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Another brand new series debuting around the Halloween season? My god, you people are very fortunate!
It's no secret by now that I'm the resident music guy on the site, and one of my favorite types of music is videogame music, from the chiptunes of the past to the CD quality audio of today. And two of the things I look for in a videogame soundtrack besides catchy compositions, excellent production and/or mastery of the sound chip the composer uses, and competent composition/arrangement, is just how well a score fits a game, and how much the score stands out and crafts it's own identity. Because one of the things that quite a lot of game reviewers (professional and amateur) seem to forget is that music (or the lack thereof) is one of the important elements in a game, and how the tunes are used in the game itself is just as vital a part of the whole experience as the gameplay, and likewise the actual compositional quality.
The title I'm looking at today? Splatterhouse.
Splatterhouse surely needs no introduction, but I'm going to honor the time old tradition of saying 'X needs no introduction' and then giving it an introduction anyway, so here we go; released by Namco in 1988, Splatterhouse is a relatively stripped down and basic beat 'em up with an almost grindhouse aesthetics, throwing around grisly, grimy, and graphic depictions of gore in all the colours of the rainbow, structured around the story of Rick and Jenifer, two parapsychology students that are having a romantic fling together. One of the subjects of their research is one Dr. Herbert West (One of many horror movie references on behalf on Namco), a legend in parapsychology circles said to have performed all manner of freakish experiments with the supernatural in his secluded, fairly grandiose manor. After West's disappearance- or, if you go by the japanese canon, his death- the house fell into disrepair and ruin, and became one of those houses. You know, the big old ruined mansions that kids and teens alike tell all manner of horror stories about, involving X person and Y person taking a pleasant stroll up to the manner and disappearing, with overblown descriptions of gore and depravity that eventually landed the old manor the nickname 'Splatterhouse'.
Of course, this is the Horrorverse, Maine, so when Rick and Jenifer take a trip up to the house to do some typical meddling kids type stuff, they find out that the stories are in fact true; Rick is attacked from behind and left for dead, and Jenifer is dragged deep into the bowels of the house, screaming for her now very much not alive boyfriend. The story, of course, doesn't end there, as a mystical and potentially dangerous artifact from times where the old gods still existed, known only as the Terror Mask, finds it's way to Rick's corpse, and attaches itself to his face, reanimating and further buffing the already fairly macho Rick into a brutal powerhouse with only one thing on his mind; rescue his girl, no matter what the cost, and get the hell out of dodge. The Terror Mask however, as the two sequels would further elaborate, has an agenda of its own, and Rick is merely a pawn in the ancient creatures diabolical plans..."Yes, yes, that's all very good," I hear you say, "but what does it sound like?"Well, this was one of the earliest (but not the first, as is the common misconception) explicitly horror driven games, and the score definitely reflects that in some ways. I don't think I need to tell you not to expect the lo-fi trip hop/rock and the pulsating industrial ambience of the Silent Hill games here, considering this is a game from the era when FM Synthesis ruled the videodrome. What you can expect, however, are chip renditions of organ dirges, stabbing strings, pounding drums, and cheesy early synth lines galore. This soundtrack definitely harkens back to the cheesy music of horror flicks from the tail end of the 70s up to the mid 80s, and is most definitely all the better for it. It's the kind of music where, out of context, it probably wouldn't be particularly terrifying and may even be a little cheesy, but when paired with the graphic visuals of the game, suddenly becomes a score filled with audio nightmares dredged up from the icy domain of the circle of traitors.Namco have always been one of, if not my favorite videogame company, and one of the reasons for this is the very obvious love and care they put into every aspect of their games, past and present. No element is half assed or jobbed, and Splatterhouse is an absolutely stunning example of that, from the frankly excellent gameplay (just because it's basic doesn't mean it isn't fun), the brilliant visuals, and most importantly, the music.
