A Nightmare on Elm Street

About

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a side-scrolling platformer where you navigate Elm Street's spooky alleys and buildings to collect scattered bones. Each level locks parts of the map until you find keys, and enemies like bats and minotaurs chip away at your health. After gathering all bones, you face Freddy in a boss fight to earn a key and move forward. The game supports up to two players working together or competing, a rare feature for the time. Though loosely tied to the horror movie series, the game leans into chaotic fun over scares with its fast-paced action and varied enemy designs. Community reviews note its surprisingly solid co-op mode and clever level design for an NES title. Released in 1990, it stands out as one of the few platformers of the era to balance co-operative and competitive play without sacrificing simplicity.

Storyline

The game takes place in the neighborhood of Elm Street and is played from a side-scrolling perspective. The game's environment is inhabited by hostile characters (such as zombies, cats, dogs, skeletons, bats and minotaurs) that will attack the player character. Being attacked a certain number of times will cause the player to lose a life. Because the game takes place around midnight, certain areas are initially locked off from the player and require a key to be collected for later access. Within the individual buildings, the player must collect the bones scattered throughout the level before being able to leave. When all the bones are collected, a boss battle with Freddy will commence. Defeating Freddy will both allow the player to exit the area and earn the player a key that allows access to a new area.