On this day, I was cleaning out the newest arrival from UPS, when I came about it. At long last, I hold it in my hands...



My bosses have heard many tales from me about the game. They thought it was awesome. They also thought that there was NO FUCKING WAY I'd take it home early!!!!

(the huge DO NOT SELL UNTIL 11/23/10 on the box didn't help)

Aw, well....at least it releases on one of the holiest days in gaming
(the 12th anniversary of Ocarina of Time)

Later

Oh yeah. It's on... very soon. :lol Awesome!

HOLY COW!!! The newest addition to the sacred relics of our order has arrived! :lol Soon we shall experience its awesomeness first hand! :rtfo

EDIT:
I've checked the website of our local shop here in the Philippines called "DataBlitz" and its in the coming soon section! XD HOLY COW! Could it be that the sacred relic has arrived in our area as well?! :lol

Marty, will your place be handling the strategy guides? I'm just wondering if they've been delivered as well. Amazon has them as being released on the 16th but shipping in 5-7 weeks, and Gamestop has them arriving the 23rd. I really don't think they've had enough lead time to get the guide out by then, and might not for several weeks.

Are you at liberty to divulge where you work? If it's a chain store and Gamestop doesn't have my copy on Tuesday, I might head on over to the local branch if it is.

no luck on the book...yet

Hey guys, it looks like the strategy guides have hit retailers, I picked one up at my local Gamestop today. Now to have the self control to not open it and read everything!

I called my local Gamestop to see if they would have them. They were able to put one on hold for me so that I could pick it up with the game.

Not trying to sound like a smart ass but; my guess is the photo was taken in a Best Buy stockroom, the shirt and the price tag stickers on the shelf seem to give that away.

shhh. it's a secret to everybody!

Thanks! :lol I didn't mention that Marty's photo wasn't showing up on my work computer, which has all kinds of filters on it (and for a while was even blocking the forum here as a 'malicious website'-must have been picking up Corpse Monger's Xmas Story :eek ). In fact, 90% of the photos here don't show up. Otherwise all would indeed have been revealed.

Great! Thanks for the info. I'll have to check tomorrow and see if the local GS has any. It'll help erase the sting of Japan Post no longer shipping anything over a pound to the US by airmail, which means all those New Year's gifts I was expecting might be a couple of months late.

EDIT: Just checked and it's in stock...100 miles away in Columbus. Guess I'll wait. I'll call the local Gamestop today just in case or order it with next day shipping from Amazon.

The local Gamestop did indeed have one, and the Brickster cleared a way to the register with his bloody two-by-four. Unlike DarkLordPsycho, I jumped right in. The book is GREAT. It's got a good amount of conceptual artwork, most of which I assume is Dave's (and a lot of which we've already seen here). There are some really cool surprises in store for everyone, and I'm already at a frenzy just by flipping through the guide. Gamestop also got the game in early-the gals at the front counter teased me with my reserved copies of the PS3 and XBOX game. I forgot to ask if the Terror Mask statues were in, but I'm assuming it'll just be the codes like we've discussed in the preorder thread.

A little bad news-this might have been discussed elsewhere, but the unlockable alternate in-game Terror Masks are console specific according to the guide. I'm hoping PS3 or XBOX Live makes these and the pre-order unlockables available for purchase. If I end up with two terror masks, I might run a contest on here so someone who didn't get one can cash in.

Ladies and gents, I don't think anyone who's a fan of the series will be disappointed with the game. There are fully 35 pages devoted to moves in this guide, the bloodiest and most bizarre moves ever seen with names like 'sphincter buster', 'double fisting' and 'meat sack slam'. The creatures are pure evil, the environments twisted, gory, and depraved. I am pumped, and I will be at Gamestop at 10:00 AM Tuesday to reap my bounty. And I will be dumping Sengoku Basara, all my Japanese history projects, and chanbara movies this coming week so I can devote the long holiday weekend to wallowing in the unholy glory of this twisted masterpiece. This is the time. This is the week. This is the event we've all waited for for so long, and it is upon us. Relish it and make it you own.

Holy shit I can't wait!

How many different kinds of monsters are there?

brick, so we know without spoilers,

does the guide tell you how to unlock the original games?

is it reaching certain levels, or do we have to collect stuff like Ninja Gaiden Xbox did?

Hey Brick, that's awesome, I'm glad it all worked out for you and I am happy you were able to read through it and give us a summary without spoilers. The wait is seriously killing me. I am hardcore about spoilers for this game that I wont watch trailers and will even turn away if an interview shows footage. I trust it will be great and I hope we can kick Dr. Wests ass.

I'd like to know these too if possible. :smug :cheers

I'll have an answer in the morning-left the guide at home and I'm in the office.

And I owe it all to you, pal!

