Namco to continue development for Sega's new console with the revival of a classic?

Despite recent indications to the contrary, rumours from Namco suggest that one of their age-old classics could be reborn on the Dreamcast.

The game in question is TurboGrafx classic, Splatterhouse, and if whisperings from Namco are to be believed, this gory series will be one of the most frightening titles ever seen. The rumours originated from a post made by Namco producer, Yas Noguchi, where he hints that they may indeed be working on additional Dreamcast development. "We might be working on something, but one thing for sure is that it isn't anything people have been speculating about so far on the Net," he said.

The reference there, for those who have missed much of the speculation occurring on the Net, alludes to the idea of either a Dreamcast incantation of the Tekken or Ridge Racer series, which look rather unlikely. Namco have previously stated that they chose Soul Calibur for a DC port for two primary reasons. One being the fact that no other current platform could do the title justice, and another being the fact that though they wanted to support Sega, they were not prepared to give them any of their larger franchises just yet. But they never ruled out the idea of a forgotten title.

As if to fuel the fires of speculation himself, Noguchi later hints at the following, and one has to wonder how closely the earlier thoughts and this confession are tied. "I recently had the opportunity to talk shop with the original designer of Splatterhouse, and he mentioned that he's been thinking about the possibilities of updating the game for the 128bit era," he said. "He was going off on ways he might use the powerful visualisation technologies, found in the new console architectures, to bring a new level of horror and suspense to the horror videogame genre. Blood and guts indeed! So, hypothetically speaking, if we came out with a new Splatterhouse game on some 128bit console, you would probably see lots of blood and guts that would turn your stomach in a really good, horror flick kind of way".

At press time, a Namco spokesperson commented that they had no information on any such title at this point in time, but did not rule out said possibility. We'll keep you posted should anything more concrete develop, but this could certainly prove interesting if Noguchi's insinuations have any merit.

Courtesy of IGN.com