A rare find has emerged, as the Japanese Famicom archivist Orochi has posted footage of the lost sequel to the Japan-only game Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti to YouTube.
This sequel was known as Splatter World and was developed for the Famicom and slated for release in Japan in 1993, but it never made it to market. The footage Orochi has released is in fact from comes from a VHS tape sent to retailers at the close of 1992 to promote the game in-store. Previously, the game’s existence had only been hinted at at a Namco Museum of Art video about Splatterhouse in 2021.
West Mansion, a Splatterhouse fan site, noted the following:
Splatter World looked to be pretty far along in development. As the videotape was sent to retailers in December of 1992 and the game was slated to be released in March of 1993, I’d say it was probably close to 100% complete at this time. They may have been in the final stages of polishing and gearing up for release when the plug was pulled. Of course, we don’t know why the plug was pulled, but Orochi speculates that the user base shift to the Super Famicom, coupled with the possibility that Namco did not receive enough orders to justify the release (and also noting that Namco pulled out of the Famicom market entirely less than a year later, in December 1993), were what caused Splatter World‘s cancellation.
The game’s footage can be seen below, and what is interesting is that it seems to have been a pretty detailed and robust-looking RPG.
Now we have to hope that the game stills exists in some form in Bandai Namco’s archives and that it can be released to the public to enjoy.
