I always wanted to be an archaeologist when I was a kid, searching for long-lost treasures and making amazing discoveries. Now, I get to write about games that have been brought back from the brink, titles that were once thought lost but miraculously appear after the hard efforts of game preservation teams. It's not dinosaur bones or mammoth tusks, but it's just as exciting for my inner '90s kid.
Can you remember Splatterhouse? It was a Famicom game that poked fun of horror movies. You might know it better as Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti if you prefer to call games by their Sunday names. The game came out in Japan for the Famicom as the second game in the Splatterhouse series, though it did see a release here in the West as part of a Namco collection for Switch, PS4, Xbox One, & PC.
Splatterworld was meant to be released in 1993, though it met an untimely demise. We still don't really know why it was never released, but it was probably due to the fact that the SNES was stepping into its prime and people were looking to newer and more exciting titles. Still, the game was cancelled close to its finish date, which meant there had to be a finished version of it somewhere.
Splatterworld - English Translation (NES) Added https://t.co/tJDKk5WZeA pic.twitter.com/ZfFQUwAAQy
— Romhack.ing (@romhackdoting) December 3, 2025
The Splatterworld ROM was dumped on 4chan on Halloween (nice touch, huh), though it was still in Japanese as it was originally intended. You need the emulator FCEUX to use it as stated by Splatterhouse Fan Page 'West Mansion', and now you can enjoy it in English thanks to the efforts of hacker Aeon Genesis, who has managed to translate the game in just 33 days! Welcome to 'Splatterworld: Rick and the King of Terror!'
That's an incredible feat if I do say so myself, and for the first time since this game should have released over 30 years ago, Western gamers can jump in and experience Jennifer and Rick squaring off against Dr West once more. It's not aged particularly well, however, with Aeon Genesis warning players about the fact that the spirits of some pretty nasty dictators appear as NPCs in the game. They have been left as they were to preserve the original developer's ideas for the game, but just keep that in mind before you do try out the game!
