///////////// SPLATTERHOUSE 3 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ *A mostly comprehensive FAQ written by me, Clayton Walker, hangedman@iname.com. This may not be used without my expressed written conscent, meaning that sites that post it up and tell me a week later that they did (without my permission, might I add) will be dealt with harshly. Ask me, and you can use it. If you go behind my back, that's stealing. Enough bitching, on with the show. {To Start Off With...} Chances are, you're certainly interested in splatterhouse if you're reading this. As for me, I was hooked on the arcade version of the first splatterhouse, and was the sole reason I bought a TG16. The subsequent genesis versions were just as great, if not better. Splatterhouse 3 represents a huge departure from the rest of the series in the fact that it allows for multiple endings, multiple rooms, and more special moves on the part of Rick. It's most likely the best game in the series, which will hopefully be eclipsed by the 128 bit splatterhouse that'll come out soon (I hope). Please, Namco. Baby jesus wants another splatterhouse game. {You're here because...} You probably want to know why exactly your family members are dying in the game, or how to beat a few bosses. That's fine. The splatterhouse games are hard, but 3 is definately the easiest. Splatterhouse 1 and 2 are impossible. The last boss of splatterhouse 2 is nearly unbeatable without codes. I keep getting killed by the floating head boss in the first game, meat cleaver or no meat cleaver. Grrr. At any rate, I was shocked when I beat this SH installment. The difficulty is just at the right curve. Getting there is pretty easy to accomplish, so read on. If you get discouraged, play the first 2 to get really discouraged. ----------------------------------------------{Basic Story and Premise}------- --------------------------------------------- You are Rick. You're somewhat different looking this time around, somewhat different from a complete ripoff of Jason Voorhees. The hockey mask is now more of a seething and hateful skull mask. Nice touch. At any rate, Rick has absolute crap luck with finding a good house that's not posessed by the undead, or some unspeakable evil. I think the first game said Rick and Jennifer (your ill fated wife) were parapsychology students, which stumbled onto some evil (bad luck) researching a reknowned parapsychology recluse. The end of the first game implied that the mask was destroyed and Jennfier was dead. However, I think somewhere between the first and second games (hmm...) Namco decided that the first game's entire story wasn't good enough to provide a setup for a sequel, so they made a sequel of the same name but having nothing to do with the first story. SH2 starts with you having to go back to the house to save Jennifer, as you've been dreaming that she's been alive all this time. However, she's still being held by the same evil force. 2 ends much as expected. Chop, Hack, Punch, hooray. Winners don't do drugs! Let's all give a cheer for parapsychology and the ability it gives us to punch zombies in half! Is your college major undecided? Now you have no excuse. So here comes number 3. Rick's luck runs out several years after the second game when, for whatever reason, the "evil" returns to Rick's current house to inflict, uh... evil...upon Rick's family, including his 5 year old son David. To Namco's defense though, the third game actually had passable and convincing dialog. Rick seemed genuinely pissed off the whole game. Although, they had a good story going. If it was a continuous one, and a better written one, the game could have benefitted. At any rate, beat the hell out of the uglies this time around for the sake of your family. Otherwise, they end up dead. Good incentive to work hard. -------------------------------------------------{The Mansion}---------------- ----------------------------------------------------- How does a parapsychology student get this huge house? The floor plans of this house include about 30 rooms per floor! However, I digress. The levels are divided into floors, which can be traversed in a number of different ways. After every fight in a room is over, you have a choice (more often than not) of which way to go. Your destination on the map appears as a giant X. You need to get to that X in as short as possible, otherwise, Jennifer or David croak. Things to note: >Yellow doors warp to another part of the house, and are crucial in saving time and getting to extra lives >You can only navigate through the house when all monsters in the current room are dead. >The bee-line path is always the longest one. Although there are less rooms, the monster difficulty and amount are always higher nine times out of ten. >Endings / cutscenes are determined on how fast you get to