A Nightmare on Elm Street (NES) Playthrough
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- A playthrough of LJN's 1990 license-based action game for the NES, A Nightmare on Elm Street.
A Nightmare on Elm Street, developed by Rare and released a year after A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child's theatrical debut, was one of just two video games to ever be based on New Line Cinema's popular slasher series.
Freddy Krueger, a child molester who was burned to death by the parents of his victims, has once again returned from beyond the grave to haunt the dreams of a group of local teenagers. This NES platformer places you (and up to three friends if played with a multitap) in the shoes of these teens who have decided to fight back.
You explore several places along Elm Street - three random houses, a junk yard, a cemetery, and Freddy's own dilapidated abode - with the goal of gathering up all of Freddy's bones and burning them in the high school's furnace.
In each location, you'll search for the bones as you fight through throngs of skeletons, spiders, bats, and zombies, and you have to be quick. Coffee can only stave off sleep for so long, and if your energy gauge runs out, you'll find yourself being pulled into the Dream World.
In the Dream World, you can draw on the powers of the Dream Warriors. There's the acrobat, an agile javelin-chucker; the necromancer, a hovering magic-slinger; and the Shadow Warrior, a ninja armed with shuriken and a mean jump kick. These help to even up the odds, but if you hear the faint notes of "1, 2, Freddy's coming for you" creeping into the music, you'd best scramble to find a ghetto blaster to jar yourself back awake. If you remain asleep for too long, the screen will begin to dramatically flash "FREDDY'S COMING!" and the boogeyman will appear.
The linear nature of the stage design makes finding the bones easy, but the enemies - always eager to trap you in a corner or to knock you into a pit - put up a solid challenge in the moment, as do the bosses found at the end of each area. You take a few cheap hits from the constantly respawning flying enemies, but since extra lives are plentiful and you instantly reappear on the spot when you die, it's not too difficult to brute force your way through the entire game after a couple of tries.
The only real let-down is in the fights with Freddy himself. The game does a nice job building up to them, but Freddy turns out to be a total push-over. He's probably the easiest boss in the game, and this blunts the impact of his appearances after the first couple times.
Besides that, though, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a fun time with some good graphics and controls and an excellent soundtrack, and the casual-friendly gameplay lends itself well to the simultaneous four-player co-op mode.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocom...) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
FREDDY'S™ COMING!
Yeah, that glaring ™ symbol ruins what could've been a scary moment LMAO.
@Dorian_Scott Lmao every time the name Freddy shows up in the game and the manual they use that. It seems a little excessive.
Teenagers worst nightmare
Is Freddy comin'? HE SURE IS!
@@nintendorakyamato1859 trademarks.
Gotta love that David Wise soundtrack; it's actually pretty catchy and eerie at times.
Im mildly obsessed with the main over-world theme
I love discovering these old games on the NES that are new to me!!
Thanks!!
You should look up the avgn on here then
Remember the one movie where he had the Power Glove on and said " now I'm playing with power!"
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
The fun fact about Robert England being "The Scarecrow" in "DC Comics: Injustice 2" and saying that same line in one of his victory taunts, makes it an awesome thing.
I totally liked this game. Fighting Freddy(TM) in the Dream World after hearing the "1, 2, Freddy's Coming for you" is actually a lot of fun.
I used to watch AVGN's review of this game all the time back in 2007. I even had fond memories of playing this game on an emulator back then. While not all of Rare's NES games were perfect, some still came close for being very good, and this game was no exception.
Ah, one of the most iconic horror movie lines...
"FREDDY'S™️ COMING!"
Equally on par with the similarly iconic
"AND NOW HERE'S YOUR HOST, JOHNNY CARSON!"
This man reliving all my NES horror game memories. Thank you for playing so well with these hard games. Very enjoyable to watch and see how it’s done. They don’t make game like these anymore lol
This game is decent. Great music, solid graphics, the structure is sound and somewhat unique for its time.
