When A Nightmare on Elm Street hit the NES in 1990, horror fans expected a terrifying, heart-pounding survival experience. After all, this was Freddy Krueger, the burned-up, one-liner-spewing dream demon who haunted an entire generation of kids.
Instead, LJN gave us… a 4-player beat ‘em up where you punch snakes, dodge flying chairs, and go on a fetch quest for Freddy’s bones like some kind of haunted Easter egg hunt.
Oh, and it was supposed to be completely different.
The Freddy Krueger Game That Almost Happened
So here’s the crazy part: Nightmare on Elm Street was originally designed to let you play as Freddy himself.
That’s right—you were supposed to be the unstoppable slasher, stalking Elm Street’s finest teenagers in their sleep.
It would have been one of the first horror games to ever let you play as the villain, letting you chase down helpless victims across twisted dreamscapes. Sounds pretty badass, right?
But then Nintendo stepped in with their “absolutely no murdering children” policy (which, fair, I guess), and suddenly Freddy had to take a backseat.
So instead of a dark horror experience where you invade people’s dreams and terrorize them, you now play as a group of no-name teens, karate-chopping their way through random monsters while collecting Freddy’s bones like it’s a weird version of Super Mario Bros. 3.
A Horror Beat ‘Em Up That Makes No Sense
Imagine if Castlevania and Double Dragon had a baby, but that baby got dropped on its head and spent its childhood eating lead paint chips. That’s Nightmare on Elm Street.
Your job is to walk through graveyards, junkyards, and back alleys, fighting off the forces of evil… and also flying furniture.
No, really. Here’s a list of things you’ll be punching in this game:
- Snakes 🐍 (Sure, I guess?)
- Zombies 🧟 (Makes sense)
- Disembodied Freddy heads (Okay, cool)
- Chairs (…wait, what?)
- Tables (…hold on)
- Literal floating beds
That’s right—this game doesn’t care about actual horror. Instead, it wants you to believe that Freddy Krueger’s ultimate nightmare plan involves possessing household furniture and using it to kick your ass.
The ultimate goal? Collect Freddy’s bones from each level, dump them in a furnace, and destroy him forever. Which raises the question—why were his bones just lying around everywhere in the first place? Elm Street has some real cemetery security issues.
Oh, and just to make things weirder? It’s a 4-player game.
The Two Cool Things This Game Actually Did Right
As much as this game trips over its own shoelaces, it does manage to do two things that were actually kind of ahead of their time.
1. The Dream World Mechanic
If you stand still too long, your character falls asleep, shifting the level into a darker, more twisted version.
- Enemies become stronger and more demonic
- Freddy himself can show up and slap you around
- You can “wake up” by finding a boom box or collecting coffee (because caffeine is stronger than Krueger, apparently)
It’s actually a solid idea that could have been terrifying in a better game. Here, it just means the screen gets darker and now the bats take more hits to kill.
2. Four-Player Co-Op
Yes, this game supports four-player co-op using the NES Four Score adapter.
This is kind of impressive, because most NES games maxed out at two players, yet somehow, Nightmare on Elm Street lets you team up with three friends to punch furniture together.
While it doesn’t save the game, it does make it a chaotic mess that’s more fun with friends.
Is Nightmare on Elm Street (NES) Any Good?
For an LJN game? Honestly, yeah.
Let’s be real—LJN was basically the “That’ll do” company of NES games. They pumped out barely playable movie tie-ins like they were getting paid by the mistake.
And yet… Nightmare on Elm Street is actually kinda playable compared to their usual disasters.
- The soundtrack is surprisingly great
- The Dream World mechanic is at least interesting
- Four-player co-op makes it fun in a dumb way
That doesn’t mean it’s good, it just means it’s not the unholy abomination you’d expect from the people who gave us Back to the Future on NES.
But it’s not scary, not really a horror game, and definitely not what Freddy deserved.
Final Thoughts: A Wasted Horror Opportunity
Imagine if Nightmare on Elm Street had actually gone through with its original vision.
A game where you play as Freddy, hunting down survivors across dreamscapes? That could have been something truly unique, especially for 1990.
Instead, we got a bizarre horror-themed beat ‘em up where you get mauled by haunted furniture.
If you want to experience Freddy Krueger done right in a game, you’ll have to wait until Mortal Kombat 9, when Freddy was finally given the playable villain role he deserved.
Did You Play This One?
Did you actually beat Nightmare on Elm Street on NES? Or did you quit after getting bodied by a haunted chair?
Either way, if you survived this game, you might just be unkillable.