Due to the popularity of the PC Engine version of Splatterhouse, Namco decided to go ahead and comission an actual sequel to the original game, which was released in Japan, the U.S. and Europe in 1992 - for some reason on the Mega Drive, rather than the PC Engine. That's kind of odd, considering how big the PC Engine was in Japan and how much Namco supported it. The story picks up three months after the end of the original, with the Mask telling Rick to return to the burnt-out ruins of West Mansion to rescue Jennifer, who is still alive (perhaps the Jennifer fought in Splatterhouse was simply a demon that took Jen's form).

Splatterhouse 2 is almost a carbon copy of the original, gameplay-wise. That's good news for fans of the original game. Rick can still punch, jump, kick, jump kick, slide kick and use the various weapons scattered throughout the stages. The life meter is still the same, as is the fact that you lose whatever weapon you may be carrying when you go into each boss room. Following in the steps of the TG16 game, Splatterhouse 2 gives you back two hearts at the beginning of each new stage. New to the series is an option screen allowing you to set the difficulty, listen to the music of the game via a sound test and configure your controls. There is also a password feature, a carryover from Wanpaku Grafitti, where the feature first appeared in the Splatterhouse series. The passwords each consist of four three letter words (?), usually reading something like this: EDK VEI IAL LDL. This is quite handy to have, as there are eight stages to traverse and some of them can be a bit on the tough side.

Splatterhouse 2 (Genesis)

The weapon selection is about as varied as it is in the original. There's a metal pipe (replacing the original's 2x4), a shotgun (still limited to eight shells per gun), a boat oar, a chainsaw (too bad you only find it in a boss room), a zombie head (!) and more. The Mask has been redesigned in this as well. In the Mega Drive version it looks similar to the Mask Rick wears in the TG16 game, but for the U.S. and European releases, the Mask was redesigned to look like a grinning skull. How utterly generic and dull - yes, even moreso than the original goalie mask look. We'd have to wait until Splatterhouse 3 to get a truly original design for the Mask.

The monsters are a varied bunch, with only a few recycled from Splatterhouse. Two of them combine in one amusing sequence... a Boreworm bursts out of a zombie chest in stage 1, just like the chestburster bursts out of Kane's chest in Alien (1979). The new monsters include flying heads, jumping mutant fish, jumping creatures called Screaming Mimis, zombies that can still attack even after being split in two and floating spirit heads that attach themselves to Rick and reverse your controls, among others. The bosses are some of the best ever seen in a Splatterhouse game. There's the giant blob that's the boss of stage 1 (watch out for the contents of his exploding stomach after he dies!), a Freddy Krueger-esque head that's the boss of stage two, a zombie mad scientist (could be either Dr. West or Dr. Mueller, although no one knows for sure) that chucks potassium bombs at you, the giant squid that tears up the dock in one stage then pursues Rick's boat in the final stage, the final boss (some kind of giant, multi-headed fleshball) and my personal favorite, the hanging mutant fetuses in what some fans have dubbed "the murder shed", due to the chained corpses and the rivers of blood flowing from them - not to mention the shower of blood that splatters your screen once you kill the "head" creature in the shed.

There are cinema displays that move the story along, although they do leave a lot to the imagination. None of them are as detailed as the ones that would later appear in Splatterhouse 3. The graphics... personally, I find them to be a bit of a mixed bag. While excellent in several places, in other places they just look undetailed and kind of muddy. Musically, Splatterhouse 2 is a step above the original and WG, but it's not as good as the music we would later hear in Splatterhouse 3 (although a decent job was done on the voices, even if they aren't quite as good as the original's). Maybe it's not fair of me to constantly compare 2 to 3, but they were released only one year apart, and one can easily see exactly how much everything improved in the course of that year. It just feels like the guys at Namco didn't take as much time as they should have on Splatterhouse 2. Maybe they were already working on Splatterhouse 3 before 2 was finished? It's possible.

While Splatterhouse 2 is a solid continuation of Splatterhouse and undoubtedly appeals to fans of the first game and how it played, you can't help but to feel that something vital is missing. But it definitely earns its place in the series and is a must play for fans.

Splatterhouse 2 ended with Rick and Jennifer being reunited, and all at last was well... or was it? As Rick ominously pointed out during the ending "As long at that Mask remains... it can happen again", and the appearance of the spectre at the very end seemed to indicate that Rick would be donning the Mask and battling hordes of monsters again sometime soon.

Luckily for Splatterhouse fans everywhere, we didn't have long to wait. Splatterhouse 3 was unleashed upon gamers in Japan and the U.S. in 1993 (there was no European release this time, sadly). The story picked up several years after the events of Splatterhouse 2, as Rick and Jennifer have married and had a son, David (who appears to be about four or five in the few pictures you see of him). Rick is now working on Wall Street, and apparently is very good at what he does, because he's bought the family their very own mansion in Connecticut. (You know, after what he'd been through, you'd think Rick wouldn't want to go near another mansion for the rest of his life. But I digress.)

The Mask talks to Rick throughout the game, acting as a guide to the mansion and a helper of sorts (this isn't really reflected during the game, just in the cutscenes). Jennifer and David have both been taken by the Evil One, although it's later revealed that Jen was taken only to keep Rick busy, as David has psychic abilities and is needed by the Evil One to unlock the powers of the Dark Stone. However, it also turns out that the Mask has an agenda of its own...

