“R-Rated in 8-Bits – A Nightmare on Elm St.”

“Come to Freddy.”

Call me crazy, but weren’t the childhood adaptations we grew up in with the 80’s/90’s totally twisted in concept?

Sure, I get the translation of R-rated action fare into video games and toy licenses. To kids, Robocop wasn’t about corporate corruption or satire. We just showed up for the badass cyborg. Total Recall was more about Arnold being a badass than it was a trippy is-it-or-is-it-not-a-dream allegory for wish fulfillment. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (which we covered in our last entry) was steeped in questions about fate and choice, but to a young viewer, it was all about the slick skeletal T-800’s. All these series were as drenched in Karo-syrup blood effects as they were in subtext, and yet we were none the wiser. Video game publishers of the era must’ve taken notice, for each of these action-centric franchises received decidedly-less-bloody renditions on the NES.

But what about a film genre that doesn’t just carry the R-rating, but is practically defined by it? Grisly themes and splatter aren’t just present, they’re often the whole damn point. I speak of horror films, wearing their mature ratings like a badge of honor as they push the boundaries of practical effects – and often good taste. The late 80’s is considered a golden age for the genre for its wizardry of creature design, the proliferation of the home video market, and a new subgenre: the Slasher.

Slasher villains weren’t simple antagonists. They were the veritable stars of the show. Audiences would line up to watch a hapless gaggle of teenagers engage in all manner of debauchery as a masked figured stalked ever closer, machete in hand. Many of these were morality tales, as the innocent teenagers were usually the ones to survive, but there was one franchise in the mix that totally broke away from this mold. Freddy Krueger didn’t care how nice a person you were. It didn’t matter if you drank or smoked or snuck behind the bushes with a crush. He was coming for you. And in a manner you’d have little way of escaping: your very dreams.

A Nightmare on Elm St. is about as R-rated as it gets, both in terms of content and the villain’s horrific origin story. As a slasher-killer, Freddy bucks the trend of largely-silent, hulking brute. Where Jason and Michael Meyers were silent wraiths, Freddy taunted his victims first, then boasted about their demise later. And those kills were never simple. Freddy’s not one for the simple machete swing. He puts his quarry through a sick game of cat-and-mouse, often built around a twisted reflection of the target’s personality, before delivering the final, bloody crescendo. Gotta give credit to Robert Englund’s charismatic performance for making this character so memorable. Freddy may be a hateful demon of vengeance, but he’s a showman at heart. Over the film series, his demeanor morphed from sarcastic sadist and more to killer comedian, but his kills remained stellar horror set pieces. Think warping sets and crazy transformations. Freddy’s revenge seldom lacked in spectacle.

So how in the world did this translate over to the Nintendo Entertainment System?

A Nightmare on Elm St. for the NES comes to us from the infamous LJN, but despite the tirades of a certain angry video game legend, the game is more fun than its publisher’s reputation would have you believe. Releasing in 1990, NES Nightmare would’ve had the first five films in the series to draw upon, the latest being The Dream Child at the time. Though the game doesn’t center on any one film in the franchise, I caught nods to various entries. And the tone was on point. As you fire up the game, you’re immediately met with nice spooky tune. It’s not the classic piano Dun, dun, da, dunnn of the films, but sets the mood all the same. We then cut right to a shot of Freddy’s ugly mug, letting the player know exactly what they’re in for.

The feel of the overworld hub nails the creepy, surrealist tone of the film. Houses appear to stretch into the backgrounds, giving everything a slanted look that’d be right at home in an early German expressionism film. Think The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which inspired the Tim Burton aesthetic seen in films like Beetlejuice. This overworld is essentially your level select, as more doors open as levels are completed, beckoning you to venture within to collect Freddy’s bones. And that, my friends, is our mission objective: collect and destroy all of Mr. Krueger’s scattered remains, similar to how the heroes needed to consecrate Freddy’s remains in Nightmare 3: The Dream Warriors. Only rather than the being in a single, secret location, they’re strewn all over town. Not an exact adaptation, but Freddy’s been killed a bunch of different ways, and this is more thematic than most, so points for a creative twist on a collect-a-thon.

