A Nightmare on Elm Street
Developed by: Rare
Published by: LJN
Release date: October 1990 (NA)
In my dreams, I’m always dying. Some weird guy in a fedora keeps spouting off funny zingers while he kills me in increasingly creative ways. Patricia Arquette might have been there, but I can’t be sure. And then I wake up in an exaggerated cold sweat every night. It’s been a strange October.
When I’m not tossing and turning in bed, I’ve been trying my damnedest to write about this game, but it’s just not happening. For the past week, I’ve been staring at a blank blog entry, hoping the words will come to me, but they don’t. It’s like today’s game just doesn’t want to be written about. But I’m fed up, man, I’m tired of this thing haunting me! It’s like a nightmare! I’m gonna wash down three stay awake pills with a room temperature Coke and try to bang this review out, even if it kills me.
Even if it kills me…
Freddy™ Krueger™ is back to terrorize the citizens of Springwood through their dreams, but in a kid-friendly Nintendo sort of way. Teenagers are dying in their sleep, so it’s up to one oversexed high schooler (that’s YOU!) to collect his remains and burn them in a furnace, stopping him once and for all. Or at least until the next movie comes out. A Nightmare on Elm Street is an action/platformer that plays a little like a cheap Castlevania. Run, jump, and punch your way through seven action levels, with each sporting more cartoon dog bone remains to collect than the last.
So let’s talk gameplay. The controls are a bit on the floaty side (especially when it comes to jumping), but they’re far from the worst I’ve ever experienced. The hit detection is a little wack, too; attacks and projectiles will often whiff right past enemies, meaning you’ll take more than a few unnecessary hits on your quest. It’s a small aggravation throughout, but far from a deal breaker.
The graphics are passable, but there’s nothing in the way of striking set pieces, or interesting colour palettes here. The enemies consist of zombies, rats, bats, and other baddies you’ll see in your local dollar store’s seasonal Halloween aisle. Visuals are half the battle when it comes to horror, and that battle was lost pretty hard here.
On the other hand, the music absolutely rips. There are one or two annoyingly short loops in there, but as a whole the compositions in Elm Street are moody, complex, and awesome. Leave it to David Wise (composer of the Donkey Kong Country series) to absolutely kill it in the audio department. He don’t miss.
One of the coolest parts of Elm Street is the dream world. There’s a red bar in the upper-left of the screen that ticks down as you play – once it runs out, your character falls asleep and wakes up in Freddy’s™ dream domain. The dream world’s layout is the same as the normal one, but the enemies are stronger, and you can change into several Dream Warriors to mow down the baddies and make your life easier! Playing as a ninja, a warlock or an athlete with high jumps and projectiles makes the game feel way more dynamic. The only downside to the dream world is that, if you spend too long inside of it, you’ll eventually be forced into a boss fight with Freddy™. The fight’s not hard – it’s always the same simplistic, anticlimactic battle – but after the first few times it starts to feel like a waste of time and energy.
And that right there is my biggest problem with this game. Right down to the boss battle design, it lacks a strong identity that an IP like A Nightmare on Elm Street demands. Freddy™ is a horror icon with all sorts of freaky powers at his disposal, and a real cult of personality that surrounds him. His presence feels wasted on a generic action game where he’s nothing more than a stock boss with stock abilities in a stock world, making the movie license feel a bit tacked on. It’s a shame since Elm Street’s sister game, Friday the 13th, nailed the atmosphere of its movies just right even in its kiddie-fied Nintendo incarnation. Jason set my expectations quite high, but ol’ Fred™ just couldn’t live up to ’em. So it goes.
Just to clarify, I actually enjoyed this game! Elm Street’s core gameplay loop is pretty fun, the dream world mechanic is cool, the difficulty curve is just right, and the music is tops. But regardless, if you like action games or are curious about one of Freddy’s™ only video game romps, it might be worth a look. It’s far from being the nightmare its often made out to be, but it has a few problems that hold it back from being something truly special. I firmly believe that it would’ve been hailed as a genuine classic if the visuals and atmosphere were more up to snuff, in particular. Fixing the hit detection would’ve been nice too.
And would you look at that, I actually managed to finish this review. It’s incredible what some caffeine and determination can do for you. It’s almost too good to be true…like a dream! I hope a fedora wearing weirdo doesn’t pop out of my laptop screen to kill me again. That’d suck.
Yeah, that’d really suck…
Final rating:
NESJunk 