Splatterhouse now smearing 2010

Namco Bandai's controversy-laden revival of arcade beat-'em-up pushed to next year on the Xbox 360, PS3.

Namco Bandai's revival of Splatterhouse has been, well, kind of messy. After announcing the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game as in development at California-based BottleRocket Entertainment in May 2008, Namco Bandai abruptly pulled the studio off the project in February 2009. After a slap-hands exchange between the two companies, Variety reported last month that Namco Bandai had picked up a number of ex-BottleRocketeers to finish the project.

These guys can be kept down only so long.

As could be expected, the tumult has had an adverse effect on the game's expected ship date. Originally announced as a 2009 release, Namco Bandai has confirmed for GameSpot that Splatterhouse is now due sometime in 2010. Namco Bandai declined to comment on whether the game would be an early- or late-year release.

Though it is an update of the original gross-out arcade beat-'em-up released in 1988, Splatterhouse features an original storyline by comic-book scribe Gordon Rennie (Judge Dredd, Necronauts). Players assume the role of a college student in search of his kidnapped girlfriend and subsequently happen upon a mask that confers great power--and an insatiable bloodlust.

For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Splatterhouse.

40 Comments

  • THEGoD1

    Posted Jun 22, 2009 5:40 pm GMT

    eehh it dident impress me much

  • bandit7319

    Posted Jun 22, 2009 12:42 pm GMT

    Wow.. looks awfully God of War-ish

  • WormyTheWorm

    Posted Jun 22, 2009 4:47 am GMT

    I hope they release the original arcade game on XBLA

  • Switchblade777

    Posted Jun 22, 2009 12:23 am GMT

    looks terrible. maybe for those gore fest gamers out there though?

  • gryphyth

    Posted Jun 21, 2009 5:30 pm GMT

    Evil Dead Regeneration on steroids

  • Ghoulish_Visage

    Posted Jun 21, 2009 4:24 pm GMT

    I am not going to lie. This looks great.

  • mightycloud

    Posted Jun 21, 2009 2:57 pm GMT

    Looking like this could be fun little gore fest like nanobreaker, and as long as I can still splat a zombie against a wall with a stick i'll be happy.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Jun 21, 2009 12:10 pm GMT

    "Sold with an 18+ rating, desired by boys aged 14-16." I just thought that to myself so I thought I would share it with the rest of you.

  • famguyfan2685

    Posted Jun 21, 2009 4:34 am GMT

    Awesome Anime: I can't believe you are calling the resurrection of Bionic Commando good .. Unless you are referring to Bionic Commando: Rearmed, and not the lame 3-D game, then I'm afraid you are mistaken my friend..

  • YoungDab

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 9:30 pm GMT

    Splatter House Forever Lol.

  • Awesome_Anime

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 7:41 pm GMT

    If it turns out to be a good resurrection like Bionic Commando, I'll rent it

  • taylormadederek

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 5:04 pm GMT

    The game would be crap if they released it today and it will be crap if they release it in a year from now.

  • godzillavskong

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 4:45 pm GMT

    Or if they just use the same formula as Street Fighter and keep the game simple with updated HD graphics and 2D. That would be awesome!

  • godzillavskong

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 4:44 pm GMT

    I miss that game on the T-16. I would love to buy a copy to add to my library. I only have 6 games for my Turbo grafyx and the copies of Splatterhouse on ebay are pretty steep. Hopefully this remake will do it justice.

  • DarthTall

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 4:26 pm GMT

    I'm all in favor of classic games getting the next-gen treatment, but this particular title looks like fecal matter. Also, (random rant) why can't anyone properly use the words 'awesome', 'you're', and 'too'? I'll get off the spellcheck soapbox now, but it's really annoying.

  • Malco_Vincenzo

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 1:52 pm GMT

    the only thing that would've made the golden axe remake better is if they had put the first 3 on an extra disc.