Would have been cool if they killed that stoner in this game in Final Nightmare.
Who knew I would learn how to punch the snake waaay before puberty
@@joeriveracomedyI played this game way after puberty. I must be old.
The music reminded me of the game Taboo. They are both made by Rare Ltd
Better than... Dragon's Lair NES ;-)
A great addition to my David Wise music collection.
David Wise ranks right up there with Tommy Tallarico, Koji Kondo, Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka, Donald S. Griffin, the late Brad Fuller, Rob Hubbard, David Whittaker, Jonathan Dunn, Frank Klepacki, Marshall Parker, Tim and Geoff Follin, Junko Ozawa, Yuriko Keino, Yoko Shimomura, Manami Matsumae, Tamayo Kawamoto, Junko Tamiya, Harumi Fujita and Naoki Kodaka on the list of all-time video game composers!
@@danalong1237 I know that Nobuo Uematsu belongs somewhere on that list. And Chris Hülsbeck & Jochen Hippel are great honorable mentions.
Don’t forget Jon Hey, Chris Granner, David Thiel, Don Veca, Vince Pontarelli, Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, Brian L. Schmidt, Allister Brimble and Dan “Toasty” Forden!
@@danalong1237 That's an interesting list which includes some western composers I'm less familiar with (because I didn't play C64, Amiga, or ZX Spectrum growing up as a USA kid). It's cool to learn who did the soundtrack to SNES Jurassic Park.
Off the top of my head I'd add Yuzo Koshiro, Chris Huelsbeck, Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Motoi Sakuraba, Mark Morgan, Jeremy Soule, Akira Yamaoka, Tokuhiko "Bo" Uwabo, Michiru Yamane, and Tenpei Sato to that list.
Top 25 Video Game Composers of All-Time:
25. Hirokazu Tanaka (a.k.a. “Hip”)
24. Jeremy Soule
23. Chris Granner
22. Brad Fuller
21. Jonathan Dunn
20. Rob Hubbard
19. Chris Hülsbeck
18. Harumi Fujita
17. Tim and Geoff Follin
16. Yasunari Mitsuda
15. Yoko Shimomura
14. Tamayo Kawamoto
13. Manami Matsumae
12. Dan “Toasty” Forden
11. Allister Brimble
10. Koji Kondo
9. Brian L. Schmidt
8. Donald S. Griffin
7. Frank Klepacki
6. David Whittaker
5. Jon Hey
4. Hitoshi Sakimoto
3. Nobuo Uematsu
2. David Wise
1. Tommy Tallarico
I was 5/6 when this game came out for the NES. I insisted to my mom I wanted to play this. She bought it at full price at the time and I was thrilled.
Brought it home and invited over the neighbor kid (who was several years older than me) to play it with me.
Played it for a moment, then he offered a 'trade' for Mega Man II.
Monetarily, I lost (sorry mom), but I think it worked out for the better.
those older kids are hustlers!
Older and dumb. Great deal for you. 😂
You clearly won that trade
As good as this game was, yeah, Mega Man II is definitely the better game here.
This brings me back to when I would visit my sister and watch her play this game. Massive dose of nostalgia. Thank you for your content good sir
This and Friday the 13th are two of my all time favorite games😎
Ironically, both of them were published by LJN!
@@danalong1237 that is unfortunate, but back in 88 when I was 10 we was cool with it😉
I think this game looks cool for sure but Friday the 13th is unique and just feels special.
Same here both games have been favorites of mine since I was a kid when these were new releases.😊
A regular on my childhood rotation. Good graphics, great music, great atmosphere, decent control, decent difficulty curve. Rare did good here. This is a good game.
I remember going to my local video store and they used to have buttons with Velcro on them to show if there was a game available to rent lol. If there was you would pull off the button with Velcro on the wall with all the movie covers, bring it to the cashier and she’d give u the game lol the best times ever
Omg yes!!!! Our video store did that also .i can’t remember the name of it. D&C video or something like that. I loved it.
