I don’t know about the rest of you, but the original Nightmare on Elm Street terrified me the first time I saw it, and with good reason. With most horror films, it’s pretty obvious what you have to do in real life to avoid premature retirement. Staying out of Haddonfield, Illinois insures against meeting Michael Myers. Changing my summer camping destination from “Crystal Lake” to “Literally Anywhere Else On Earth” means my likelihood of death via machete drops to negligible levels. And if I’m terrified Norman Bates will attack me in the shower? Boom! I’m a hippie who never bathes, so come at me bro! Then along comes Freddy Krueger to wreck all your carefully laid plans, because how do you not sleep? Sleeping is like coming down with the flu or popping boners at inopportune moments–you can try to prevent it with all your willpower, but sooner or later it’s going to happen, all the girls are going to laugh at you, and from there it’s a short trip to “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…” Just like he did in 1989’s A Nightmare on Elm Street for PC and Commodore 64.

“Howdy, boys and girls!”

Even the most casual retro fan knows the 1990 NES Elm Street published by LJN (may they eat all the dicks) and programmed by Rare, who was young and needed the money, so shut up you guys. This is not that game. While Rare created a four-player action platformer where you hunt for bones and punch spiders while trying to stay awake (both in the game and in real life), Westwood Associates, the guys who later made Command & Conquer, took a completely different tactic, grabbed the storyline from the third film (The Dream Warriors), and created a single-player horror adventure for the home computer. The difference is night and day: while the NES Nightmare on Elm Street is strictly average, the C64/DOS Elm Street goes straight for the throat.

Pity you didn’t take ‘Firewalking’ as a level 1 skill, Taryn.

From the animated title, where Freddy slashes through the words to reveal the screen beneath, to the character select which penalizes you for taking too long to decide, from the mad dash to locate Freddy’s dilapidated mansion in the first stage, through the maze-like journey through that mansion in search of your friends and the items needed to rescue them as the game progresses, Westwood perfectly captures the utter WTF-ness of Krueger’s dream world and the difficulty inherent in trying to fight Freddy as a normal teenager. This respect for the source material is often what elevates a licensed title above the morass of mediocrity. Strip away the name and obvious Freddy elements from the NES offering, and you’re left with a generic platformer you could name “Don’t Sleep” and it would lose or gain nothing from you having done so. Do the same to the computer game and you’d lose everything that makes it work in its universe.

A Nightmare on Elm Street positively oozes creativity and replayability. The game starts with six playable characters, but then instantly takes Joey away from you. And then there were five… Rather than simple palette swaps of one another like the NES kids, all five of the characters have different ratings for soul and power (soul being like your HP and power doubling as MP), and each one has a unique ability. Nancy, heroine from the first film, has the largest soul meter in the game (she’s fought Krueger before, so this makes sense), but a short power bar and the weakest special ability (pausing the game’s timer for a short period). Contrast this with Will, who has the shortest soul bar (being wheelchair-bound in real life hasn’t been the best for his health), but the largest power reserve and the ability to fire lightning from his fingertips. The other teens are similarly represented: Kincaid can break down certain walls with his fists, Taryn chucks knives, and Kristen has a vicious kick.

And here we see our five…

But while you’re weighing your options, Freddy’s on the prowl. Dawdle and he slashes a random character portrait and mocks you for screwing around, turning one potential option into a victim. Wait long enough and he’ll whittle your choices down, leaving you with one kid. You haven’t even started the game and Freddy’s messing with you–brilliant!

…er, four heroes.

So you pick your kid and the game begins…at level zero. Joey and the kids you didn’t pick are spirited away to the mansion and placed on random levels, but before you can rescue them you have to actually find Freddy’s house. Springwood was clearly planned by lunatics as its a maze of streets, alleys, cul-de-sacs and dead-ends. Somewhere in that neighborhood, its location randomized every time you play, is the Krueger house, recognizable by its dilapidated porch and dead trees in the front yard. But don’t assume you’ve got all the time in the world to find it. Freddy’s coming for you, and each time he finds you in the maze, he cuts out some of your soul. It’s possible to die before the game even gets going, something which fits perfectly in a Nightmare on Elm Street.

Once you find the house, Freddy’s mother Amanda appears before you. She explains you’ll find your friends inside, unlocks your special ability (your dream power), and bids you good luck. Then you’re whisked through the door and into the house proper, where you’ll be accosted by everything from skeletons and animated wheelchairs to burning fires and spike traps in the floor. Like all good haunted houses, Freddy’s has plenty of stuff that isn’t nailed down for you to loot. Weapons like baseball bats and holy water help you deal with the denizens of the dream domain, while keys unlock doors, switches open secret passageways, and vending machines are only too happy to take some of your hard-earned cash in exchange for useful goodies like guns and chainsaws. Each kid only has enough pockets to carry 7 items, so be picky with what you take and what you leave.

As you advance through the house you’ll hopefully start running across your friends. Once you find a new kid, you can switch between them to make better use of their abilities. But don’t waste time: Freddy’s stalking the halls. Take too long and he’ll sharpen his fingers on your cohorts. Imagine Diablo but with an invisible timer penalizing you for farting around looking for extra loot. Again, in most games I would hate this mechanic but here it adds to the tension and fits with the source material’s theme. In this world Krueger is god, and he’s not going to play fair.

Geeky Will don’t need to go hand-to-hand, whattup?

A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the most effective uses of a film license I’ve had the fortune to play. It stacks the deck against you from the start (the back of the box even admits Freddy cheats), doesn’t hold your hand, slaughters you for making stupid decisions, gets harder the longer you play with it (giggity!), mocks your failures, and conspires to ruin your night every time you boot it up. Dear me, it’s as if the developers paid attention to the source material, and then…set out to make a game that played by the same rules! Imagine if every developer approached a licensed property this way.

The MS-DOS and C64 versions are nearly identical, so the one you pick is a matter of personal choice. C64 has music, including the movie theme which plays over the title screen, while the DOS version has no soundtrack but sports better graphics. This is such a well-executed concept you can’t go wrong with either one. So lock your door, grab your crucifix, stay up late, and (nine, ten) never sleep again…

Admit it, you read it in that voice. Even the cackle.

Michael Crisman

In 1979, Michael Crisman was mauled by a radioactive Gorgar pinball machine. After the wounds healed, doctors discovered his DNA had been re-coded. No longer fully human, Michael requires regular infusions of video games in order to continue living among you. If you see him, he can see you. Make no sudden moves, but instead bribe him with old issues of computer and video game magazines or a mint-in-box copy of Dragon Warrior IV.


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