Splatterhouse 3 drops the format of the first two games in favor of a non-linear beat-em-up approach. As such, Rick can do more than just punch and kick. Now he has the ability to headbutt enemies, do a roundhouse kick and more. Unfortunately, that useful slide kick from SH1 and 2 is gone, and has been given to one of the enemies instead - and those enemies will use that move against you, as often as possible. Each stage of the game takes place on a floor of the mansion (until the later levels), and you can go from room to room, even backtracking if you need to. A handy map feature is included that makes navigating each floor a lot easier. The map can only be accessed when the current room you're in is devoid of enemies, which makes sense as that's the only time you can move from room to room.

Splatterhouse 3 (Genesis)

Also new to the series is the addition of a timer. If you don't clear a level before the time expires, something bad happens, depending on which stage you're on. This affects the ending of the game, as there are four possible endings you can get depending on how fast you clear each floor. The most startling example of this is on stage two. If you don't beat the boss before the time is up, Jennifer becomes a "mindless beast", and is lost to you. The picture of Jen you're presented with is truly startling, especially for the time the game was made.

Another new addition to the series is the Power meter. Scattered throughout the levels (and occasionally dropped by dead monsters) are small blue orbs, called Eldritch Orbs. These replenish the Power meter, which is used to transform Rick to Mutant Rick, a muscled monster that makes Rick's already Mask-enhanced physique look like a 96 pound weakling. This gives Rick a new assortment of moves to use... chokeholds, body slams and one devastating move that causes parts of Rick's body to explode outward, taking out enemies on all sides. This lasts until the Power meter is empty, at which point you have to pick up more Eldritch Orbs to replenish it. You also encounter one-ups for the first time in Splatterhouse history. These are represented by books. On top of that, you can replenish your life in each stage, a feature not seen since Wanpaku Grafitti. You'll find beating hearts, which look a lot like they do in your life bar in the first two games, at various places in each stage. Much like the orbs, they can also be dropped by dead monsters.

Returning are the option menu and password feature, both of which come in quite handy. The options menu includes a sound effect test and a voice test in addition to the options featured in Splatterhouse 2. The passwords are a bit simpler this time around, being just one word rather than four as Splatterhouse 2 had, like PHENIX for example. The music is quite appropriate for each scene and stands as some of the best music to ever come out of a Splatterhouse game. The voices too are well done, better than Splatterhouse 2's were.

Splatterhouse 3 (Genesis)

There's a few new weapons to be had this time around, namely the cinderblock and baseball bat. The cleaver makes a return for the first time since the first Splatterhouse, as does the 2x4. There's also a knife that can be found as well. For some reason, the shotgun has gone MIA. While that did feel quite odd at first... after all, what's Splatterhouse with a shotgun?... after a while, you won't miss it. There's also a new twist thrown in regarding weapons: should you happen to drop whichever one you're carrying (usually by being knocked down by a monster), a grey spirit head will fly onto the screen and grab it, unless you're quick enough to pick it up before the spirit reaches it. If the spirit does get it, it takes it to a special "spirit room" which you must find if you want that weapon back.

Virtually none of the monsters from the earlier games return in Splatterhouse 3. Instead, Rick has to fight variations on some, like the headless & handless zombies and creatures that look to be descended from Splatterhouse 2's Screaming Mimis. New creatures that appear include obese creatures which huge jaws (that drop items when killed), vicious ant-like things that possess Rick's old slide kick, and doglike creatures that are very easy to defeat, despite showing up later in the game. The bosses are typical for the Splatterhouse series, although a couple do stand out: namely the giant teddy bear boss of stage 3 and the final boss of the game - the Mask itself.

There are six stages total to travel through. Four take place within the mansion itself, the fifth takes place in realm of the Evil One, and six is the confrontation with the Mask. Additionally, there are several bonus stages, each entitled "Stage X". You can only reach these if you complete each stage within a certain amount of time. At last count, there were ten recorded "Stage X" occurrences, all varying depending on who was alive or dead at that point in the game.

Splatterhouse 3 really broke new ground for the series, with digitized photos used during the cinema displays, some of the best graphics the Genesis has ever seen, and the best design EVER for the Mask, one that's finally original and represents the evil inherent in it. It's too bad this ended up being the last in the series, but at least Splatterhouse went out with a bang.

A game considered by some to be a successor to Wanpaku Grafitti was released for the Japanese PS2 in 2004. It was not created by Namco, but rather by a company named D3, and is part of the Simple 2000 series. I've never played it, but judging by the screenshots it looks to have definitely been inspired by Wanpaku Graffiti. Here's the lowdown on the game, courtesy of IGN:

"Volume 64 installment in D3's Simple 2000 Series of budget game titles. The Splatter Action has players slip into the role of scarecrow Kakashi who takes on a host of nasty creatures with the help of his trusty chainsaw in order to avenge his parents who were injured when the evil Jagado took over the world. You can make use of your bare hands, punching and kicking your way past creatures of the night, or switch to a chainsaw mode and use something a bit stronger against your enemies. Don't use the chainsaw too much, though, as its gas supply slowly depletes. Collect coins by defeating enemies in order to purchase recovery and special action items from a shop that appears at the start of each of the game's seven stages. The game features seven different stages, multiple endings depending on the player's performance, and an 'another story' mode that mixes around enemy locations for more replay value."