The official sequel to Namco‘s classic Splatterhouse was released exclusively for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis in 1992; it did not appear in arcades, like the original.

The story in this one again sees the return of Rick, the dead-and-resurrected college student who wears a hockey mask, as he again fights his way through waves of gruesome monsters in an attempt to rescue his beloved Jennifer. Three months have passed since the events of the first game and Rick has been plagued by nightmares about his long lost girlfriend and his failure to rescue her. The Terror Mask – who still has Jennifer imprisoned – lures Rick into his lair in order to right the wrongs of the first game.

Splatterhouse 2 has eight different stages and is basically the same style of gruesome, horror-themed beat ’em up as before, with simple side-scrolling gameplay and a multitude of boss battles. Like before, Rick can punch, jump, and kick, and can also pick up weapons to use against his opponents.

Although Splatterhouse 2 is much easier than the arcade original it is also less interesting because it’s just a touch too linear. It also doesn’t seem to be particularly challenging either, although the difficulty can be increased in the game’s settings. There’s also a password system in the English language version (which is missing from the Japanese version).

Splatterhouse 2 is still a fun game to play now, though – if you like horror-themed action games. It might be too gruesome for some, though.

See also: Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, Splatterhouse 3.

More: Splatterhouse 2 on Wikipedia