Attempt to stay awake while collecting the bones of Freddy Krueger in this 4-Player game, faithful to the film series...
As such, he gets his revenge by killing teenagers by taking advantage of their fears and weaknesses inside of their dreams, and uses a characteristic glove with blades on all but the thumb to instill fear and rip his victims to shreds.
The already depressed generation of teenagers thus finds themselves attempting to stay awake at all costs; popping caffeine pills, listening to loud music, anything to avoid becoming the next victim.
I can remember attempting to stay up all night in anticipation of purchasing Nightmare on Elm St. for the NES.
I was an avid fan of the film series that now totals seven movies.
In fact, it was this game that prompted me to purchase the Nintendo attachment that enables four players to play compatible games.
Though the character design for each character is different, you don't (unless you count choosing which player to be) get a choice of whom to play.
As gameplay progresses, your "zzz" meter will deplete (lest you collect rarely-seen coffee mugs) and the once-docile gameplay environment changes to a nightmarish appearance, and it suddenly contains more horrid adversaries.
While your character is limited to punching the enemies when awake, in the dream world (provided you have at one time or another obtained a small square depicting the power), as in the third film, you can change into one of several different "NOES III: The Dream Master" dream-characters (such as the nerdy kid's wizard, or the girl's athleticism) that can fire more advanced, powerful shots.
After a while in the dream environment you will hear the "jump rope song", and will be prompted by on-screen text that Freddy's coming.
Not as powerful as you would think, these segments are really more of a game of dodging him as long as possible.
After a while gameplay will progress as usual, and upon reaching the end of the level, provided you have all of the bones, you will face one of a number of bosses (mutated versions of Freddy) including the snake-Freddy that nearly swallows Heather Lagenkamp in the third film.
When you have beaten the boss you will obtain a key for the next area, which include several film enivronments such as the automotive graveyard.
Jumping past gaps, or finding that one bone you missed can be frustrating, but overall it's a good game.
Not nearly as fun or as scary as Friday the 13th, but neither were the movies.
"Dreams, those little slices of death;
how I loathe them."
Blessed Be