#MacabroGamers: Sweet Home: The Visit That Never Came.

By: Mario Ayanami

In this space, we've already covered the importance Atari 2600 titles had in the birth of survival horror. But it was in 1989 that Capcom developed a game that pushed the Famicom — the Japanese version of our beloved Nintendo Entertainment System — to its limits. Despite the enormous success it was back in its home country, Sweet Home was never officially released in America. Even so, it left a mark on horror games that endures to this day.

Sweet Home is based on a Japanese horror film of the same name directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a director who remains active in the genre to this day. The plot follows the odyssey of a film crew trying to shoot a documentary in the abandoned mansion of a deceased painter. Before long, they find themselves attacked by a strange presence… the ghost of the artist's wife! An entity that, of course, is not the least bit pleased with her visitors. The marathon of brutality is about to begin…

The game, released the same day, follows the story closely. Wrapped in an RPG system inspired by Dragon Warrior, you controlled the five members of the crew, whether using them as a team or individually to make the most of each one's distinct abilities. If one of them died, there was no turning back: their death was permanent for the rest of the game. To progress, you had to solve a series of complex puzzles, random battles against various spirits, and quick-time events that put your reflexes to the test. Each scene played out in cutscenes that were highly innovative for their time, the kind we had only ever seen in Ninja Gaiden or Golgo 13; except that, unlike that pair, these featured explicit violence, such as dismembered bodies or terrifying ghosts. In the end, you had to face the ghost of Mamiya, whose defeat would mean your freedom.

Unfortunately, the strict censorship Nintendo of America imposed on its releases, the lack of popularity of RPGs on our continent, and the lack of distribution for the film all kept this game from reaching the NES. Even so, its influence is such that it's considered the true father of survival horror. In Japan, it was received as a masterpiece. The very creator of Sweet Home, Tokuro Fujiwara, produced the first chapter of the most famous saga in 1996: Resident Evil, which drew its concept from this very work, giving the theme a B-movie twist.

It's a shame that, even now, no one has worked up the nerve to relaunch such an important title, especially given today's trend of releasing remakes and remasters everywhere. Still, if you're now planning to venture into this mansion, several fan-translated English emulators are circulating online, made by fans eager to try the game. Would you be willing to film in this mansion?