the destination, marked by 30 sec. intervals. -------------------------------------------{Your Moves}----------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Note: there are 2 different sets of moves for Rick and Monster Rick, although basic moves are universal. These will also depend on your controller configuration. Basic Moves: Directional button: Move up, down, left, right. (A): Default is mutate into monster Rick. Monster Rick does not revert back when button is pressed again. NOTE! You need power to do this. Power for Monster rick depletes slowly. (B): Default is jump. You jump. Useful for the uber-leet jump kick. (C): Default is attack. Hits the other guy, can be used to pick up items if you're standing over them. Grab: Move towards enemy. When nearly touching, Rick will grab the enemy automatically. Pause: Stops game. Good when you need to drink something or go to the bathroom. As Rick: (C), (C), (C), (C) 4 hit combo. Ends with an uppercut, which knocks down all enemies. Can be interrupted by certain enemies, can also be blocked. Basic button mash combo. The only button mash combo (B), in air (C) Your garden variety jump kick. Not powerful, but provides an instant knockdown. Good for crowd control. Ensures that you won't have to deal with too many baddies at once. GRAB, (C), (C), (C) Triple headbutt. Lots of damage, but most lower level bad guys get knocked down after headbutt 2. GRAB, Forward and (C) Your throw. You can hurl a bad guy into another badguy for an instant knockdown. Very weak, but gives you a knockdown and some distance. Can be done after 2 headbutts. BACK, FORWARD, (C) Spin Kick. This is by far the most useful move in the game. This will be used more than you'd like after a while, as it has the strength of 2 punch combos, is easily done, knocks guys down, and provides invincibility for 5 seconds. This allows you to kill most lower baddies in one move, often in pairs. Good for keeping time. As Monster Rick: (C), (C), (C) Triple punch combo. Smacks the guy around good. However, this isn't as fast as Rick's combo, so be prepared for smarter enemies to punch you during the windup of the second and third punches. Much more powerful than Rick's combo (B), in air, (C) Jump Kick. More powerful, but not by much. Double jumpkick power isn't too great of a deal, but you can work lots of opponents over fast by jumpkicking them silly. GRAB (C), (C), (C) Choke. Cool looking, and does a lot of damage, if you can spend the time doing it. Watch your back, as the chokes take a while to pull off. Throw can be done after the first choke or second choke. GRAB, Hold down and (C) Gut Punch. Cool, but I haven't found it very useful. Pretty much, it socks the guy in the gut once, and does about as much damage as 2 chokes. Faster than a combo or choke, so know that it's at your disposal. Can be done after 1 or 2 chokes. Special Move: It's my shortcoming that I have no idea how to do this. Monster Rick shoots a bunch of muscle like tentacles from his stomach and knocks everything around him down. As I recall, it was some sort of odd circle motion. If you know how to do this, please E-Mail me. By the way, this move almost never worked even when I did know how to do it. It also depletes your power. Oh well. Very powerful. Good for saving time. Do E- mail if you know this though. -------------------------------{It sounds to me like Monster Rick sucks!}----- ---------------------------------- You shut up! Well, there is a counterbalance. Monster Rick can do more damage if he consumes a power pill (discussed later) while already mutated. He also is more resistant to attacks (damage almost cut in half), and does more damage to enemies than Rick with his regular attacks. You switch to M.Rick when you need to go with a defensive nature, ironically, as M.Rick is slower and less adept at fighting multiple opponents. Life can be saved in this manner. Monster Rick serves a great purpose in boss fights, as you can take your time on only one opponent. ----------------------------{Enemies}----------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ A beat em up without enemies would be like a resident evil game without the zombies. It can't be done. Fortunately, splatterhouse 3 will be more than fair within its assortment of ghastly people to beat the hell out of. Some are easy, others will have you yelling at the screen in rage. Bosses will be listed seperately. These guys are the workhorses of the evil one. They populate lower levels and show up in numbers to make up for their useless nature. The zombies only have a slow punch-punch combo that can be interrupted, but rely on having 2 of them tag team you with it, where the damage does add up. Lower level zombies take 2 combos before going down. One spinkick will instantly kill one of them, which is generally the best way