The Dream Warriors & The Dream Master
Nancy Thompson - Can pull items and people out of Dreams. As demonstrated in the first movie, where she pulled Freddy's hat out and then later Freddy.
Kristen Parker - Pulling other people (and animals, noted by Kincaid's dog Jason) in and out dreams and gymnastic like agility.
Joey Crusel - Super sonic scream
Roland Kincaid - Super human strength.
Will Stanton - Can walk in his dreams and has magical abilities based off his favorite Tabletop RPG, The Wizard Master.
Taryn White - Enhanced confidence, beauty, and toughness also expert at using switchblades, and her clothes change into 80 punk rocker.
Alice Johnson - Alice was the Dream Master, or the guardian of the positive gate, the gateway to good dreams. And as such, she had the power (and responsibility) to guard the sleeper whilst they dreamed. And as such, Alice had the unique ability to absorb the dream powers of Freddy's most recent victims.She also absorb kristen powers pulling people into dreams, and gymnastics like agility , rick powers of karate mastery and sheila power of technology and Debbie toughness.
Mark Gray - The ability to morph into his comic book character, The Phantom Prowler.
Rick Johnson - karate mastery
This is awesome super power list you have given. Alice reminds me of my twin flame, she’s so empowered
I am an LJN enjoyer and this is one the best. Two friends of mine and myself used to hotbox a car and call our girlfriends before attempting runs. We'd always say, "We're going to try and pull him out. But whatever you do, don't, fall, ASLEEP". Then hang up the phone real fast. Sounds corny as I'm writing it out. Good feels come from unlikely sources some times. Great run!
Haha that sounds hilarious. Thanks!
19:30 Freddy’s Coming!
Freddy's™
Freddy got his ass handed to him
I saw the AVGN video of this when it first released and thought it was a terrible game. As I get to know the game more it looked pretty cool and creepy once you get to understand it. Good job on this playthrough. 👍
Yeah... A lot of people did get into that mindset that "if AVGN said this game is terrible, then it must be the case." I admit, I had not played "Castlevania 2" before watching his review of it, so I stayed away from that game. But then the curiosity hit me when I got myself an Nintendo 3DS and saw that game available to purchase at the eShop, so I got it and started to enjoy it.
Sure, the hints are cryptic and villagers are very little help at most due to broken English translation, but I still liked to solving this puzzle how to put an end to Dracula's curse in Castlevania 2. Graphics are nice and the music is excellent, with that Castlevania -atmosphere.
@@Phantom.Gaming64Took the words right out of my mouth. AVGN’s video on Simon’s Quest was the first video of his I ever saw and believed the hype it was an awful game. A friend later that year gave me the original Castlevania trilogy on NES and I was strangely curious about Castlevania 2 given it’s notoriety. It ended up being my favorite of the trilogy for the reasons you mentioned-a spooky atmosphere backed up with amazing music and great challenge. Never judge a game by AVGN’s review (at least, not always 🤭).
To be fair, AVGN makes parodies. James represents a nerd who is frustrated over games that defeated him, something we can all relate to. Even Ghosts 'n Goblins is given this parody treatment. The reviews were never meant to be taken seriously.
The Internet destroyed critical thinking.
"You like to play shitty games?"
Fun fact: You collect a total of 204 bones in this game.
Ah, sounds like Freddy lost a couple somewhere along the way.
@@NintendoComplete I was wondering why are they all femurs, oh well... Freddy must have Mortal Kombat anatomy: like six legs, three arms, four heads and a whole bunch of femurs.
Much closer for just only two bones away of an ordinary human skeletal body (which is 206, though).
I wonder which bones he's missing specifically? Hmm.
look like wrenches to me.
This game, Beetlejuice and Super Mario Bros 3 were the three NES games I played the most as a kid. I played this one on my channel a few times.
0:06
So they ditched Freddy’s glove and just made his hand bladed?
