Flynn's turning nightmares into sweet dreams.
Nightmare Busters is a Super NES arcade game developed by the French-based company, Arcade Zone by A C. Gayraud and J.C. Alessandri, and released in 2013.
The players assume the role of two heroic Leprechaun brothers, Flynn and Floyd, on a quest to defeat Tyrant, a powerful dream-consuming demon and his army of monsters. Both leprechaun brothers can fire energy bolts from their hands thanks to their magic, which can be upgraded into spread shots or fireballs by collecting power-ups, in a gameplay based on old-school Run-and-Gun format.
Nightmare Busters contains examples of:
- Boss Rush: The first three bosses (the goblin king, the werebeast and the caped demon) must be fought again in the final level, one at a time, before facing Tyrant the Final Boss.
- Clown-Car Base: Occasionally, the game will have cauldrons which produce a seemingly limitless amount of goblins until they're destroyed.
- Death Dealer: Besides the Hand Blast, another attack the leprechaun brothers can access are burning throwing cards which explodes on contact.
- Dream Stealer: The MO schtick of the Big Bad, Tyrant, who consumes the dreams of children and manipulates them into nightmares.
- Empty Piles of Clothing: One of the bosses mid-game is a demon in a cape wearing a wide-brimmed hat, who will summon moths to attack the leprechauns while casting attacking spells. Once the demon is defeated, he then disappears entirely, leaving behind his cape and hat in a crumpled heap.
- Evil Living Flames: Fire sprites - sentient balls of fire with faces on them - are another enemy type in the game.
- Fountain of Youth: Upon defeat, Tyrant turns into a toddler.
- The Goomba: Brown goblins in the first stage. They have no ranged attacks, dies in one hit, and serves as target practice for the Leprechaun brothers.
- Hand Blast: Both leprechaun brothers attack enemies by firing energy bolts from their fists. And in the Final Boss battle, Tyrant does the same, though he shoots fireballs and electric bolts instead.
- Karmic Transformation: Tyrant is a demon who devours sweet dreams of children and turn them into nightmares. So upon defeat, he's turned right back into a child, at which point he'll be haunted endlessly by his own minions.
- Leprechaun: The two playable characters, Flynn and Floyd, are both leprechauns.
- Lethal Lava Land: One of the levels halfway in the game, where the leprechauns braves rivers of lava on floating platforms. Beware of flames shooting from below!
- Life Meter: Flynn and Floyd can take just two hits before going down.
- Moth Menace: Giant moths are another enemy in the forest stages, swooping down to attack the leprechaun brothers while they're hopping from one platform to another.
- Ominous Owl: One of the Mini-Boss (it's not introduced with a boss introduction screen that heralds each incoming boss battle) is a giant owl that flies circles around the leprechauns. It can damage the leprechauns just by touching, and there's a goblin riding it who will drop projectiles when the owl is above the leprechauns.
- Our Goblins Are Different: The common enemy lineup that appear in the game. Very simple to defeat and go down in few shots.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: A fierce Were-cat is the boss of the second level.
- Palette Swap: Floyd is this for his twin brother Flynn. Wearing a yellow outfit to Flynn's Purple outfit.
- Playing with Fire: The bosses can do this.
- The first boss, a giant goblin, breathes fire as a ranged attack.
- The caped demon can release a floating Ring of Fire that homes in on the leprechauns until it's shot to smoke.
- Tyrant, the Final Boss, alternates between shooting fireballs or lightning bolts from his hands.
- Rise to the Challenge: Both played straight and inverted. The cavern level begins with the leprechauns dropping down a deep chasm where they must shoot obstacles like floating spikes and fireballs from below while a spiked ceiling falls from above them. They escape once they reach the ground (no worries, the fall wouldn't do any damage to their health) - cue a level in a tunnel which ends with the leprechauns escaping, this time on a rising platform where they must shoot dropping stalagmite from above before they can be harmed.
- Retraux: It's a Super NES game released in 2013, decades after the console went out of style. The graphics resemble that of old-school arcade games from the past, too, which seems to be deliberate.
- Slide Attack: There's a sliding option on the controller that allows the leprechauns to skid from one side of the screen to another, usually for avoiding attacks when the game spam enemies onscreen or when there are falling rocks and other hazards.
- Spikes of Doom: The final level where the leprechauns made their way to Tyrant is "crammed" with spikes, from collapsible Temporary Platform under a floor full of spikes, to the leprechauns climbing alongside the edge of descending floors (with spikes above and below them!) while trying to reach the nearest spike-less spot.
- Spread Shot: One of the most common power-ups in classic platform games makes a comeback here, with an upgrade boost allowing the leprechauns to fire three blasts at a time - one straight and two diagonally, the latter two which can helpfully take down enemies from above and below in platforming areas.
- Too Important to Walk: Tyrant spends the entirety of his boss battle seated, with his magical Cool Chair doing all the moving for him. Including trying to stomp on the leprechauns.
- Warmup Boss: The first boss is just a King Mook variant of the goblins, and isn't that tough despite his boss status. There's plenty of areas in said level to dodge him as he tries stomping on the leprechauns, his sole ranged attack is a slow breath of flames which doesn't even cover half the screen, and the leprechauns can just spam their energy blasts on him without worrying about getting hit.
