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It's pitch black and there's a storm outside. Rain is beating down and the sky is sporadically lit up with shards of lightning (cue Twilight Zone music). It's a good thing that you're inside in the warm - or *is it*?! You've stumbled into the Splatterhouse - the stomping ground of just about every ghoul and zombie that you can imagine, and much more besides!

The Splatterhouse and its grounds is divided into six horizontally scrolling stages, through which you must guide your character (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Friday the 13th's Jason!), disposing of every demonic minion you may stumble across.

Thankfully though, there are plenty of weapons lying around that our masked hero can pick up. A sturdy plank is good enough to dispose of some of the lesser ghouls, and a well-placed spanner fits the bill as far as zombie exorcism is concerned. There's even a musket that's just the business for despatching some of the goriest end-of-level nasties you're ever likely to find in a video game!

Each level is split up into a number of sub-stages. In amongst the scrolling stages you could find yourself trapped in a claustrophobic room, and you'll have to butcher just about everything supernatural to escape. That includes slimey worms (uuuughhh), crazy cutlery and in one case, even the furniture is out to get you!

Crikey! This is a real "gore-may" beat-'em-up! What really makes it a cut above other PC Engine beat-'em-ups is the truly revolting visuals - even more disgusting than some of the public lavs in Birmingham (Yes, that bad!).

Your main character is superbly animated and all the moves from the coin-op original have been incorporated, even down to disposing zombies by batting them up against a wall (check out the splurgy entrails left behind!).

Some of the end-of-level bosses are simply astounding - the chainsaw wielding maniac is awesome, and he's even accompanied by a dentist's drill noise!

You won't complete this game in too much of a hurry either. The difficulty level is set just right allowing some progress on every attempt. What we're dealing with here is a roaringly good conversion, which stands up as a terrific PC Engine game in its own right. Make sure it's on the top of your shopping list.