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)

Jason Voorhees goes 8-bit

The Good
Friday The 13th for the NES home console system is amazingly enjoyable and complicated for an 8-bit cartridge video game.

The main quest in the game involves you – as one of six camp counselors – killing Jason Voorhees and protecting the other residents of Camp Crystal Lake.

Exploring the Camp Crystal Lake cabins (some of them require keys) switches the game’s perspective from the standard side-scrolling perspective, to an interesting first-person perspective that attempts to look “3D”.

Cabins can contain notes (with cryptic hints), fireplaces (to be lit by lighters), additional items and weapons, a fellow camp counselor or young campers.

In addition to the being able to explore the many different cabins in the game, the player will also have to avoid getting lost in the cavern (where Jason’s mother awaits) or in the forest.

Naturally, you have to actually walk to any of the locations in the game (or ride a boat when visiting the cabin on the lake), and plenty of natural and supernatural dangerous await you on the Camp Crystal Lake outdoors.

Jason Voorhees has managed to assemble a loyal army of zombies and animal wildlife to drain the player’s precious hit points.

Jason himself will randomly show up to attack the player, other camp counselors or the young campers.

Whenever Jason attacks the kids or one of the playable camp counselors, the player must then quickly walk over to the cabin and battle Jason. After all you do not Jason to kill off all of the kids and co-workers.

Luckily, the player can switch between the living camp counselors – simply by entering any of the cabins with a counselor – and collect pretty cool weapons (that essentially act as a projectile weapon with unlimited ammo).

The player starts out with the ability to throw rocks at Jason or any of his minions. This is the weakest weapon in the game and is not going to be much use in protecting anyone, let alone stopping Jason Voorehees.

Weapon upgrades can be obtained by killing the zombies and other “Team Jason” minions and collecting the items that they may leave behind. In addition to vitamin jars and lighters, the player can obtain knives, a fireball shooting torch, machete, axe and, if you are lucky, the most powerful weapon in the game; a pitchfork.

Each of the weapons acts as a projectile (with unlimited ammo) but they vary in strength and whether or not they shoot at enemies straight or at some sort of angle.

Having played many of the more modern survival horror video games, I have to say that there is something undeniably fun (in Friday The 13th) about having unlimited supply of projectile fireballs or axes to lay waste to an army of zombies.

Friday The 13th has night and day-themed sequences. In fact, you have to defeat both Pam (Jason’s deceased mother) and Jason Voorhees several times (over a three-day period).

Each time that you defeat flying head Pamela, she leaves behind an important item (like her sweater) or powerful weapon’s upgrade. Each time that you deplete all of Jason’s hit points (a very difficult task unless you have some of the more powerful weapons) he recharges and the second day begins.

Friday The 13th has cool weapons, fun little side quests, night and day themed sequences and even an effort at an 8-bit “3D” perspective.

Clearly, quite a bit of creativity and thought went into designers this video game.

So, why is Friday The 13th, so often reviled and condemned as another example of a bad LJN game and a bad movie-to-video game adaption? Well, much of the criticism levied at this game is (sadly) quite accurate.

The Bad
Friday The 13th is an R-rated slasher film franchise that had to be adopted into a "family friendly" video game cartridge.

Outside of Japan, all games made for a Nintendo game system had to be approved by Nintendo's own censorship board. The company didn't want any games made for their system to stray from a specific, "family friendly" universe.

This meant that Friday The 13th -- the Nintendo game -- could not contain any graphic violence, blood, gore, nudity, profanity, drug use (legal or illegal) or any "hanky-panky" (heterosexual, homosexual or in-between).

The result is that nothing in LJN's Friday The 13th is scary, nor is their any feeling of being in the genre of "survival horror".

As fun is it to have an unlimited supply of torch fireballs and sharp swords to toss at an army of flesh-easting zombies, the censorship policies of Nintendo were not compatible with the themes and tone of modern-day, survival horror.

Censorship policies aside, LJN's Friday The 13th features strictly average graphics -- both in terms of the character design and the recreation of Camp Crystal Lake.

While Jason is easily identifiable, the game designers used some odd colors in their design of his character. Maybe they wanted him to have the same colors as the game's zombies, but 8-bit Jason looks a bit silly.

The design of the camp counselors is unimpressive -- except for the fact that the developers did actually include a bit of gender and racial diversity among the playable characters.

While you are able to upgrade your weapons, the game should have allowed you to keep all of the weapons that you obtained and switch between them at will.

What happens now is that the player can end up downgrading his or her weapon, because the icons for weaker weapons do still show up after you kill an animal or zombie, and when you are in a rush (trying to get to a cabin) accidents can happen.

If you have seen the early Friday The 13th films, then you will probably recognize some of the game's music.

It is not a horrible, 8-bit adaption of the film's music, but you will probably want to turn down the volume (or maybe just turn off the music entirely and put in your own CD)

Last, but not least, successfully completing the game gives you a pretty lackluster ending.

I can understand the desire to imply that Jason is probably going to come back (it is a slasher film character), but after successfully complete all of the side quests, killing Jason (and his mother) several times, it end brief ending was a bit of a letdown.

The Bottom Line
Friday The 13th is not an example of survival horror, and it does not highlight the solid hardware capabilities of the classic NES home console system.

8-bit Jason is more silly, then scary. Gaining the ability to shoot unlimited fireballs by picking up a torch is not realistic, and I am not sure that eating all of these vitamins would really be all that healthy.

LJN's Friday The 13th is something of a guilty, 8-bit pleasure, with few good ideas.

NES · by Edward TJ Brown (118) · 2015

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

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)

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  • MobyGames ID: 7359
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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.