  • Malco_Vincenzo

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 1:47 pm GMT

    @ Barighm
    well man God Hand was the last good one in a while.

  • levifoskey

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 1:36 pm GMT

    looks bloody awsome

  • Barighm

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 12:37 pm GMT

    Hope they get this right. The beat'em up genre has declined a lot of late. A horror game that goes out of its way to scare, then jokingly throws it aside when it realizes its trying to scare a player controlling a man who is basically Jason's twin, then proceeds to execute a brawl between horror movie monsters and said twin...that would have been a pretty cool concept. Make the fighting controls solid and very responsive and easy to execute, throw in some multi-player, make it scary and add a lot of replay value...and you've got a mega-hit.

  • BlackBaldwin

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 10:46 am GMT

    Wow this game looks pretty terrible. I loved the series on the sega master system and I hoped that they would of done something to that sort of caliber of survival horror but after watching the trailer it seems that the studio doesn't have a clue on what the series was like. Freakest part of the series had to be the boss fight with the teddy bear transformation in splatterhouse 3 I think. I was soo freaked out I had my mother get rid of my bear I had after playing that thing and losing several times to him lol...

  • Ripper_TV

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 10:05 am GMT

    martyhavok, really? What a poor name..

  • Jackc8

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 10:04 am GMT

    The environments remind me a lot of Primal on the PS2.

  • duke-nukem11

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 9:55 am GMT

    oooo well old mega drive games being remade have been completly crap. altered beast? golden axe? i rest my case ok they where done by sega but its time to think up new ideas

  • grendel489

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 9:44 am GMT

    Doesn't really look like much.

  • maverick_76

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 8:40 am GMT

    Seems promising, will look out for this as it gets closer to release.

  • EnaVRi

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 8:38 am GMT

    looks odd

  • BlueFlameBat

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 8:36 am GMT

    And next year, you will see this headline: "Splatterhouse axed for 360 and PS3, moved to XBox something-or-other and PS4." Maybe Nintendo's next system too if Nintendo steps up to the plate.

  • ColonelRadec

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 7:07 am GMT

    I do not mind waiting on the game if it will make it better.

  • martyhavok

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 5:49 am GMT

    Update: Namco Bandai announced this morning that the game would be renamed Splatterhouse forever.

  • nikola96

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 4:44 am GMT

    Nothing special.

  • Rey_Sword

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 4:13 am GMT

    I hope its looks better when its finished

  • platonhollow

    Posted Jun 20, 2009 12:33 am GMT

    They must have an extra disc with all 3 splatterhouse games.
    Or put them in the upcoming Splatterhouse game disc

    It will kick ass

  • deadcowboy6

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 5:41 pm GMT

    if it comes out good than I'm fine with the wait

  • RockMan-NEO

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 5:30 pm GMT

    kewl beans

  • thpghalo3

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 5:24 pm GMT

    looks awsome and who cares if it comes out in 2010 because then they have more time to work on it and make it better.

  • Ranma_X_basic

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 4:43 pm GMT

    Word of advice to namco. since you're delaying the game why not use the graphics engine you used for SoulCaliber4 or Tekken 6. i liked the original splatterhouse games and want this new one to be great.

    oh! and i do hope the original game will be on the disk that would kick ass.

  • Imperator2007

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 4:40 pm GMT

    I want them to take as long as necessary to make this game great. It doesn't look too hot right now, so I hope they can crank up the juice and make it look and play great. I want to like this game so badly.

  • CatKickin

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 4:13 pm GMT

    When I first heard this announced, I almost danced a jig. Then I saw the screen shots and I was less then impressed. Here's hoping that some extra time will bring it up to par with what it should be.

  • gerudoman320

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 4:03 pm GMT

    I just hope it turn great...pleases

  • vickissv2

    Posted Jun 19, 2009 3:48 pm GMT

    Good, maybe they'll have time to work on those Dreamcast level graphics.

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