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The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge is a PlayStation 2 and Xbox action game released in 2005 by Buena Vista Games and developed by Capcom. Gameplay wise, it's based on the format of Capcom's own Devil May Cry series.

The game is a sequel to the movie. Jack gets bored with Halloween again and sets off to find something new to spice up Halloween with. Once he's gone, Lock, Shock, and Barrel revive Oogie Boogie, whose new plan is to take over all Seven Holidays. Just as his plan nears completion, Jack returns...

Around the same time this game came out, another game called The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King was released, this game serving as a prequel to the movie.


Tropes:

  • Actually a Doombot: After beating Oogie in the Casino Clash fight, it turns out to be his shadow posing as the real one, stalling Jack while the real Oogie escapes to Christmas Town.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Downplayed. The game gives a more definitive outlay of Halloween Town and the roles of some of its citizens, and we get some light shed on the Holiday Doors and where Jack found them, but ultimately we don't learn very much about the characters' histories or how the world works.
  • Affably Evil: Surprisingly, the Crypt Creeper Spider. When one gets into the music mini-game portion of the fight, at first it backs away and crawls forward as Jack dances, in the second half of the segment it begins (rather cutely) bobbing and posing in time with the music before Jack blasts it in the face with his musical notes and continues the fight.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Completing certain objectives unlocks alternative costumes for Jack. Most of them only serve stylistic purposes and can only be worn by selecting them in Jack's house, but the first two actually grant Jack abilities that can help him throughout the game and can be selected at any time.
    • Pumpkin King is unlocked by defeating the Crypt Creeper Spider.
    • Santa Jack is unlocked by defeating Dr. Finkelstein.
    • Dancing Jack and Pajamas Jack are both unlocked by beating the game once.
    • Phantom Jack is unlocked by getting an S rank on every level and completing both of the secret chapters.
    • Thespian Jack is unlocked by getting an A rank on all levels.
    • All of the above costumes can be unlocked at once with a cheat code if one is inclined to.
  • Apathetic Citizens: The citizens of Halloween Town are very upset about what Oogie's done... but it really does seem that they're just really upset, rather than their way of life being threatened. The Big Witch actually goes from bemoaning the situation to cheerfully asking Jack if he wants to buy anything in two sentences.
  • Asteroids Monster: The Crypt Creeper Spider splits into smaller and weaker spiders after taking enough hits. The more spiders that are killed before it reforms, the smaller it gets and the more health it loses.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: The Crypt Creeper Spider is made vulnerable by hitting the glowing spot on its back.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: After his plan is foiled, Oogie calls upon thousands and thousands of bugs to collect garbage on Holiday Trash Hill, attaching it to himself and becoming 'Mega Oogie.'
  • Background Boss: The battle against Oogie Boogie (or rather, his shadow) has him stay out of Jack's reach at all times. Aside from the Musical Gameplay segments, Jack has to use Oogie's attacks to damage him (such as throwing his exploding dice at him, making his soldiers shoot at him, etc.).
  • Badass Boast: While it was present in the original song, when Oogie sings it with tweaked lyrics in the final boss fight, it's much more intimidating. Being a ten-story tall pile of junk and what not.
    "'Cause I'm the gambling Boogie man, although I don't play fair. It's much more fun, I must confess, with lives on the line. Not mine of course, but yours, old friend. Now that'd be just fine."
    • And before that, there's: "You beat my men, so what, big deal, you even ran the maze. You still can't stop me, I'm the king of Seven Holidays!"
    • Jack himself gets this in the same song.
    "What's this, a trick? I'm not impressed! You're bad and now you're tall! It makes it all the more worthwhile to see a giant fall!"
    • Dr. Finkelstein's song is also composed entirely of badass boasts from him about how his inventions can easily kill Jack.
    "My blades are now spinning! My creations are large! When they move towards you, there's no question who's in charge!"
  • Bad Boss: Lock, Shock, and Barrel may have been promoted to serve as Oogie's generals following his takeover, but they still cower at the thought of him and for good reason. Oogie threatens to maim them as much as he asks them to kill Jack, who is well aware of this trope and even warns the kids that their service to Oogie will likely just end up with him eating them in a stew.
