Friday the 13th

Moby ID: 7359
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Description official description

Based on the popular movie franchise, Friday the 13th casts you as one of six camp counselors (three girls or three boys) at the infamous Camp Crystal Lake, and you are tasked with destroying Jason Voorhees once and for all.

To get to Jason, you must run around a camp, killing zombie ghouls and collecting weapons, until you hear an alarm sound. When that alarm goes off, it means Jason has entered a cabin and you must find him.

To save time, you can switch between all six counselors, depending on where you are. Once you enter the house that Jason is in, the game switches to a 3D-esque maze in which you have to hurt Jason with the items you collected. Once he's been damaged enough, he'll run away, only to sound another alarm later and enter another house.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (NES version)

4 People

Production, planning, and graphics (uncredited)
Programmer (uncredited)
  • Yamaguchi
Music Composer (uncredited)
Sound Driver (uncredited)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 45% (based on 18 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.6 out of 5 (based on 34 ratings with 4 reviews)

Rambling Action/Adventure

The Good
The graphic work for the NES is decent, although it is a later release. The use of 3D perspective inside cabins was both unique for the NES, and also quickly disorienting, as it was not fully developed enough to work.

The Bad
Often people criticize games for being overly linear. This game could use some linearity. The mindless searching and wandering without any purpose grows old way before the game ends.

The Bottom Line
A poor attempt to make a game version of the classic slasher series. Too many movie elements are forgotten. Simply put, this could have been any game -- they just through the Friday the 13th look to it.

NES · by Game22 (35) · 2004

Jason Jumps The Shark

The Good
Friday The 13th for the Nintendo Entertainment System is not a great game, but it does have several aspects to it that had underdeveloped potential.

The game has some nice 3D-esque sequences whenever you enter a cabin and, yes, their is certainly a level of 8-bit fun involved in throwing machetes at zombies.



The Bad
Friday The 13th offers up pretty average 8-bit graphics and animation. They are better then what LJN offered in "Jaws", but very little of the terror or suspense of the films is carried on over into the game.

True, Nintendo had strict censorship policies back in the day and this was before the genre of "survival horror" became popular, but about the only thing really creepy in the is Jason's Mother.

Beyond Jason and his Mother (who appears as a flying head inside a cave) your enemies include zombies (which I do not recall from the films) and standard (for a video game) forest critters like wolves and bats.

Beyond some musical scores from the film franchise, the music is nothing to write home about and may cause you to reach for the mute button.

The player selects from a series of different Camp Counselors, each with some variation in speed and strength. Your primary goal in the game is to locate and kill, several times, Jason's Mother who appears in the form of a flying head.

Each time you defeat Jason's Mother she leaves behind a valuable object, and, eventually, she will leave behind the one weapon that can kill Jason; a pitch fork!

However, you cannot battle her again until after you have come into contact with Jason. Which means that you spend quite a bit of time going back and forth to same places.

Crystal Lake is a rather large campsite and Jason will attack campers or the other camp counselors (who are all located in various cabins throughout the game).

Once that happens, you must quickly walk over to the right cabin (thankfully, the game's made does not make this a secret) and battle Jason.

This can become a bit tedious, especially if the campers in need of help are on a island, only accessible by boat, or someone needs help and is on the opposite side of the map where you happen to be.

Your characters can only walk, jump, duck and shoot whatever projectile weapon they may have. Some of the characters walk slower or jump higher then the others, but basically their is not a huge variation.

It would have been nice if you could switch between the different weapons that you collect and the piece of cloth that you can collect, in one of your battles with Jason's Mom, does not really do much besides protect one of the camp counselors (while in a cabin) from Jason.

Their are certainly times when you are going to wish their was a warp zone or something similar to allow you quicker access to different parts of the map.

Eventually, if you kill Jason's mom enough times, you will be given the pitch fork and, not longer after, you will be able to use it on Jason when you attacks a camper, counselor or he may just show up.

Your reward for your epic battle against Jason is a lackluster ending.

The Bottom Line
Friday The 13th for the Nintendo Entertainment System is not a great game.

It is not "survival horror" and having to run back and forth between the cave and numerous cabins is probably not what fans of the horror film franchise were hoping for in a video game adaption.

However, their is a bit of fun to be had with the 3D-esque sequences inside the cabin and, yes, killing 8-bit zombies with rocks, knives and other weapons is kinda fun.

It would seem logical that Friday The 13th would make a great modern video game franchise, with the advances in technology and entire survival horror genre.

NES · by ETJB (428) · 2012

I wish xbox would come up a new Friday the 13th!!!!

The Good
I am a big Friday the 13th fan. This was one of the first horror games that was based on a movie that I know of. Being able to switch between couselors was pretty cool and the story was based on several of the movies which was pretty cool.

The Bad
The side scrolling and the graphics were ok. The colors and music was way off. Last time I saw a Friday the 13th movie there were no zombies or wolves that attacked anyone. Could have made the game a little more like the movie itself.

The Bottom Line
you had to fight jason and keep your couselors safe from him from what I remember and children also. If you found his mother's head and wore her sweater you became invincble I think. Didn't give you many weapons to fight with and hitting him only did minor damage unless you found a pitchfork if I remember correctly. It was pretty cool though.

NES · by William Manning (2) · 2003

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Franchise

The game itself is not based off of one movie in the series. Rather, a combination of the first 7 films and developer 'creativity':

  • The opening title screen with Jason's mask is taken from the poster for Friday The 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter

  • Jason never acquired his mask until Part 3.

  • The version of Jason depicted on the box cover is from Part 7: The New Blood. Part 8 was out in theatres when the game was released.

  • Other than Jason and his mother, none of the other characters in the game are found in the films

Furthermore, the storyline for the game is separate from the films and is an inconsistent one, as Jason is supposed to be after the camp counsellors, not the children (amongst other things).

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • December 1989 (Issue 5) - Worst Movie to Game
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #8 (Worst 10 Games of All Time)

Analytics

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

Additional contributors: Alaka, CaptainCanuck, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger.

Game added October 4, 2002. Last modified September 1, 2023.