Dude I absolutely love watching all these old school games that I grew up with. New sub here!
Fun fact - The original idea for this game was to have you play as Freddy. The only evidence of this is a flier ad from CES, which talks about the game and a couple screenshots.
And that preview in issue #4 of 𝘕𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰 𝘗𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 Magazine.
There was also Nintendo Power at the time advertising it in their magazines, there are people still out there today searching for that Nightmare on Elm Street NES Beta game that was advertised. My guess is, they made this version to promote and hype up the 4 player peripheral the "NES Satellite" and just shelved the other one they were advertising in the magazines.
@@zabimaru102011Minoru Arikawa ordered the game to be retooled. So it missed its Holiday 1989 shipment date.
0:06 Freddys throwing up a Westside.
Lol
Freddy's like..Elm Street. WHAT!😂
It's kinda silly for a horror game; you go around punching snakes, spiders, and bats, and when you die you turn into an angel and float away. Even Arthur turns into a pile of bones when he dies in Ghosts 'N Goblins! You're saying they couldn't have Freddy Krueger say "Welcome to Prime Time, bitch!" and smash your head through a TV screen in a NES game?
I kid of course, it's still a pretty fun classic.
19:01 "1,2 Freddie's coming for u..."
personal top 10 NES game.
The original concept for the game was that you played as Freddy going around murdering teenagers. Obviously NOA wasn't a fan of that idea, so Rare had to change it to you playing as a teenager collecting the bones of Freddy instead.
Correct. Arikawa ordered them to retool the concept.
forget what avgn says about this game, once you know what to do, the game gets very fun and enjoyable
This game is pretty decent to be honest. Sure, most LJN games are crap, but this one is pretty decent.
That thumbnail is scarier than the movie. He looks legit in blistering pain.
I don't care what AVGN says, this game was fun back in the day.
Boo! Haunted House
played this when i was like 12 back in 1993 Thanks for uploading 😄
I wish the bosses were better.
Ahh the game that may give you nightmares but still this game turns out to be fantastic especially during this Halloween day.
This game just reeks of "we have this game already done here and we need an IP to slap on it". This is terrible as a Freddy game but its not that bad as a sidescroller.
I think this was made around the time Rare was pimping themselves out, making a new game every six weeks or so to fill the coffers so they could make the bigger games they themselves were wanting to make. It's pretty shocking how decent most of them were, all things considered.
@@NintendoCompleteNightmare on Elm Street for the NES missed its planned Holiday 1989 release date and was Shipped on February 20,1990 instead. Originally, Rare and LJN had a deal with New Line Cinema to make an NES game that allowed you to play as Freddy and stalk and kill each character in the first 3 films, but Minoru Arikawa ordered the game to be reworked into a family friendly side scroller. And Nintendo of America awkwardly shoehorned in the 4 Player peripheral.
It's not bad for an old game.
Awesome!! I remember seeing this game at Blockbuster as a kid.
The music at 5:00 is kinda cool... that melody over the bass line is nice. I'd like to hear this revised with live instruments
WWF WrestleMania vibes here
You know, I kinda like this one. Probably because it was made by Rare it's better than most games published by LJN. It's not perfect by any means, but I like the music and atmosphere in particular. There's just something about it that I find enjoyable and nostalgic. A solid B-/C+ game.
Happy to say that just minutes ago I finally put this one to rest. 34 years later since knowing of it's existence but never getting around to fully playing it until now, on my modded NES Classic Edition.
🤘💀🤘
19:59 Time to wake up!
Always wanted to play this 4 players
always wondered how exactly do you do that, never knew about the accessory until I got one like that for the psone/ps2.
Classic game with an exquisite soundtrack, happy halloween!
Congratulations on completing it :)
Thanks!
anytime@@NintendoComplete
Thr street theme is a bop. Some nice ideas...eh execution. 4 player is dope...but no one I knew had the game or multi tap
The music is really cool. I like the way it uses the movie's song when time is running out (like at 18:57) and the super dramatic music when he finally shows up.