to deal with them whenever you can. More savage than the regular zombies. These guys have large clawed arms that have a very long reach. Later on, they'll use a slide attack that knocks you down and does fair damage. Mostly these guys take about 3 combos to put down, and cannot be killed by only one spinkick. My advice: Spinkick them, then combo when they get up. Again, don't let them get the upper hand and gang up on you, as they can do a nasty 3 hitter that does massive damage. These guys take all that you can throw at them. They have 2 forms of attack: a regular bite with good range and priority, as well as a running bite later on that will mow down 50 percent of your health. Best way to floor them is by spinkicking them as soon as they get up, as they'll have a tendency to interrupt your combos with an extremely damaging bite. Grabbing and headbutting work marginally well, but know that the red ones in the later levels (3 and onward) can stomach as many as 8 spinkicks and get up for more. Also, grabbing is dangerous in the fact that they can bite you when you try to get close. Show up first in level 2. Very useless in attack, but they take a lot of damage. Often paired with the clawed and headless zombies to provide a distraction. Knock down often to deal with other threats. Funny though, they get beaten up very badly, and start leaking after you knock the stuffing out of them a bit. Can take 2 or 3 spinkicks, then die. Note though, that the later level puffies will start doing a 3 hit combo, especially when you're fighting someone else. They'll scratch you up like a cat on crack. Regardless, combos work well, as do headbutts. These guys have a huge set of bear trap teeth. Oddly enough though, they slide at you. If you get too close, they hit you with a tongue that knocks you down. Slide hits fairly hard, but the tongue attack really hurts. Spinkick as soon as they get up, don't allow a chance for them to attack. Make them into a very high priority of removal. This Zombie breed is very odd. They spit mostly harmless acid, which won't do too much to your lifebar if it connects. However, they have a bite knockdown of small power, as well as some attack where they stab you with their intestines, which does about 40 percent damage. Stay clear of it. They take lots of hits, so be persistant in comboing or spinkicking. By far, these guys are the worst in the game. I think you meet them in level 4. Be warned! If you approach them dead on from the front, they do a huge swipe from beneath their cloak that hurts really bad, equivalent to a fat guy rush. After the fact, they teleport away from all your attacks, meaning the only way to do any damage is by headbutts, which can complicate things when there's 2 of them. Punch near one of them to make it teleport away, then grab the other one (Move diagonally to aboid the swipe) and headbutt away. Monster rick works well against these guys. Even worse, after you wail on them, they turn into a disfigured head that tries to lick you. The lick does as much damage as the swipe, but again, it's a horizontal attack. The head cannot teleport, so this time you can spinkick or combo its floating ass. Including but not limited to poltergiest books, severed hands, floor spirits, etc. They take over one large room and fill it up with their presence. If they hit, it causes you to be stunned for a moment and drop whatever weapon you have. Damage is nothing to worry about. Ten hits from going through a room like this, and your life is practically uneffected. NOTE! >All enemies attack horizontally. Approaching an enemy on the same plane as you by walking at him will result in you getting hit. Move diagonally to opponents to save life. You can then grab them with relative ease. >Any enemy with a projectile attack does little damage. >Spinkicking renders you invincible. Best way to take out sliding enemies. >Enemies have multiple stages of deformation, meaning that they get more bloody the more you pound on them. Each stage of deformation results in a knockdown, which means that longer combos and headbutts are cancelled. Spinkicks can add damage after the deformation, allowing you to kill enemies that would normally take 2 combos to kill in one hit. ---------------------------{Bosses}------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- A big monster. Has the ability to block your attacks. Also has a horrible way of moving around you over and over without attacking, no matter what you try and do. Also can jump to the other side of the screen while invincible. Turn into monster rick and choke the hell out of him until his head falls off. After this, he'll gain a new attack where he can shoot a hand out of his gaping throat wound. Fair damage, horizontal attack. Otherwise, he tries to punch you with a knockdown. Can spit mostly irritating