  • Bad Santa: Oogie would have become this had Jack not stopped him from taking over Christmas.
  • Black Magic: Double-Subverted. At first, it appears that Oogie has gotten some supernatural power over the undead, then it's revealed that these traps and monsters were created by the Brainwashed and Crazy Dr. Finkelstein, then it turns out Oogie has a supernatural power over his shadow and insects, which allow him to go One-Winged Angel.
  • Boss-Altering Consequence: Jack can put Dr. Finkelstein to sleep for the first half of the battle with a special soup if he collects the ingredients beforehand and brings them to Sally.
  • Boss-Arena Idiocy: For some reason, the Brainwashed and Crazy Dr. Finkelstein just has his real brain lying around his workshop for Jack to throw back in.
    • A more downplayed version with the Final Boss, where the junkyard has gas-vents that Jack can light up to deal bonus damage.
  • Boss-Only Level: What most if not all the bosses are fought in. Surprisingly, only two or three of them use a "literally nowhere else to go" layout; the rest - including the Final Boss - all give space before the Point of No Return to let Jack backtrack to any other area.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy:
    • Barrel reveals in their song that this is how they got the spiders to work for them, but exactly how it is done is never stated.
    • It is eventually revealed that Dr. Finkelstein has been under Oogie's control ever since the villain took over Halloween Town because his brain was replaced with a green one that has eyes. The main objective of his boss fight is to remove this brain while giving Finkelstein his real brain back.
  • Call-Back: The final verse of A Filthy Finale contains a reprise of a line from the original "Oogie Boogie's Song", complete with a throwaway line referring to Oogie's and Jack's old alliance:
    "Now it's time for you to see what it really means to scare. 'Cause I'm a gamblin' boogie man, although I don't play fair. It's much more fun, I must confess, when lives are on the line. Not mine, of course, but yours, old friend, now that will be just fine."
  • Christmas Town: Christmas Town is one of the final levels, Oogie Boogie having invaded it with his army of monsters in the hopes of killing Santa and taking over Christmas, succeeding in becoming the Seven Holidays King.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
    • Many of Halloween Town's residents are absent. Checking houses in the Residential Area suggests that Oogie has driven them into hiding.
    • Finkelstein's creation, Jewel, is also absent from the game.
  • Canon Immigrant: Sort of. Some of the larger skeleton enemies strongly resemble one of the skeleton pirates from another Henry Selick movie, James and the Giant Peach. Jack, of course, has a cameo as the pirate captain.
  • Creator Thumbprint: This game borrows a lot of elements from the Devil May Cry series due to being developed by the same team, such as the combo system, transformations, and use of taunts. Some of these elements originating in this game would even be carried over to their later games: The Devil Bringer in Devil May Cry 4 functions similarly to the Soul Robber and Jack’s three-dodge limit mechanic would appear in Bayonetta.
  • Dark Reprise: Most of the songs in this game are somewhat darker renditions of songs from the movie. Most poignant is "Oh No!", a remix of "What's This?" that expresses Jack's horror at the corrupted Christmas Town and what Oogie has done to it.
    What's This?: "The monsters are all missing, and the nightmares can't be found, and in their place there seems to be good feeling all around. Instead of screams, I swear I can hear music in the air. The smell of cakes and pies are absolutely everywhere."
    Oh No!: "The cheerfulness is missing, and the wonder isn't here, and in their place there seems to be a paralyzing fear. Instead of songs, I swear I can hear screaming in the air. The stench of Oogie Boogie's absolutely everywhere."
  • Death is Cheap: It's revealed Oogie can still be brought back even if his brain bug was squashed, which makes his defeat at the end still questionable considering he survived certain death before.
  • Death Trap: Various ones have been set up by Oogie, Lock, Shock, and Barrel, including a giant fish contraption with spinning blades, items that hide enemies, gas-spewing headstones, and so on.
