For a 20-year-old brand, Splatterhouse cleans up nicely. What was a sidescrolling survival-horror romp in 1988 has morphed into a fast-action, combo-attacking test of your thumbstick-twiddling chops in 2010.

One thing hasn’t changed, though: Splatterhouse is still the goriest game around. Though the new version’s comic, over-the-top art style never even hints at realism and won’t draw the same controversy that the original game’s violence did, everything in this reboot is built around blood. Giant eyeballs, squishy orifices, and rectal-probing chairs (don’t ask) all ooze plasma. Heck, blood’s even the currency you use to buy new and upgraded attack moves.

Hero Rick’s relationship with the Terror Mask he must wear to rescue his girlfriend from the evil Dr. West helps keep the story passably interesting — the mask has a voice and banters with him throughout the game — but as you’d guess, the heavy action gameplay makes up the heart of Splatterhouse’s 12-hour quest.

It’s very Ninja Gaiden–ish: get locked in a room, use a slew of combo attacks to gorily kill monsters, move to the next room, and repeat…with the occasional giant-boss battle thrown in. But thanks to sick fatality moves, a sadistically satisfying berserker mode, and gruesome weapons ranging from chainsaws to enemy limbs, the combat remains fun.

It’s the rest of the game that has a handful of notable but not critical issues. First, the occasional sidescrolling platforming sections are a great nod to the original version and are an admirable attempt to add variety, but the jumping controls are horrible and you’ll die more often than seems fair. On that note, reload times after you die are exceptionally long (even with the game installed to your hard drive), adding some extra frustration. Finally, while most checkpoints are liberally distributed, they’re often spaced unusually far apart, forcing you to replay extended sections if you fail.

Still, Splatterhouse embraces its (bloody) tongue-in-cheek tone while offering enjoyably fast action — and it respects its predecessors in the process. It’s not perfect, but it hits most of its well-intentioned targets. Just don’t play if seeing blood makes you queasy.

On Xbox 360

+ Quality action; great sense of style and tone; variety.

+ Original three games are unlockable — and they’re arcade-perfect.

- Platforming sections control badly; long reloading times; some checkpoints too far apart.

? Why does Rick look exactly like me? I’ll sue, Namco.

7.0