You can stop writing in now. Every so often, like clockwork, we get a wave of letters from old-school TurboGrafx-16 fans or arcade junkies wondering, “When are they gonna make a new Splatterhouse?”

Wonder no more, horror freaks. The “when” is now and the “who” is BottleRocket, a San Diego–based squad of ex-Sony folks most recently responsible for the excellent PS2 actioner The Mark of Kri.

For the uninitiated, Splatterhouse was a forerunner of the survival-horror genre as we know it today. It cast you as college-aged Rick Taylor, whose girlfriend is captured by creepy-crawlies while visiting a haunted house. Fortunately, Rick finds an evil Jason-esque hockey mask that imbues him with super-strength, and he fights through the mansion to rescue his beloved Jennifer.

The plot wasn’t exactly Shakespeare, but it was par for the course back in 1988. Fastforward to ’08, and it’s sprouted Ninja Gaiden–ish wings…

…Which is fitting, because for the Xbox 360 revival, BottleRocket is aiming for fast-paced, bloody action with minimal story. “Let’s face it,” says Namco producer Mark Brown, “Splatterhouse has always been about duking it out with bloodthirsty monsters and all the glorious splatter that comes with that.”

And so, Rick dons the Terror Mask and picks up anything he can find — 2x4s, the limbs of his enemies, and so on — to savagely beat his way through the monster horde, scoring combos and getting himself beat up along the way. Fortunately, the mask’s power regenerates him, so even though you’ll see Rick literally bludgeoned to the bone, you’ll also watch the mask grow him a new arm — bones, then muscles, then skin — so he can continue the fight for Jennifer.

Of course, one key question remains: Will the original version appear as an unlockable on the disc or a complementary Xbox Live Arcade release, similar to what Capcom is doing with Bionic Commando? “From the very beginning, we anticipated that this would be a popular request and we’re doing our best to keep the old-school fans happy,” Brown teases. You have the power, Mark. Don’t let us down!