vomit, does little damage. Headbutt if out of power. This boss also shows up periodically as a regular enemy, but has greatly reduced hitpoints. Still has all abilites of the regular boss though, such as a block. Boreworm. He, like the first boss, can block your attacks. Also can jump from one side of the screen to the other, while dropping smaller worms on you. Attacks via a 2 headbutt combo, which knocks you down. After too much, he'll burst open, and attempt to hit you with several groundslides. Spinkick as soon as he bolts towards you, and you'll connect. Don't choke the hell out of him like you did the first one, play it safe. He'll burst after about 4 choke runs (3 chokes in each run), and then die after roughly 3 spinkicks. Jump kick him if he gets too close and you're uncomfortable. Teddy bear. One of the more cool game bosses. He'll appear first as a harmless teddy bear with only 1 attack: a weak headbutt-rush like E Honda of street fighter. After you kick him around, he tears out of the bear, partially, to kick your ass. His main attack is a rush across the screen which does good damage, and he'll follow it up with a painful 3 hit stab combo if you get too close to him. Spinkicks are your best friend here, as he can rush into your grab or combo attmepts. Immune to all attacks during his rush, which makes it diffucult to smack him. He also blocks, which loses it's charm fast. Monster Fetus. This guy is a huge pushover. Almost as easy as the first boss if you know how to kill him. The fetus has a slow attack, which doesn't knock you down, as well as an electric shock if you get too close. Pound on the fetus (sorry all you pro-lifers) at about an arm's length away to combo it into oblivion. After a few beatings, it'll fall to the ground and turn into a monster that can bite, shock, and rush. Easy stuff from here on in. Jump kick it into the corner and do spinkick after spinkick, pinning it into the wall. It will block the first kick and get nailed by the second. You can grab it, but I would advise against it due to the huge electric shock it sometimes performs. The evil one. The evil one will attempt to teleport around the area and shoot your feet with small fireballs. To avoid it, move diagonally to avoid the first, and jump to miss the second. To attack him, you need to grab him. Usually, he doesn't sock you when you attempt this, although he may teleport away. Headbutt or choke into oblivion. He'll get hurt and split open partially, and gain a new attack (like every boss in this game, surprise) where he shoots a huge head from his chest that does massive damage if it connects. However, the head is a horizontal attack, so stay off his proverbial plane and he'll never employ it. I think he'll still shoot fireballs and have all of his old attacks. Choke to death, again. The Mask! GASP! Well, surprise surprise. It only seemed right that a self conscious peice of headgear would be hellbent on world domination for no good reason. The Evil One being it's sole competition in traditional evil world takeover, a quick death was inevitable. With the evil one out of the way, the mask wants a shot at evil now. So, oddly enough, you need to beat the crap out of a huge mask demon/beast thing. The curious mind also ponders why you're wearing your mask during all this. The first form (Sigh, another double-header boss) is easy. Beat the hell out of it with combos or choke it to death. Move diagonally to avoid projectiles. It also teleports, be warned. After enough love, it turns into a giant mask. Who saw that coming? it has 3 moves: Teleport, Spikes, and Homing Mask. The spikes are a horizontal projectile. Move diagonally whenever the mask is in sight. The homing masks are large projectiles that follow you. They disappear after they hit you, or after a set amount of time. Due to this nature, always throw the mask to the sides when done choking or headbutting it, which is the only way to inflict damage on the second form. If the homing mask is shot by the boss in the middle of the stage, YOU WILL GET HIT. It also stings badly. Your life will deplete. Choke to death for the ending. ----------------------{Weapons / Items}--------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ Although it seems like there are many weapons, other splatterhouse games eclipse this one. A tradeoff for a better fighting engine I suppose. ~ITEMS~ Power Up: Gives you power to turn into Monster Rick. Consuming one of these while already mutated allows you to inflict even more damage. Definately good. One Power up orb is enough to clear out one room full of guys as M. Rick, not really too much in your interest to only save them for boss fights. Take out any group of 3-4 monsters as M. Rick for defensive purposes. Life Up: Dah!!! It Makes you fly! (or boosts your health, stupid). Looks like a