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FREDDY'S COMING!
A frequent warning

A 1989 horror platformer for Nintendo Entertainment System, based on A Nightmare on Elm Street film series, specifically the third film. It was developed by Rare, and released by LJN Toys.

Player takes a role of one of the teens of Elm Street, whose job is to defeat the dream-stalking Freddy Krueger by finding all of his bones and burning them in their high school's furnace. On top of the standard video game enemies, you must also fight off your sleepiness: staying on the move keeps you awake, and you can drink coffee to refill your energy, but sooner or later you're going to doze off, taking you to the Dream World where enemies are tougher and Freddy™ is stalking you, but also letting you turn into one of three Dream Warrior forms, granting you special abilities. In order to find every bone, you will have to visit many areas around Springwood, but some are locked (owing to the fact that it's midnight), with the keys to these places being dropped by bosses.


This game has the examples of:

  • After Boss Recovery: After defeating a boss ant taking the key, the player recovers, passes to awakened mode and wins a life.
  • Boss Rush: You fight all of the bosses at the end of the last stage, followed by Freddy™ himself.
  • Bottomless Pits: Falling off the screen should be avoided.
  • Dark World: The dream world. There tend to be more hazards here, and you're taken there automatically before a boss fight.
  • Deadly Droplets: Blood and mysterious grey liquid dropping down the ceiling hurts the player.
  • Dem Bones: Human enemies from the real world appear as skeletons in the dream world.
  • Down in the Dumps: The junkyard is one of the levels.
  • The End... Or Is It?: Displayed in the ending screen:
    Freddy™ is dead and the nightmare is ended.
    ......Or has it?
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: When you're in the dreamworld, getting attacked by skeletons and spiders with a human head is justified. However, it doesn't explain why in non-dream world Giant Spiders, Giant Rats, rocks falling from the sky, bats (some of which drop stones), snakes, Frankensteins Monsters and jutting spikes are after you.
  • Frankenstein's Monster: Enemies resembling him appear in the real world.
  • Giant Spider: One of the enemy types in the game is a large spider.
  • Javelin Thrower: The Acrobat Dream Warrior attacks by throwing javelins.
  • Leitmotif: A soothing rendition of the "One, Two, Freddy's™ coming for you" theme will start playing in the dream world shortly before Freddy™ attacks you. You'd better try to find a boombox to wake yourself up, or get ready for a sudden boss fight.
  • Level Scaling: Bosses have more HP depending on how many people are playing.
  • Life Meter:
    • Averted for the players themselves: you can take four hits before losing a life, but this isn't displayed anywhere, so you have to keep track of it manually. Your sleep meter might look like a life meter at first, as it goes down when you take damage, but it also drains on its own over time and takes you to the dream world when it's empty, rather than losing a life.
    • The bosses do have a traditional life bar, which replaces the bone counter.
  • Mind Screw: When one player's sleep meter runs dry, everyone gets sent straight to the dream world at the same time. Whether the other three are getting Mind Screwed into sleep, or if it just plain doesn't make any sense at all is up to you.
  • Ninja: One of the power-ups includes being a ninja, where the player kicks while jumping and throws shurikens.
  • Organ Autonomy: Some of the bosses are Freddy's™ disembodied parts, such as a giant claw, his burned face, or a flying skull.
  • Player Party: In a bizarre twist, the game can use the NES Satellite or NES Four Score (Nintendo's renditions of a multitap at the time) for a gang of up to four players at once.
  • Projectile Spell: The Necromancer can fire magic blasts as an attack.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: Giant rats are enemies in the real world.
  • Skippable Boss: If you finish levels quickly and spend as little time as possible in the dream world, (Using coffee to stay awake or boom boxes to wake up) you may never even encounter Freddy™ himself other than as the final boss.
  • Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: The indoor areas are littered with spiked crushers that move up and down.
  • Spikes of Doom: Some spikes come out from the floor periodically.
  • Stock Femur Bone: Freddy's™ collectible remains are portrayed by femur bones.

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