Splatterhouse 2

Genesis Box Art for Splatterhouse 2

Splatterhouse 2 (Splatterhouse Part 2 in Japan) is a side scrolling beat 'em up video game released in 1992 on the Sega Genesis home video game console by Namco. It is the sequel to the original Splatterhouse. The controls and gameplay are basic and are just like the previous game, but the art style is grittier than the first game. It also added gorier enemy deaths and more plot to the game.

Story

Splatterhouse 2 Intro HD

Three months have gone by since the events of the first game. The Terror Mask calls to Rick and repeatedly tempts him to "go back to the house", telling him that Jennifer "doesn't have to die". It says it will wait for him there, and then they will locate a nearby hidden house which holds the secret to restoring life. It closes by telling Rick "You need me." Rick dons the mask for the second time due to the tempting promise of Jennifer still being alive. Each stage has an intro that shows Rick's progress in approaching the new mansion and within it. Rick finds a diary with research notes by a meticulous "West" explaining the secret to opening the gate of the "void", which turns out to be a land of the dead. Upon opening it, an astral projection of Jennifer appears, but is dragged back down by unknown apparitions. He fights off more monsters and goes through the portal to reach out to Jennifer, who is in a crystalized state on the brink of life and death. Rick breaks the Death Crystal and frees her from it, bringing her back to reality. The mansion starts to break apart, so he escorts her out while she drives a speedboat to the mainland. Rick destroys the forces that have followed them, and the island sinks into the lake taking the mansion with it. The mask leaves Rick so he can have his moment with Jennifer - in the original Japanese release, it ominously quips that Rick removed the "forbidden seal" before it says its farewell. After the credits, a disembodied face similar to the one after the defeat of the previous game's final boss appears, then engulfs the screen with a digitized scream. This indicates that despite the happy ending this time, the story may not be over yet.

The game begins in the charred ruins of West Mansion. Rick encounters some creatures here, which are in fact the surviving, burned Deadmen from the previous game. Among them are burned Boreworms that drop down from the ceiling of the house's ruins, and also inhabit some pits in the ground. If one of these Boreworms attaches to Rick, it will continue to draw health from him until detaches by a low kick. If the player takes their time, they might be lucky enough to see the Deadmen fall into a pit and get eaten by Boreworms. As Rick approaches the mansion's entrance, a lead pipe can be found. Continuing onward, Rick comes across three Deadmen, two of which see him coming and run offscreen to the right, with two spurts of green slime following closely behind. The third Deadman turns around to see Rick behind him, and chooses to follow the grim fate of the other creatures rather than face him. It is at this time that Bellyache appears, gnawing on the remains of the Deadmen. Rick quickly dispatches him, punching a hole in his stomach through which a harmful slime pours out onto ground. Bellyache then turns to stone.

In Stage II, Rick discovers an elevator and asks, "A secret entrance into the house?" As Rick descends down the desolated lift, green creatures named Screaming Mimis will drop from above, two at a time, and try to land on Rick. One punch or kick will kill them. Soon the ride comes to an end and Rick continues offscreen to the right.

He finds what appears to be a cellar, teeming with purple Screaming Mimis, which are stronger and smarter. Not only do these ones jump, and take two hits to kill, but can reach also out with their long arms to harm Rick. This can be avoided by ducking. As Rick continues, he will come across pitfall spikes and spikes that rise from the floor. These rising spikes can only hurt Rick when at their full extension. The screen becomes progressively darker as Rick continues, frequently showing the anguished faces of those who have fallen to the house. About halfway through the level, Rick will find another weapon, a bone, which he uses to slam the enemies' heads into the ground. It will only take one hit to kill the purple creatures.

Once at the end of the cellar, Rick will descend into complete darkness. Suddenly, something horrific appears from the wall, it is the second stage's glowing boss, Bighead, and his souls. Three souls will attack Rick at once, once from the left, once from the right, then one from the right and two from the left. After each onslaught, Bighead will open his mouth and release a giant soul along the floor. It is at this time that Rick jumps into the air and kicks Bighead in the eyes. After several bouts of this, Bighead's eyes will explode, and he will turn to stone and disappear into the darkness, opening a lit door through which Rick fearlessly swaggers.