Nes games just have an asmr relaxt effect on me, tnk you.
Besides a few cheap deaths, this is a more-than-acceptable title.
Such great fond memories and soundtrack fun challenging NES a game too!
Omg I Haven't Play This Game In Freaking Yrs Now With My Sister's The Good O' Day's Damn I Missed Being A Kid
Well, no wonder this LJN game wasn't as bad as most: RARE developed it!
1 2 Freddy's coming.for you
3 4 Better lock your door
5 6 Grab your crucifix.
7 8 Can you stay awake?
9 10 Never sleep again!
You got one part wrong. It's 7, 8, better stay up late.
Come on hambone. When you go all out you gotta come correct!!
"Woah, nice graphics!" (Freddy's voice)
Gotta love the creative liberties 80s game adaptations took.
25:11 Ok that hit was textbook cheap.
Sweet thank you love the channel!!
Music is an absolute banger. David Wise at his finest.
lol nice, i could never beat this game. Geez if only i'd known you're basically invincible when doing the jump kick in ninja mode lol. 9 year old me I guess couldn't figure it out haha.
That sprite is so Time Lord-y.
I thought the same! Hahaha Rare made some great stuff huh
@@NintendoCompletethey were a bit more hit or miss on the NES imo, but still memorable.
Never seen the movies, but I enjoy this game more than "Friday the 13th" for NES. I *_do_* hope that the beta version of this gets dumped in the future because I like the concept of terrorizing the kids as Freddy.
The movies are completely different from Friday the 13th.
Much better production values, cool special-effect and set pieces, and way less emphasis on teen promiscuity.
Even the "lesser" ones have something of a cozy feeling to them, almost like highschool/teen movies that happen to have a supernatural killer in them.
Freddy vs Jason is the only that has a similar vibe to Friday the 13th, for obvious reasons.
Contrary to what some people might say, this game actually could have been more solid if these problems were addressed:
1) There was no way to tell where the player was supposed to go next.
2) The invincibility time was too short between times you would take hits from enemies.
3) A health gauge was probably also needed.
4) There could have been items with which to restore health or gain temporary invincibility, whether in the real world or the dreamworld.
5) There could’ve been other bosses besides Freddy Krueger throughout the game and the battles themselves could’ve been a bit more creative. I’ve not seen any “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies in whole, but those movies did sport some creative nightmare sequences. Although I’m sure the developers considered that, their client LJN probably didn’t give them enough time or leeway.
17:19 you fall asleep 😮
No lo conocía, que juegazo!! Se ve muy entretenido y el sonido ambienta muy bien la experiencia de juego
Despite how goofy or annoying it can be sometimes, this is still one of the better LJN-clad games out there, and a personal favorite of mine. And hey, 4-player mode? Not bad at all, I'll say!
It’s like home alone video game 🎮
Great upload for Halloween 🎃
Even with those graphics they were great games. Back then
I'd be playing this instead of watching it, but having little kids it's hard to find time to play. I just get a few nights a week. I really love the NES .
Slight correction to your description. The Freddy Krueger who was a child molester was in the modern reboot of Elm Street. In the OG films, Freddy was a child kidnapper and murderer. He was arrested by police, but had to be released after it was learned that he hadn't been read his Miranda rights. That's what drove the adults in town to form a mob, track down Freddy's boiler room, and toss a Molotov through a window, setting the place ablaze. As Freddy was on the verge of death, the Dream Demons appeared to him and promised him unearthly powers if he would do their bidding. Freddy agreed, and thus became the undead dream stalker we love to hate.
One of the only remakes that I actually liked. That reboot was sweet. Told a more complete story.
I remember I got that for a birthday gift it wasn't that bad to me!!