Yeah, I've been avoiding checking out the game trailers and the newer screenshots for the same reason. I'm also trying to keep away from the text in the walkthrough section of the book.


Anyway, here's the promised info, along with a few other notes of interest.

1) The original games are unlocked by playing through Story Mode. The guide doesn't specify at what point each is unlocked (usually a sign that the author was given an unfinished copy of the game to make his deadline-which explains why the guide looks so good and came out a bit early, not delayed like I thought).

2) The unlockable alternate terror masks are unlocked by playing through story mode. Also not specified when, but likely a complete playthrough will be needed.

3) Survival mode arenas unlock at various points as you go through Story Mode.

4) The only thing that isn't unlocked by just playing through Story Mode are chapters in Dr. West's Journal. It seems these are pretty lengthy, somewhat like the long files in RE5. You get these by racking up game completion percentage-which is a function of clearing levels on all three difficulty levels, getting S ranks in all the survival arenas, collecting all of Jen's photo's, and purchasing all the move upgrades (you purchase these with the blood you've spilled).

5) There are 17 Jen photos-one on each of 11 Story Mode Levels and one per survival arena. Each photo comes in four pieces. Other than getting to look at Jen in various stages of undress, they only function towards helping to unlock West's Journal pages.

6) There are 8 classes of common enemies, and 19 types between those classes. There's about a dozen unique bosses and perhaps as many unique 'guardians' and characters. The bestiary in the book only covers the common enemies, so it's hard to say.

7) Rick has 90 different attacks and a few defensive moves.

8) There are 21 weapons, of which 9 are non-organic...the rest are torn off from various creatures and Rick himself

8 classes of enemy , 19 types? Well I'm happy.

@Brick
Awesome! Thanks for the info :smug :rtfo

So, that means 8 common enemy models, but 19 in all(which are palette swapped/alternate mapped versions)? I don't think that's bad, especially for Splatterhouse. I mean, the original games had a lot of common enemies scattered throughout the entire game. I was kinda hoping this would do the same.

Nice to see that there are about a dozen unique bosses!! THAT makes me happy! They didn't go the usual route of featuring a powerful enemy as a boss in the early portion, then revert him into a common enemy during the final leg(like the first boss in SH3). Those things kinda annoy me(it's one of my gaming pet peeves).

About the 8 classes of enemies and 19 types, are we speaking of plain and simple palette-swapping (which I do plainly and clearly hate) or something quite more complex. I'm going to try illustrate my point with the hypothetical classifications I am referring to:

Possibility A (the one I'd love):
Common enemy: Zombie
Types: Zombie clown (breathes fire), zombie with cleaver, zombie with claws (and somewhat feral behaviour)

Possibility B (the one I'd hate):
Common enemy: Zombie clown
Types: Yellow zombie clown, red zombie clown (with a different attack perhaps), mutated zombie clown (with more life)

I've seen nothing in the game which would point to the latter being the case, fortunately.
Also, please, is the MANIPEDE in game? I'd love it to have remained.

Guys, there are new screens on Gamespot (screens from the intro of the game, not much to see), as well as a new video, the Survival Mode
However, I did not watch the vid, but here is the link:
http://us.gamespot.com/ps3/action/splatter...gameplay-movie-

Type A predominantly. I didn't see the Mantipede, but like I said I was just skimming the walkthrough pages so I won't swear it's not in there.

magnaderalpha, there is a bit of 'boss demotion' where an early level midboss becomes a common enemy later in the game, but I listed them in the 'common enemies' section.

That...still doesn't look very polished to me.

I think it looks pretty good.

I think it looks pretty good, as well. I think the pictures taken from the early part of the game aren't direct feed, which is why they look blurry. Other than that, the video looks good and the action's pretty intense.

Looks great!

Still don,t like the soundtrack though. Polished metal is not what this game needs. Doomy stuff would be much more interesting. But I'll live with it. And I guess you can turn down the music volume in the options.

BTW, Thanks for the info Brick! :rtfo Very helpful...I can't wait to pick my copy up tomorrow!

A little follow up-the guide DOES have the levels the game is unlocked on (they were in the walkthrough, not in the extras section).

Splatterhouse unlocks after completing Phase 2.
Splatterhouse 2 unlocks after completing Phase 4.
Splatterhouse 3 unlocks after completing Phase 8.
The console-specific alternate Terror Mask unlocks after Phase 12 (ie, completing the game).

Thanks for the heads-up on stuff Brick.

Has anyone who pre-ordered at Gamestop picked theirs up yet? I'm curious about how the code to get your Terror Mask statue works.

There is a link on the receipt, which is taped to your game box. You go to the link, fill in your information, and the code at the bottom. Needless to say, while supplies last, so the earlier the better.

Expect it in 10-14 days after filling out the information.

I hear that. I'm not a huge fan of metal. Just a headache waiting to happen.