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KEEP PLAYING – Splatterhouse (Old & New)

No Name

Nice review of Splatterhouse. I worked on it at Namco after they pulled it back from BottleRocket. That was a challenging project, no doubt about it. But we really tried to make the best game we could in the time we had and I think we succeeded to a large degree. The artists and animators really delivered, the writer was great at silly dialog, and the combat designer really made Rick fun to play with (once you’ve unlocked enough of his skills, that is.)

Sindra

Well thank you for watching! Splatterhouse really does deserve to at least wrap up with a remake of 2. It could have been way worse and I liked it for what it was. The essence of the old game was preserved, IMO.

No Name

I’m glad to see that some people enjoyed it. Sadly, a sequel is probably pretty unlikely (as you have guessed) as it didn’t do the sales they hoped for. 2009 – 2010 was a bad time financially for Namco as slow sales of Tekken 6 and Enslaved put pressure on Splatterhouse to perform well. Once it became clear that Splatterhouse wasn’t going to be the kind of performer they needed, 60% of the US studio was layed off (myself included) and most of the remaining staff either left on their own or were folded into Namco’s mobile gaming division. If Namco ever decides to revisit the franchise, I’d lay odds they will just start fresh again, probably as a mobile game. (Pure speculation on my part. I don’t work for Namco anymore and haven’t talked to anyone at the company in years)

Looking back, it’s tempting to think that if only we’d been able to get some of the stuff we left out into the final product it would have sold better, but honestly, I think a perfectly executed Splatterhouse with all the stuff we wanted to do would still have not moved the numbers they needed. It’s just not a mainstream title.

Sindra

Man, I would love to pick your brain about what really happened behind the scenes with the game, (and the stuff you guys left out especially!) but I’m sure you’re under a gag order or something. =P

Regardless, at least some of us knew what it was and enjoyed it for what it was. =)

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