Sure, you’ll have to contend with several demons along the way, but seeing as how you’re a bit of a bad-ass for being able to breeze through the regular stages so quickly, laying waste to these peons shouldn’t deter you in the slightest. Inside, you’ll find a mazelike series of rooms in which you can find extra lives. Not only can you skip entire stages altogether (which is a shame if you happen to skip Stage 2, which is my favorite stage), but your reward can also come in the form of “Stage X,” also known as the Strange Zone. I was just getting to that, smarty-face! While you are punished for progressing too slowly, you are also rewarded for moving quickly and completing a stage with enough time left on the clock. That’s why exploration over multiple playthroughs is key, because you can find the most efficient path to the bosses. Every stage is timed, and while running out of time won’t necessarily mean game over, if you take too long on any of the first four floors, you risk having either your wife, Jennifer, or your son, David, be consumed by the forces of darkness, which results in one of the three bad endings when you finish the game (out of a total of four endings). The ghostly organ player can be found if you take a less obvious path

Anyway, the Terror Mask is correct, and you can collect these orbs throughout the stages to temporarily mutate Rick into a more powerful form.

Right you are mask, but my name isn’t… oh forget it. Now, years later, you and Jennifer have married and started a family, but the forces of darkness have this time come to you, attacking you in your own home.īut we have an extra surprise for them, don’t we Rick? Now you have the power of the Eldritch Orbs! The first time, you barely escaped with your life the second time, you narrowly pulled your girlfriend Jennifer back from the abyss. You’ve beaten back the powers of darkness twice. Geez, what a burn… A-hem! Without further adieu, hot goth ladies and gentle-wolf-men, I present to you the final installment of Namco’s Splatterhouse trilogy…Īs long as there is human suffering in the world… Voice: Nobody cares, Rick! Get on with the review, fool!Īh, dammit! Thanks Terror Mask.

That being said, it’s not 100% flawless, and fans of the first two games might not appreciate the changes made to the third installment. It’s the reason why I love the Splatterhouse series so much, and as far as both violent games and 16-bit brawlers go, it definitely top-tier. Review spoiler warning! I friggin’ love Splatterhouse 3.

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