Before even touching the actual melodies themselves, I'd like to make note of the samples the arcade version pushes out; for the time, they are all frankly exceptional. The organs sound like organs, the synths sound like synths, the bass sounds like a bass, the strings and woodwinds sound like strings and woodwinds, everything sounds as close to the instrument it's emulating as the technology could allow, except possibly the snare drum, which sounds a little bit more like a tom preset from a Roland 808; that said, it damn well gets the job done, and makes the pounding drums a bit more... poundier. That is almost certainly a real word. And this is during the period where, as just one example, Capcom was still using their CPS1 technology, the soundchip of which- whilst I do have a fondness for- could hardly be said to be able to make anything besides a crash cymbal sound like anything other then a synth or a drum machine. From what I have been able to find out, Splatterhouse was a Namco System 1 game, and thus probably used the YM2151 soundchip. This is quite surprising, given the authenticity of the samples, especially stacked up against games like Yokai Douchuuki, World Stadium/World Court, and Marchen Maze, which were all also Namco System 1 games but had much more obviously 'FM Synth' sounding scores. Yokai Douchuuki's main theme, an awesome send up of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "1000 Knives" composed by the legendary Hiroyuki Kawada, is probably the closest track in terms of sample quality to what Splatterhouse brought to the table, although it still isn't quite as sharp. It's possible that Splatterhouse boards might've used a modded chip, backup chips, or an entirely different chip altogether, but if it was pure YM2151 mastery, then my priase for the composers (Katsuro Tajima and Yoshinori Kawamoto) is only hightened in scope, because that is damn impressive from a technical standpoint alone.But the technology is meaningless if the hands that crafted the tunes are unskilled, so how do the actual tunes themselves hold up? Remarkably well; for a score that's 24 years old, the only dated aspect to the whole package is the aspect which even at the time was slowly becoming dated, that of the stylistic trappings Splatterhouse's music uses. Each song suits the action taking place, from the fast paced, synth and theramin heavy stage one theme, to the mid tempo, dramatic orchestral theme of the final stage, to the organ heavy theme that plays when you face the evil inverted cross and it's parade of severed heads, and finally to the slow and suspenseful theme that plays in the hall of mirrors. The themes run the gamut from being heavily melodic, such as the aforementioned evil cross theme, to eerily ambient, like the bizarre and atonal 'music' that plays in the Poltergeist Room, which is backed by electronic 'beats' and sounds that are incredibly impressive from a technological standpoint. One thing that's important to note is that there is some incredibly minor, but for the time very impressive use of dynamic music changing; the first boss theme is only about 37 seconds long, doesn't loop, and plays only as long as the boreworms jump out of the piles of rotting flesh stacked around the room, ending on a single dark synth hit as one final boreworm jumps out of the hanging corpse at the left of the room. The aforementioned theme that plays in the hall of mirrors only plays before that stages enemies, evil reflections of Rick that burst fourth from the mirrors, changing to a slightly faster, bass heavy tune when the first of the Mirror Rick's make their entrance.
My personal favorite songs on the soundtrack are the trippy as all hell, but irrefutably funky as fuck theme that plays in the Necromancer room, the driving, psycho-string-stab laden, pounding fifth boss theme that compliments the huge twist that boss provides (which I shan't spoil; go play the game and find out for yourself!), and the final boss song, which is suitably epic and dripping with intense finality without being too overblown- surprisingly, most of the music is where the game actually shows a bit of restraint and employs very effective use of subtlety- and combines a synth heavy piece with a very chilling and slightly depressing organ dirge to create what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest final boss tracks to ever grace a videogame.Special mention, however, must go to possibly my favorite track out of the whole soundtrack, and quite possibly one of my favorite songs from a videogame ever, the heartbreakingly beautiful 'theme' song of the game, which retroactively gained the title of Sento Nel Core. The track plays over the credits (although snippets of it play during the intro of, and the closing moments after the fifth boss fight), and so perfectly compliments the game's overall story. For such an over the top game with very obviously Z-Movie styling, the actual story becomes very depressing literally the second you make it to the fifth boss, and it isn't played in a hammy or parodic way; it's played completely straight, and to a very effective end. The song still manages to choke me up, even though it's been a long time since the twist took me by surprise, and even though the later games resolve and undo the twist in this game (do note that's not me complaining, however). It's a beautiful, haunting melody, and it sounds so very much like it came from an actual movie that I genuinely contest that it can stand up there with the likes of the theme songs from Halloween, Phantasm, Creepshow, and especially Candyman. The name 'Sento Nel Core' actually comes from the title of a arrangement/reimagining of the song that was in one of the Katamari games, and is arguably the best version, turning the song into a fully orchestral piece with additional opera vocals, which is equal parts bombastic and subdued. My personal favorite is probably the version from the Turbografx 16 port, but I also have a soft spot for the version from the advert of said port. Or, I would, if there was a full version of it and not just the 15 second snippet in the ad. Pity.
Speaking of the Turbografx, how well did the music port over? Honestly, I dig the TG16 soundtrack as much as the arcades. No, the sample quality isn't as high, that's a given, and a couple of songs are missing (although one of the missing songs is reworked into the short level intro music), but the compositions still shine through just as brightly, and whilst the score doesn't necessarily benefit from the 8bit sound, it doesn't suffer for it either. Interestingly, a couple of the dynamic music tracks are actually reworked so they loop (the first stage boss theme and the Poltergeist theme). I actually kind of prefer the TG16 version of the first boss theme to the arcade one, I must admit, but your mileage is definitely going to vary on which version of the soundtrack you prefer. Objectively, the soundtrack made the transition to the lower tech pretty well, and definitely as well as it could've at the time and given the technology it was replicated on.
The original games, to the best of my knowledge, never received official soundtrack releases. However, Go-Go-GST has you covered, with a bundle that contains the music from both versions of the first game, the soundtracks to the two sequels composed by Milky Eiko (which are also fantastic and make great use of the Megadrive's YM2612 chip), and it even has Sento Nel Core thrown in for good measure. You can grab said pack here.
Overall, Splatterhouse's soundtrack, both the Arcade and TG16 versions, is definite must haves for collectors and the mildly curious alike. It is definately more then worthy of sitting in your iPod for casual listening.
And now, to close out the article, here's one KK Slider with his rendition of Sento Nel Core, Sento Nel KK.
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