"One, two, Freddy's comin' for you..."
A Nightmare on Elm Street
1989
Monarch Software
Movies, it seems, just don't make good games. This is especially true of horror films; Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street all had licensed games, and said games usually sucked. Freddy fans with computers got lucky, however; while the Nintendo crowd was subjected to a tedious, poorly-designed platformer, those who knew their way around DOS could experience the creepy Craven camp of the Elm Street flicks in action-packed, sixteen-color glory!
Well, sort of...
Story: 7/10
The game works on a modified premise of A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors. Basically, Freddy Krueger is once again undead and haunting kids in their sleep. For those who aren't familiar with
the movies, if Krueger kills someone in a nightmare, they die for real. Needless to say, this doesn't sit well with the six remaining Elm Street teenagers, particularly since Freddy's taken one of them already, and kidnaps the others after you select your character. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find Freddy's house, free your friends (each is now trapped in a different dream world), and end this nightmare for good. Or, at least, until the next sequel...
Works for me.
Graphics: 9/10
Not exactly photorealistic, and lacking any of Freddy's trademark grisly kills... Both shortcomings are forgivable, though, considering the hardware available at the time. On the positive side, the stages are cartoonish, but creepy, as are the monsters that Freddy sends your way. The Dream Warriors are well-done, each with their own animations and portraits. Freddy looks very much like himself as well... the three or four times he appears. But, then, this title's lack of Freddy is another matter...
Sound: 5/10
Meh. Anyone who's ever played a game from this era knows that the sound was never anything special: some blips, bloops, and bleeps, generated from somewhere within the innards of the hard drive, were all we had back then, and A Nightmare on Elm Street is no exception to this rule. I can't really fault the game for that, of course; it's a shortcoming of the hardware. However, the verdict stands: the sound is average. Nothing more, nothing less.
Control: 7/10
Pretty simple and straightforward. Move your character with the arrow keys, switch between weapons with the number keys, and attack with the spacebar. All in all, a solid setup; however, it is flawed in that the teenagers move in a jerky manner, making it difficult to navigate a floor hazard or attack a monster.
Gameplay: 7/10
Clunky control aside, Nightmare's gameplay draws heavily from Gauntlet and similar titles. The game is presented in an isometric overhead view, with your life meters and weapon supplies on the right side of the screen. Along the bottom of the screen is a scrolling text to display changes in your status, notify you of changes in the level, or to tell you when Freddy's torturing your friends. More on that later. Among other things, the levels will require you to hit switches, find keys, and solve mazes, all while navigating traps and fending off the many dangerous foes swarming the area. Luckily, you won't staring down Freddy's fiends unarmed; each stage has an assortment of items to be found- coffee and Hypnocil, to restore your soul meter; various weapons and ammo; and coins for the vending machines scattered throughout the game. Pretty deep stuff for a movie game, to be certain, and it's plenty of fun if you like the flicks and can bear with the antiquated graphics.
Overall: 7/10
