The first game that actually scared me.
Splatterhouse, at least in my twisted mind, conjured up the right combination of scenery and ambient music to freak me out. The levels were simply detailed and at first glance don’t look that exciting. I thought the bareness and lack of too much detail gave the levels a sterile feeling. For some reason, which I can’t explain, that sterile ness added to the dread of the game. The TurboGrafx had a very distinct sound and the music in Splatterhouse seemed disturbing. Not satanic, heavy metal disturbing, but more like the movie Poltergeist. It was subtle and droning. Some levels music had a desperate tone to it and others had a slow, nightmarish feeling.
My tendency to over-analyze may have caused me to add the sense of dread I felt while playing this game. It is a simple game with just a bare bones story to it. This simplicity may cause some to use their imaginations. I think most people wouldn’t think much of this game since they are focusing on how the game plays, how good the graphics are, and so forth. Most people today would scoff at Spatterhouse because they would compare it to the likes of today’s survival horror genres. Back in the late eighties and early nineties, this was one of the few console games that pushed the violence envelope and to me, had a genuine horror atmosphere.