(👆 gif, click if autoplay is off!)

a GO! popup is a staple of any beatemup; how else do you know when to Walk Right?

new one just dropped (in 1993) and i love this so much...pointing hands is a pretty common way to handle this kind of popup but this one is so...cheeky. surprisingly cheeky considering Splatterhouse 3 is by far the darkest entry in the original trilogy!

Normally, the text between the two life bars reads VS and it flashes when a player's health gets low. If a player is already down one life, though, the text changes to the word DIE just so you really know what happens to you once your energy is gone lol.

i don't think it's a strictly necessary piece of communication but it's very charming and very arcade! fun detail 👉👉

Edit: just an example, non-interactive

i had never seen Gauntlet: The Third Encounter until a video for it dropped yesterday and it has one of the most fascinating HUD features i've ever seen in an old game; next to your stats is a sort of rudimentary first person view to show upcoming items and enemies as well as their vague position and distance from you!

this is so wild to me lol. maybe designed as a way to get around the Atari Lynx's small screen area so you don't get caught off guard from the sides?