The Grumpy Gamer: Blood on my (virtual) hands

In the early 90's I owned a little console called the Turbografx 16. It was not nearly as well known as the Super Nintendo or the Sega Genesis, but it was a nice little console with a handfull of good games. One of those games was Splatterhouse.
Of course I owned and played the game. It was pretty grotesque at the time. You play a character who plays a Jason wannabe, wearing a "terror mask", punching, kicking and chopping various monsters that come at you. You moved to the right, the monsters came at you from the left. You also had to avoid varoius sharp, pointy things.
Pretty standard stuff for the time. But what wasn't was the various bloody body parts and hanging corpses, and the strong horror vibe that permeated the game. Much different from the cutesy platformers that dominated the market at the time. There were also gruesome, imaginative bosses to fight at the end each level.
Of course, I loved the game to death. I played it a lot, even though it was a hard as nails game. Two sequels followed, but I never played them. My TG 16 unfortunately got broken, and unable to find another one, I sold off the games, including Splatterhouse. I missed the game.
Fast forward about 20 years, and Splatterhouse returns from the dead. I was elated to hear about the game, and even though it did not get great reviews, I still wanted to get my hands on the game. Recently I did, and of cours, I love it.
Of course with the the technology today, the game is much more robust. There is still a terror mask (that talks!) and you play a muslebound character that pummels monsters into goo. But there is much more than that:incredible graphics, heavy metal background music (yes!), dozens of moves you can unlock the more blood you spill, an actual storyline, and you can unlock all three previous Splaterhouse games.
The game is ultra violent, and lots of blood is spilled, but it's so over the top that it's almost cartoonish, and all the violence is perpetrated on monsters that are trying to kill you. Fortunately, you have a Wolverine caliber healing ability that the mask you which makes you hard to kill.
Still, this M rated game is very definately not for kids. There is a lot of profanity (mostly from the terror mask, although it has a lot of hilarious one-liners), lots of blood, of course, and even some nudity. But don't most horror movies have those?
Survival horror is all well and good, but sometimes it's nice to kick a little monster ass. Splatterhouse is back, baby, and I couldn't be happier.

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