I see the theme of horror continues :) Cool. I find this game to be decent. Graphics are good and soundtrack is nice to listen to. Shame that the battle against Freddy when he attacks you as the sleep meter goes empty, is a bit lackluster. Compared to another game "Shatterhand" for NES, the last boss actively follows you to deal damage. Freddy on the other hand just goes back and forth and swipes at random with his trademark claw.
Also, I've heard through the internet, the original concept for this game was that you'd play as Freddy himself, hunting down the teens that are trying to stop him. It's assumed that how badly "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" on Atari 2600 was received, Rare scrapped that idea and this is what you got in the end. It was even advertised that you will be Freddy Krueger himself.
There are ljn posters that show a small thumbnail screenshot of the original scrapped version of this game from a top down perspective when you're on the street. It was canceled because they thought playing as freddy would violate Nintendos family friendly policy. I'd love to see it in action myself as somewhere out there has to be a prototype in someone's closet. The poster showing it has the rocker controller on it as well plus a bunch of other games. You can probably find a Google image of it.
I have that poster in my collection and always wondered how the game played, it looked cool.
@@Steph_7d7Minoru Arikawa ordered the game to be retooled.
I don't know one person that ever passed this game. It was impossible to beat. Throughout all of my 80's childhood, not one of my friends ever finished it. I liked the music but that was it. Friday the 13th was just as difficult to pass.
I could make it to the final level at the school as a kid but some of those jumps you had to make were just insanely difficult and I could never beat it.
Oye chavo la neta excelente jugada me quede hasta el final del video saludos desde México
They made the character and the snakes at the beginning just like the Rambo game.
Just imagine the possibilities of a Freddy game at PS5 level, the graphics, music and storyline could be awesome if done correctly
One of the best games on Nintendo.
Love this game music is alsome a nightmare on elm street best video game ever
Now that's vintage 80s pixel art....😊
It was a the time where Part 5 The Dream Child hit the movie theaters and it featured Lisa Wilcox as Alice just like Part 4 The Dream Master
I founded a small video game developer company in Russia and now we are making a new game - a continuation of this story...😮
Do you have any videos or concept art, or anything to share on it? I am very interested in hearing or seeing more about it!
Yes, sure! First of all, I decided to make a demo version of the new game. My game will not be a remake, but a new original continuation of that story while maintaining the idea and aesthetics of the source. I will release the concept art and video simultaneously with the playable demo, and further development will continue taking into account the feedback and wishes of the audience.See you! 🤟
This iz the hood mario bruhthas 😂😂😂... I rock wit it. Never knew bout this one
I think Mitchell Tenpenny was playing this a lot before recording "truth about you"
Awesome video.
I remember all these old games based on movies. They never had anything really to do with the movies. lol.
Since many games are getting a remaster or sequel like Karate Kid, I hope we see a new game for Nightmare on Elm Street.
Despite mixed reviews, I enjoyed playing this game as the stages were challenging and you have to memorize the map and monsters
Had marks at certain points near the bottom of the TV screen, on the plastic, with a metallic gold marker for how far away from the bosses so they couldn't reach me, but, I could attack them when they reached the points lol.. Used to use the game genie too.
I wish there was a brand new Nightmare on Elm Street game.
Nothin like getting on one knee to punch a spider in the face. I rented this game numerous times from Safeway yrs ago. Never played it past a level or 2
Awesome game ❤❤❤❤
I like how he does a Falcon Punch to the enemies :v
Ninja vs freddy? cool
I could had really sworn Halloween had nes game as well 🤔
This game actually scared me while I played it.
Soundtrack:10/10
Nice soundtracks.
all these years i thought those were open ended wrenches... they're bones wow lol
I didn’t think about it at the time, it has a Castlevania feel to it. Just not as fun, but one of the better LJN games.
I love “Boo!-Haunted House.”
Whoever currently holds the rights to all of LJN's video games should rerelease the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th NES games as digital 2-pack. I'd pay $7.99 in a heartbeat to have those on my Switch.