Alas, you don’t play as film heroines Nancy or Alice, instead controlling a random blank-slate teenager. Still, your character’s controls are tight and responsive. Jumping is a bit floaty, which can be dangerous around the copious bottomless pits, but you get the hang of it. Your primary punch is woefully short-ranged, making it easy to get hit whilst trying to attack enemies. Fortunately, the game’s most inventive technique is one that both improves gameplay while anchoring it to the film series. Your character can take a few hits before dying, but damage also has a second consequence: it drains your Sleep Meter. Once it’s empty, you’ll drift off into the dream world, where enemies are tougher and you can only wake up through either defeating Freddy or finding a radio. However, despite these drawbacks, the dream world also houses the game’s most potent weapon: the dream powers.

Most well known in Nightmare 3: The Dream Warriors and Nightmare 4: The Dream Master, dream powers gave the protagonists personality-linked abilities that allowed them a fighting chance against Freddy. Up to this point in the series, Freddy was godlike in the dream world. Practically untouchable. Dream powers allowed our heroes to fight back. Granted, it still usually resulted in their deaths, but it added more tension to the mix. They had a shot at survival, however slim. The NES adaptation provides three forms of dream power: each referencing a character from the films. The Necromancer’s fireballs are a clear homage to D&D fan Will from The Dream Warriors. Martial artist Rick from The Dream Master has gotta be the inspiration for the shuriken-tossing Ninja. And though it’s vague, the javelin-throwing acrobat must be a nod to the athletic Debbie from Dream Master, or strongman Kincaid from The Dream Warriors. Adding to the creepy-factor are how our hero doesn’t possess these powers innately. In The Dream Master, Alice gains the dream powers of her slain friends after their deaths, implying that these power-ups are the result of your buddies already biting the dust at Freddy’s sharp hand.

When it comes to fighting Freddy, you’re better off asleep and with access to dream powers. Yes, enemies are tougher, but your abilities really help in boss fights, as getting up close to punch puts you at risk of taking damage. All of the bosses are some transformation of Krueger himself, but that’s no surprise considering how much he shape-shifts in the films. Some forms see swarms of little minion-creatures fly around the screen while you’re trying to hit Krueger, making dream power projectiles and abilities even more helpful. It’s some serious wish fulfillment to ninja-kick Freddy Krueger in one of his nasty boss forms. Speaking of which…

The NES obviously couldn’t replicate the gore of a crushed cockroach-girl or literal fountain of Johnny Depp pulp, so instead it opts for weird Freddy manifestations in its boss battles. A disembodied razor-glove pays homage to Rick’s death in The Dream Master. The Freddy-Worm is a direct pull from the iconic scene in The Dream Warriors, with the little tongue-tentacles it spits mirroring another scene in the same film. Not all the bosses are direct. I don’t recall Freddy ever turning into a giant bat or ghost, but seeing as he’s been a television, a motorcycle, a hall monitor, a super hero, and stop-motion marionette doll (among many, many other things), there’s really no limit to what he could show up as. As mentioned, nothing is 100% direct from any one film, but more of a grab-bag of moments from throughout the series. You’ll jump from the junk yard of Parts 3 and 4 to the high school and boiler room seen more in Parts 1 and 2. For a fan of the franchise like me, this is actually preferable to a whole game based around a single film. Sure, I would’ve liked to play as Heather Langenkamp’s Nancy Thompson, the most iconic hero of the series, but if we were only gonna get a single Nightmare game, at least they packed in as many nods as possible.

In conclusion, I found A Nightmare on Elm St. on the NES to be a surprisingly fun adaptation of the film franchise. It’s more of a grab-bag of Freddy-isms than it is straight translation, but provides enough details to creatively capture the feeling of the series. You even get the classic One-two-Freddy’s-coming-for-you tune right before the crispy killer appears to do battle. The game deserves more praise, both as a solid action platformer that controls far better than expected and a unique collage of thematic elements. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a horror game, more like a platformer with spooky imagery, but for an 8-bit take on an R-rated beast, I’d say it’s no nightmare.

Thanks for reading, and may you always have sweet dreams.

Matt Lotti has explored the realms of paper and pixel in equal measure. An avid collector of both Magic the Gathering and classic NES & Gameboy, he feels imagination is the kindling that keeps the fires of gaming alive. This holds true to both classic titles and new adventures. What matters most is the creative energy involved. Each exp      erience is a new story, and all stories deserve their time around the campfire. So grab an ale and settle in. After all, it’s dangerous to go alone. Matt Lotti can be found on Twitter @Intrepid_tautog.