Rick approaches what he describes as a "foul river" and continues onward, again encountering purple Screaming Mimis and pitfalls full of foul water. Razorfish frequently jump from these puddles and attempt to latch onto Rick, often landing in a different puddle or splattering on the ground. If they do happen to latch onto Rick, they can be dealt with similarly to the leeches of Stage I. Screaming Mimis will sometimes jump into the pitfalls and die, one arm reaching out for assistance as it sinks. At one point, rick will come across a lone Mimi jumping between two puddles. It's a bit tricky, but one well-placed aerial kick will finish that monster off.

Rick continues into an abandoned tool shed, blood and corpses spattering the back wall. A Blood Puppet, a creature that resembles a fetus hanging from an umbilical cord, hangs at the far end of the building, Gasping air. A chainsaw and a pair of hedge trimmers shudder upon the floor. As Rick approaches the Blood Puppet, it retracts into one of four holes in the ceiling and the chainsaw and shears spring to life. The chainsaw will follow the enemy up into the rafters as the shears attack rick at diagonal angles. after two hits, the shears fall to the ground. During their onslaught, the chainsaw will periodically drop from the ceiling and try to cut Rick. This can be avoided by ducking. It is advised to pick up the shears immediately and throw them away, then start on the chainsaw. Two hits will make it fall to the ground. Four Blood Puppets will drop from the ceiling onto Rick (again, ducking can prevent harm). Rick picks up the chainsaw and slices the Blood Puppets open as they spew slime at him. It takes two hits with the chainsaw to kill a Blood Puppet. After the first two are dead, four more will drop down twice. two more must be defeated before the reckless four drop down one by one and die at the end of their ropes. A large floating creature bursts through the background and shakes around a bit (apparently it doesn't have any attacks). Three hits with the chainsaw will cause the aptly names BloodBall to explode, smearing blood across the screen.

It is then that Rick spots the house across a dock, and proceeds to rush there, being chased by the lake monster all the way. Rick can't fight it here, so he makes a mad dash for the house, taking out blue creatures all the way. rick spots an oar upon the dock and swings wildly with it, knocking the monstrosities into the lake. Rick eventually comes to the island and the water beast departs.

Rick continues through the woods to the mansion. Along the way, he finds blue will-o'-the-wisps floating about. They do not harm rick until they make contact with the ground. The spirits bring forth zombies that shamble after Rick. They can be dealt with with one punch. The whisps then fly out of them and go on to find a new host, namely, another zombie. Pitfalls litter the ground here, and it doesn't help that other spirits, resembling faces, fly all around rick once he makes contact with them. These playful spirits reverse the controls. They also have a habit of appearing or disappearing right above a pit, so that Rick falls in. If Rick manages to get to the end of the trail without falling, he proceeds to the boss fight. If he does stumble into a hole, ha falls into a dungeon where zombies run rampant. There are also several spike traps here. Sometimes, when Rick kills a zombie, its head will be left behind. This is, in fact, a weapon. It can be thrown by Rick to chop a zombie in half, prompting it to drag itself across the floor with its arms and performing a biting motion as an attack. The zombie can be dispatched with a low kick to the face. At the end of the dungeon, there is a single zombie pressing on a lever that activates spikes in the floor throughout the level.

As Rick approaches the front door, something red resembling a frog comes out of the ground; it then turns white and starts to stand up. It is the fourth stage's boss, Bugbrain. His main attack is slide kicking. He'll wait at one side of the stage, then jump towards rick a little. If Rick moves toward him, he'll jump back and slide kick across the stage. Rick can, if he's skilled, jump over him and kick Bugbrain in the back of the head. Landing said shot will cause Bugbrain to immediately start sliding toward rick. After several bouts of this, Bugbrain dies. His remains conjure up his second form, Hellcrawler. The spider-like beast will run to the far end of the stage and run or jump at rick. About eight or so hits will leave him fizzling on the ground. It is now time for Rick to enter the mansion.

"Jennifer must be in there. I'll do whatever it takes to save her."

