After 32 years, an NES horror JRPG thought to be lost media has suddenly leaked in fully playable form

Fans of retro horror games, NES-era JRPGs, and lost media research all got a delightful surprise on Halloween when a fully playable build of Splatterworld leaked online. The existence of this RPG spinoff of Namco's Splatterhouse series was only recently made public, and the sudden appearance of the full game would be nearly unbelievable if it wasn't backed up by a playable ROM.

If you're not familiar with Splatterhouse, the original is a horror-themed beat-'em-up from Namco where you play as a Jason Voorhees lookalike named Rick, fighting off various gruesome monstrosities as you try to save your girlfriend. It was adapted for console release with a cutesy action-platformer called Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, released for the Famicom in 1989.

Wanpaku Graffiti never got localized for the NES, but apparently Namco had plans in mind for a follow-up. In a retrospective video released a few years ago, the publisher said that "sequels were also in development, however these games were never released." That line, plus a bit of art, were the first hint of the existence of Splatterworld.

未発売ゲーム　「スプラッターワールド」　プロモーションビデオ - YouTube

Watch On

It wasn't until 2024, however, that anyone would refer to Splatterworld by name. That was when a Famicom game researcher who goes by Orochi posted a blog about the game, sharing an "in-store game VHS" debuting the very first Splatterworld gameplay footage to ever hit the internet. While it was canceled sometime before its planned 1993 release, this would've been a classic-style 8-bit JRPG with all the schlocky horror movie themes of Splatterhouse.

These two videos were, up until last week, the only evidence online that Splatterworld even existed. You can imagine the shock, then, when a seemingly random 4chan post shared on Halloween included what seemed to be a fully playable ROM of the once-lost game.

As the manager of Splatterhouse fansite West Mansion writes on Bluesky (thanks, Time Extension), "The ROM for the unreleased Famicom RPG Splatter World has been released (in a thread on 4chan, of all places). I've tried it myself, and it does seem to be genuine. If it's a fake, it's a damn good one." Players haven't yet had enough time to fully explore the bounds of the game, but by all initial appearances it's essentially complete.

STOP THE PRESSES. The ROM for the unreleased Famicom RPG Splatter World has been released (in a thread on 4chan, of all places). I've tried it myself, and it does seem to be genuine. If it's a fake, it's a damn good one. Expect (more) coverage on West Mansion soon. @hg101.bsky.social

— @west-mansion.bsky.social (@west-mansion.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-11-03T21:23:19.096Z

West Mansion has archived the ROM for now, though be warned that it currently only runs on NES emulator FCEUX thanks to its use of an obscure, late-era cartridge mapper. You might also have some trouble playing it because, well, it's a Japanese RPG, and the language barrier is likely to be a problem in navigating the game.

But judging by the replies to that Bluesky post, fan translators are already on the case, and while such a patch would certainly take time an English version of Splatterworld doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility.

Splatterhouse got a handful of sequels through the early '90s, but the series essentially died after a 2010 Xbox 360 and PS3 reboot launched to pretty middling reviews. It's been a dry decade-and-a-half for series fans, but you can't beat the Halloween surprise of a whole new game to enjoy.

These are the best horror games you can play today.