pulsating heart. Extra Life: Looks kinda like a bible. Extra Life. ~WEAPONS~ Brick type: Damage equal to one rick combo. Knocks enemies down, and must be picked up after each throw. Not practical for teleporters or large groups of enemies. Fairly weak. Note that because of the way it works, ghosts tend to steal it more often than not. Board Type: Baseball Bat, Two by Four, etc. As much damage as a brick hit, but the bat never leaves your hands. Can be used infinitely, causes messy head splatters on baddies. Good for gourps, but it has a slow windup. Be ready for it. Blade Type: Cleaver, Knife. This is the end all be all weapon. If you find it, do not let ghosts get it. Damage is equal to about 1.5 bat hits (three combos worth of pain! That's good damage!). Also causes messy effects. Otherwise, no different in operation than the bat. ~About the Ghosts~ Ghosts will attempt to steal your weapon in every level if it hits the floor. To remedy this, do not get knocked down. If your weapon hits the floor, go after it before it's lost. There is a room in the floor you are on (Always) which has all the weapons retrieved by ghosts, but going out of your way to get there can be a hassle. ---------------------------------{Levels}------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- Each level can be taken in a long way or a short way. Long ways often have weapons, lifeups, and extra lives. Short ways are better for getting a happy ending (in Splatterhouse? NAH!). Yellow doors warp you to another part of the house, and there's always a room in which stolen weapons are stored. The first floor. Low level badguys, some weaponry. Fast to get through, although damn near impossible to get to the destination by 3:00. Determines Jennifer's mortality. FAST WAY: right, right, up, right, up, up, right, down, up, up, right. Enemies are tougher. Determines whether jennifer lives, dies, or becomes a mindless beast. FAST WAY: down, left, down, left, down, down, right, right Enemies hate your stinking hockey mask wearing soul. Determines how fast you get to David. FAST WAY: left, left, up, right, right, right, left, left, up, right, right. Meet the cloaked bastards. I promise they'll kill you the first time. Promise. Determines David's Mortality. FAST WAY: left, left, down, right, right, up, down through yellow door, right, right, right, up. Determines nothing. Hard. No real incentive for beating it fast, so why bother? The end boss. Beat and be happy. ~NOTE ON MY FAST WAYS~ I've listed the order you travel from the pause map in order to make good time. Although I'm sure faster ways have been found, these allow you to get the best ending if you can beat the creatures in them fast enough. ~LEVEL X~ This level shows up every now and then. You can get it for sure after level 1 if you get to the boss as fast as possible (Not sure exactly) and then turn into monster rick and whoop his ass in 30 seconds or less. hard to do. You get a small cutscene (RICK: "HUH?") and proceed to a level with 2 extra lives and some fat zombies. Fun. It's also rumored you can get to these areas if you have 3 minutes remaining when you get to the destination or beat the boss there, I forget honestly, but it's near impossible to traverse the floors that fast. Another thing rumored is that if you access the level X from level 2 or higher, it skips the next level, IE, after going from floor 2 to X, the next floor you fight through is 4, as it skips. However, the level's kinda boring. There's not much except for those lives, which you probably sacrificed in rushing through the level to get there. -----------------------------------------{Endings}---------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- There are 4 possible: Jen and David live Jen and David die Jen lives, David dies Jen dies, David lives. Don't expect anything Spielbergian from these. They're about as long as a between level cinematic, which needless to say isn't long. In fact, the cinematics between the levels is better than these piles of crap. The good ending is the worst and most boring. Kill your family for a real man's ending. ----------------------------------{Final Words}------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------- I'll cream my pants when I see the next splatterhouse. As it stands, I'm fine with playing through the trilogy every now and then. It's good clean fun for the whole famil..... no, wait, just me. RICK: "This Guide written by Clayton Walker!!" MASK: "Use that hatred and anger to write him at hangedman@iname.com!!" RICK: "...!!" MASK: "E-mail if you know how to do that damned Gut-buster Super move!!" RICK: "Get permission before you post this guide!!" *By the way, I've also written guides for Maken X and Counter-Strike. Check them out and let me know what you think. I like getting feedback. Thanks for reading.