Namco Bandai resurrecting Splatterhouse

Nostalgia has a funny way of distorting gamers' perception of older games, and Nintendo's Virtual Console has done wonders for busting these misconceptions. Case in point: Nintendo revived the TurboGrafx-16 version of Namco and NEC's Splatterhouse last March, and the aging game's gruesome beat-'em-up action struck reviewers as decidedly tame and simplistic.

However, Namco Bandai is now ready to give the seminal horror action franchise a proper current-generation revival, announcing today that an all-new Splatterhouse will arrive for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2009. A throwback to the 1988 arcade original, Splatterhouse promises a gore-oozing action experience. Splatterhouse features an original storyline by comic-book scribe Gordon Rennie (Judge Dredd, Necronauts), wherein a college student in search of his kidnapped girlfriend happens upon a mask that confers upon him great power but also turns him into "a juggernaut of pure violence and destruction."

However, the game won't be a simple beat-'em-up. Namco Bandai promises a dynamic combat system in which players will be afforded a variety of methods to slaughter hordes of infernal monstrosities. Weapons include makeshift found items as well as the dismembered appendages of enemies, and players will be able to revive defeated demons to help them in their quest as well as solve puzzles. The game also has a vertical element, with players able to leap great distances as the game's protagonist.

The game's gore has likewise been updated to 21st-century standards. Namco Bandai says that players will be dismembered if overrun by enemies. "They will begin to dismember him, savagely tearing away limbs and ripping at his flesh to expose his internal organs. To survive, Rick must call upon the power of the Terror Mask to regenerate his mutilated body, allowing players to watch in gory detail as bones, veins, muscles, and skin return to his body in real time."