compared to Streets of Rage, for example, this is pretty linear... No 3D plan (not real 3D, but being able to move foreground or background), just one attack button, no special moves, nothing...
I do like it, but it's evident this game felt a bit dated at the time, specially on a 16-bit system!

Killing giant bloody baby-monsters with a chainsaw! This game has no moral :/

The game is 8 stages long. Well, some stages are pretty long, others are very short!
It's pretty much the same as Splatterhouse 1. Sidescrolling levels, some with "forced sidescrollin' action".
There's a ton, and I mean a ton of bosses in this game! Some levels with multiple boss fights!

The game while still being influenced by horror movies, tries to stay away from tributes and references this time. Enormous ugly monsters, flyin' heads, giant bloody babies, and more! There's still some iconic monsters, like a H.P.Lovecraft-ysh monster in the lake, zombies, etc..
There seems to be a return of the mirror image-double of Rick from Splatt-1, only this time he's more monster than Rick and has a burnings disfigured face.
Oh, and it's not sure, since there's no dialogues in-game, but it seems we finally meet Dr. West in the game, as a crazy mutated boss throwing potions at Rick!

As you know or can see by the pictures here, The Terror Mask has changed.
He's evolved into something different.
Not by censure like some might think. But by design. The game series was planned with sequels in mind, like classic slasher flicks. The mask is turning into something else... Almost...controlling Rick?!
From time to time, you'll hear it talking (well, more like laughing) in story sequences.

All Hail To The King, baby!

There's a lot of stuff going on in this sequel.
The game tries some original ideas, with a boat boss fight, an elevator, recurring main monsters...
But it feels more like a Splatterhouse-again than a proper sequel.

At least the game's pretty hard! I had more trouble with this one, even with infinite continues than with the first game and it's limited continues!!

The music of Splatterhouse 2 is probably my favorite aspect of it!
Simply put, incredible!!
Namco's never really been big in the 8-bit and 16-bit era (before Tekken), apart from their classic Pacman, they weren't really well known nor well loved. But their production didn't have to bow before their competitor's, like Capcom or Konami. Even if gameplay or graphic-wise, it wasn't on top of the market, musically it was on par, if not even better! Splatterhouse's got some pretty catchy and well played musics in it!
The game doesn't seem to have a lot of music tracks, and repeats some themes here and there...but it still rocks those 16-bit audio chips!

In the end, Rick and Jennifer, brought back in body and soul from the depths of the new mansion, escape from all the madness and the demons trying to bring her back...
The 2nd house disappear in the lake...
And Ricks leaves the Mask behind..

"As long as that mask remains...it can happen again...,,

Overall, Splatterhouse 2 is the proud successor of the arcade classic Splatterhouse. It's very similar to Part 1. But, let's be honest, if you like cake wouldn't you like to have more of it?

It's main problem is being too simplistic graphically and gameplay-wise, specially for a 16-bit game! There were a ton of excellent beat'em alls at the time... At least, Splatterhouse had something unique going in for it. It was very gory and not censored at all, which is quite something for the time! Remember, Splatterhouse 1 kinda forced the creation of gaming ratings anyway!

This sequel was specially developed for the Megadrive, there wasn't an arcade version for this one. The game wasn't censored this time. But there's a slight original difference between versions again. The Japanese version, which was the last one to come out, has a little variation in the Terror Mask. It seems to be the Red mask from the US port of the TurboGrafx, only, colored in white this time. So in the japanese Splatterhouse 2, Rick doesn't wear the Hockey/Skull evolved Terror Mask, but a cleaner with a slight different shape mask... Strange!...

Anyway, it's a very fun and gory beat'em all. Pretty difficult some times, you gotta learn to beat this one by trial and error (my favorite gameplay orientation!). Once you master it, there's not a lot of replay value...but at least it's something you can go back to everynow and then :P

I'd say if you like the genre, slashers or simply the first game, Give it a Try!
Edit: Oh, and it was only made available again on the Virtual Console on the Wii!

I give it:

 2 / 3 Invaders!