FEATURE: Pretty Bad, But Mildly Fun Games #2: A Nightmare On Elm Street (NES)

---------------------------------------------------

Developer: Rare

Publisher: LJN

Genre: Platformer/Movie-Game

Release: 1989

Console: NES 

--------------------------------------------------

Right off the bat, I am a HUGE Nightmare On Elm Street - I'm a sucker for 80s slasher movies, so I want to like this game because I feel I owe it to the franchise, but let's be honest, the video-game adaptation isn't too great. After all, LJN are responsible for the game and they are notorious for creating awful movie-games back in the day, but I give almost every game a chance and after finally beating this game, here's my thoughts. prettybad

It's difficult to tell which of the movies this game is actually based on, it was released in October of 1989, two months after the release of A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: Dream Child, so you would presume it would tie in with the film, but it really doesn't. If anything, the story reminds me of the third movie in the series; Dream Warriors - this is because there are numerous characters, each with different powers that can be only activated whilst in the dream world, and the whole point of the game is to collect Freddy's bones so you can burn him once and for all, which is conveniently similar to the ending of Dream Warriors, except Freddy get's buried, not burnt. However, it is generally accepted that the story is simply a spin-off from the movies, which would make a lot of sense. Play the game, and decide for yourself. It doesn't really matter either way, let's get down to the gameplay.

Up to four players can play the game, but I'd find if very difficult to get anyone else to play this with you - you start on Elm Street, and it is your mission to visit various houses, schools, graveyards, etc and find all the bones of Freddy Krueger, so you can finally destroy him (but we all know the killer never really dies...). You have a sleep meter that once emptied, the dream world takes over - here the enemies are no longer simple rats, but nightmarish monsters that are a little more difficult to defeat, to counter the effect of being asleep, you can collect cups of coffee and listen to radios to keep you awake. Throughout the game, you'll come across power-ups that grant your character more of a chance against Freddy and his minions, these being the Acrobat, which allows you to simply run faster, throw javelins, and perform somersaults - sounds good, and it is a useful power-up, but nothing compared to the Shadow Warrior, who's flying kick will make boss battles a lot easier, then there's the Necromancer who can actually use fire magic but the game's hit detection is terrible and the shots hardly ever register, so it's just best to hold on to the Shadow Warrior.

Each stage pits you against a lot of enemies and a certain amount of bones you have to collect before you can move on to the boss, the jumps look easy enough but it's one of those games where you sometimes just go through a platform randomly even though you've landed on it very safely. You sort of learn to get around it by jumping at very particular angles, and it does become playable.

At the end of each stage, you have to defeat a piece of Freddy in order to get that part of his body - these range from a huge Freddy glove-hand to his ghost, once all of the different parts of Freddy are collected, you are put through all of the bosses again, and Freddy himself in his full form. What is up with that? Games that feel you should defeat the bosses you've already killed - there's nothing wrong with just having one last final boss that puts up a fight, either way the final form of Freddy isn't too hard, and the game ends quite abruptly suggesting that Freddy isn't really dead. Big surprise, huh?

I've got to give LJN credit though, having the balls to create a horror movie-game - for the time there weren't many around, except Friday The 13th (NES), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Atari 2600), and Halloween (Atari 2600), which were way worse than A Nightmare On Elm Street, so in that respect, this is actually a half-decent video-game. I'm never going to play it again, and I wouldn't recommend it, but I think that love for Freddy I have makes me like the game...a little.Feature1