Nightmare On Elm Street (video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nightmare on Elm Street is the name of a video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System by LJN in 1990. The game is loosely based on the A Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films, especially the third and fourth films. A separate DOS computer version based on the film franchise was also released, but was a role-playing game.

Contents 1 NES Storyline 2 DOS Storyline 3 Trivia 4 External links

[edit] NES Storyline

In the game the player (and up to three other players with a special adapter) controlled a character that has to jump and punch his way through various Elm Street locations and homes to collect all of the bones of Freddy Krueger in order to place them in a furnace and end his reign of terror. Each character has the ability to withstand roughly a dozen direct hits, before they lose a life (the character floats up to the top of the screen as an angel). Each character has an on-screen sleep meter that slowly decline (and can be replenished with cups of coffee). When the character falls asleep, the setting becomes darker and more sinister and the villains harder to defeat. While the character is asleep, icons can be collected that allows their character to switch between three different Dream Warriors.

• Ninja - Throw unlimited throwing stars and jump kick.

• Acrobat - Throw an unlimited supply of javelins and jump higher by somersaulting.

• Magician/Necromancer - Shoot unlimited fireballs and hover after jumping.

All the players could get these icons and use the Dream Warrior powers at the same time. In an interesting twist, when four players played at once, two of the characters would appear as females.

However, if the character stays asleep for too long, he would hear the film's famous theme song and be forced to have mini-battle with Freddy Krueger.

Once he collected all the bones in a level, the player has to battle a form of Freddy Krueger that is similar to the forms that he took in the films. The final level takes place in the former house of Freddy Krueger as the player make his way into the boiler room to burn all his bones in the furnace. Before the player can toss the bones in the furnace, the player has one final battle with Freddy Krueger.

Popular locations lifted directly from the films include the "Dream House" (from all films) and the junkyard (primarily from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.

The locations include:

• Outdoors/street
• Three houses
• Junkyard
• Cemetery
• Dream house
• Elm St. High School

The game also uses the NES Four Score accessory for four players; the feature can be achieved using the NES Satellite as well.

[edit] DOS Storyline

The DOS and Commodore 64 edition of a Nightmare on Elm Street was very different from the NES game of the same name. Published by Monarch Development and developed by Westwood Studios, the role playing gameplay and overhead viewpoint were similar to Gauntlet games. Using the characters from the third film, you can chose to play "Kincaid", "Kristen", "Will", "Nancy" or "Taryn" on a quest to save "Joey" and defeat Freddy.

The player must find keys in order to open doors. In the levels, the player can find weapons or items, which can also be bought from the vending machines throughout the game. These items can also be used to get rid of traps, like fire.

The enemies are varied, from skeletons to wheelchairs. Freddy is the boss of the game and turns into a snake, much like the snake creature he appears as in the third film.

[edit] Trivia

• The introductory screen shot for the Nintendo version has what appears to be an error where Freddy Krueger is not wearing his trademark glove, but still has sharp knives coming out of his fingers. However, the picture of Freddy is based off a poster for A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, where Freddy's knives came out of his fingers in this manner.

• Despite the popularity of the franchise, given a second life with the commercial success of the film Freddy vs. Jason, a video game based on the films has never been released for any of the more powerful video games systems.

[edit] External links

• A Nightmare on Elm Street (NES) at GameFAQs
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (DOS) at GameFAQs
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (C64) at GameFAQs
• NES Game Walkthrough at The Nightmare on Elm Street Companion
• A Nightmare On Elm Street at MobyGames
• PC Game Review at I-Mockery
• Nightmare On Elm Street (video game) at the Internet Movie Database
• C64 Cheat Program