As a storm rages outside, Rick wanders the halls of the Hidden House. Disembodied hands skitter across the floor to scratch at him. One well-placed kick will make them disintegrate. Purple Deadmen come in waves of two. about halfway through the stage, Rick finds a gun hanging on the wall below a mounted deer's head. as rick reaches for the gun, the deer's eyes glint red as it spits onto the floor. The gun contains eight shots and guarantees a one hit kill from a distance. Rick continues through the halls, blasting Deadmen into pieces. The primary enemies are now the deer, obviously unhappy with being a trophy, who spit upon rick.

Rick soon enters a dark library containing rows of bookshelves. As he moves along the otherwise short passage to the next room, he needs to fight off a few hands that will try to attack him.

The new room contains a long row of containment tubes containing Mimi. They appear to be hibernating inside their tubes. However, as Rick progresses through the room, one of the monsters suddenly leaps out of a tube. It hops about frantically and three hits are needed to send it flying. More Mimi will later come out at every short intervals. Rick must progress through the room, killing any of them that come in the way. There are holes in the room that lead to the dungeon and so Rick also needs to avoid falling down any of them as he moves to the next room.

Rick is now in the sewers. He will now be greeted by sludge monsters. The monsters have a nasty habit of charging towards Rick's feet as pools of sludge, rising up and then spitting gunk. The room also contains pools of gunk over which Rick needs to jump. At the end of the room, there will a staircase leading to the next boss.

This boss is a flask-throwing zombie. In the North American and European instruction manual, it is Dr. Mueller, in the Japanese release it is unknown, but presumed to be a resurrected zombie Dr. West. The boss will throw two types of flasks: one type contains potassium will burst into flames and the other type contains sludge monsters who will attack upon release. Occasionally, there will be potassium bombs lying on the ground which can be picked up and thrown at the sludge monsters. Throwing a bomb at the boss will be useless at this point as it will do no damage. Rick will also need to be careful of bombs falling on the floor and creating flames. At the end of the room, Rick will finally catch up to the boss and either blows his head away with only one hit or torches him with a potassium bomb.

Rick now claims to have found a diary which that contains the secret to opening the gate to the portal. He must make his way through a dark passageway to a gigantic silvery disc on the floor which is surrounded by flames. As he approaches the disk, his mask creates two bright flashes after which the disc slowly fades away to reveal the portal to the Land of the Dead. He recites the incantation naming several ancient gods, and the spirit of Jennifer emerges, asking Rick for help. As soon as she does, several hellish creatures grab her with their long arms and take her back to the Land of the Dead. Eerie small sized severed hands and heads attack Rick from the portal. After dispatching all of them, an abomination of flesh and fused heads named Hideous Pantheon (tentative translation from the manual) is released, ignoring Rick as it ascends skywards, out of sight.

Rick rescues Jennifer after fighting her electric Crystal Prison, and is oblivious to the fact that this releases The Evil One, who will become the antagonist of Splatterhouse 3. Invulnerable and chasing Rick throughout the Land of the Dead as Jennifer runs ahead, Rick manages to avoid its attacks and make it to the portal with Jennifer, exiting the hellish realm. After ascending through the Mueller Mansion elevator to the surface, avoiding the debris from the crumbling house and the zombies pestering them, they make it to the lake in a motorboat and are promptly pursued by the Leviathan, which throws poison darts at them. Rick dispatches the creature using its own darts against it, and the couple make it ashore. Going through the forest, they hear a hellish scream and encounter Hideous Pantheon again. The monster attacks with disembodied human and dog-like heads. After a certain degree of damage has been dealt to it, a bat-like creature will show up and fly about, meeting its demise by Rick's hand.

The Mueller Mansion sinks into the ocean taking the entire island with it. Rick and Jennifer share a romantic moment in the sundown, as a ghoulish face surfaces out of the lake and flies at the screen with Jennifer screaming in horror: an omen of things to come.

Gameplay

Splatterhouse 2 features gameplay very similar to the first game. The player controls Rick through eight different stages. Rick's attacks remain largely unchanged, able to punch, kick, jump kick, and slide kick, as well as use several weapons scattered throughout the levels (melee weapons, throwable weapons and a shotgun). Each level features a boss at the end, often a grotesque monster. New additions to the gameplay include a difficulty setting (which changes how many hits and lives Rick has) and a password system, taken from Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. The Japanese version does not have a password system, and has a default arcade-style limit of 5 credits.

See Also

• Screenshots
• Videos
• Walkthrough