Splatterhouse series / スプラッターハウス Supurattāhausu

[Strider77]

Okay that purple pit of doom was where I met my doom... that was an exercise in frustration.

[BIL]

Wheee, tangents! I was snooping about for info on KID's Famicom/NES games, specifically Ken Lobb's involvement with them at US publisher Taxan. He was well-known for adding secret ending messages for players who'd cleared the highest difficulties, as seen in Burai Fighter and Kick Master. Sometimes credited by his hiscore initials "KAL." Yes, the infamously shitty Klobb from Goldeneye N64 is a reference to him, too!

Anyway, I had no idea he'd moved on to Namco after Taxan folded, and worked on the Genesis Splatterhouses ("balancing work" according to the Q&A linked above). I gave the US SH3's staff roll a look, and sure enough under "Special Thanks" are listed a "Ken & Jim." The Japanese version's staff roll is identical, save for the absence of this credit.

I wonder how the two versions' development played out. Given Lobb's later work on Killer Instinct, and the "Genesis does edgy Mortal Kombat" craze being in full swing, it's easy to imagine him getting down w/ the kidz and adding the US version's command-inputted disco hurricane attack. Shame it (combined with the non-metered command tentacles) completely ruined the game balance, but oh well.

Incidentally the Japanese version does share the unmistakably Lobb-esque secret message for clearing Game Master... only "rip 'em up" has been altered to "rep 'em up," which I actually think sounds cooler ("BUSTIN OUT 1CC REPS YO") but is bizarre nonetheless!

What strange sequence of events resulted in such radically varying revisions released nary a day apart?

Was "DON'T TOUCH MY GAME YOU FILTHY GAIJIN" screamed down a phone at some point?!