A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street manages to set itself apart from being just another generic platformer, but fans of the movie will have a hard time being able to swallow having to fight off bugs, ghosts, and Frankensteins in order to catch a small glimpse and an overly easy battle with their favorite horror movie icon. In my opinion, Freddy got the short end of the stick on this one and it’s not helped with the gimmick of poorly implemented four player support either.

What is there to say? A Nightmare on Elm Street is a nice game to play when you are bored and you are in the mood for a quick tense game. It’s neither very special, nor is it very bad. It is just a nifty little game which can keep you entertained at least for a few minutes.

Nightmare on Elm Street has one very effective gimmick. Periodically your surroundings magically transform from the real world to a dream world, with entirely different creatures and new challenges. It's a cool concept that reminded me of Soul Reaver (Playstation 1999). Upon clearing each house, you are confronted with a Freddie "boss" in one of his many freaky forms. Nightmare on Elm Street's graphics are very good, and the soundtrack is faithful to the movie. Its gameplay is standard platform fare, but the horror angle makes it more interesting than most.

Among the greater ironies of A Nightmare on Elm Street, is the fact that it was one of the earliest games to offer four-player support. Thr irony of this is that is that if you were compelled to play for any amount of time, then it's most likely that you don't have any friends, let alone three of them that also want to play.

One of the classics of slasher cinema, A Nightmare on Elm Street follows a group of teens as they are stalked by child murderer Freddy Kruger. There's just one catch: Freddy's been dead for years, tracked down and burned alive by a vigilante mob of Elm Street parents. Now he exists as a spectral force, haunting the children of those parents in their dreams. And though Freddy has no power in the real world, if you die in your dream, you die in real life. It's a very interesting movie premise that the game tries shakily to follow.