Splatterhouse classified Down Under

With a name like Splatterhouse it's not hard to imagine the Australian Classification Board having problems rating Namco Bandai's upcoming reboot of the classic action horror franchise. After all, when Namco ported the original arcade title to the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990, the game became one of the first home console titles to earn a big, fat parental advisory warning sticker on the front of its box.

Aussie gamers can rest easy, however, with Splatterhouse receiving an MA15+ rating from the Australian Classification Board this week for "strong horror violence, blood, and gore." Namco Bandai's Australian branch also confirmed to GameSpot AU that the Aussie version of Splatterhouse is the uncut and unedited version that will be distributed throughout the rest of the world.

The 3D third-person makeover of Splatterhouse will retain the hallmark over-the-top blood-soaked violence of the series as players follow college student Rick Taylor on a mission to rescue his girlfriend Jennifer from the run-down mansion of deranged occult scientist Dr. West. After surviving a gruesome attack, Rick finds a mystical mask that tells him it can help him rescue Jennifer by endowing him with superhuman strength and a rather healthy appetite for blood. It's the player's job to guide Rick around the mansion and help save good ol' Jen.

The game may look better now, but that doesn't mean it's any easier to swallow, particularly if the sight of walking corpses, decaying fetuses, and tangled piles of bloody entrails leave you feeling slightly woozy. Splatterhouse is out on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 26, 2010.