  • Degraded Boss: Downplayed with the Crypt Creeper Spider. After its first battle as a major boss, it gets two mini-boss encounters later in the game, one of which is optional. The mini-boss encounters differ in that there are no options to switch the battle to music mode and Jack can only attack the spider physically.
  • Dem Bones: Jack, the hanging men, and many of the Boogie Baddies are all skeletons.
  • Fetch Quest: At least half the levels consist of these, including both of the "secret" chapters. The usual justification is that everyone's too shit-scared of Oogie's invaders to fetch the items themselves.
  • Forced Transformation: The Vampire Brothers were trapped in their bat forms by Oogie, meaning Jack has to catch them and return them to their coffins to change them back.
  • Forgot About His Powers: Literally. Jack doesn't use his Pumpkin King abilities until Sally accidentally reminds him of them. You'd think fire powers would be useful when fighting an army of monsters, but Jack is a bit absent-minded.
  • Genre Shift: The movie focused on Jack's obsession with Christmas, and the chaos that sprung from Halloween misunderstanding the basic concepts of Christmas. The game instead focuses on Jack tearing through hundreds of enemies and needing to save the town from a bad guy.
  • Giant Spider: The Crypt Creeper Spider is a huge spider boss. It later comes back as a Palette Swap Optional Boss, which stole Igor's doggy biscuits. After that, yet another version is encountered in Oogie's prison for the Holiday Leaders.
  • Giggling Villain:
    • Oogie's chuckling and giggling is added to many of the game's instrumental pieces. Interestingly, rather than making him seem more girlish, it serves to make sinister or bleak sounding music sound more unsettling.
    • Lock, Shock, and Barrel also count. Barrel especially likes to giggle during his individual battle.
  • Goo It Up: Jack Skellington uses the Soul Robber, a green, slimy creature created by Dr Finklestein, as a weapon.
  • Halloween Town: Most of the game is set in and around Jack's spooky holiday land. Near the end of the game, he travels to the Hinterlands (where all the Holiday Doors are found), Christmas Town, and the Holiday Trash Hill where he fights Mega Oogie.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Several of the boss battles can qualify (and the final battle definitely does).
    • First take Jack, whose natural hammy theatrics are exaggerated in Musical Assassin mode, then pit him in dance fights with huge song and dance sequences - complete with backup dancers (No, really, you can actually sing and dance most of the bosses into submission Broadway style) - against the following:
      • Oogie Boogie, who is voiced by Ken Page, who has voiced some of the hammiest musical characters in in the last 30 years.
      • Lock, Shock, and Barrel - each one seems to have been personally trained in the ways of ham by Oogie himself.
      • And Dr. Finkelstein, the local Mad Scientist who's been Brain Swapped and Crazier ('nuff said).
  • Hero vs. Villain Duet: The final song of the game, "A Filthy Finale'', is sung by both Jack and Oogie, each declaring that they will take the other down and mocking the other's efforts in the process.
  • Infinity +1 Sword: Collecting every figure in the game unlocks infinite Red Souls, allowing Pumpkin King Jack to use attacks endlessly. However, since collecting every figure requires A-ranking every level and visiting every secret area, there's not much to use it for besides getting any S-Ranks you might have missed.
  • Insult Backfire: During the boss fight against Lock, Shock, and Barrel on the Mayor's rooftop, Jack may tell the trio that they are very bad kids. The three pranksters reply by thanking Jack.
  • Just Desserts: Jack warns Lock, Shock, and Barrel of this, that Oogie will probably reward them for their help by cooking them into a stew.
  • Kill It with Fire: Jack's Pumpkin King costume gives him the ability to breathe fire.
  • Living Weapon: The Soul Robber, Jack's primary weapon. If one looks at his arm, it even continuously moves in his Idle Animation.
  • Money Is Experience Points: Jack can upgrade his abilities and increase his health at the Witches' Shop using souls as currency. He could also buy blue souls, which could temporarily increase his attack power when used, although those were so cheap and limited in quantity that they were nearly pointless.
  • Money Spider: Defeating enemies will give Jack souls, which are the game's currency. There are also literal money spiders that try to take Jack's souls.
  • Musical Assassin: Some of Jack's most powerful attacks are with magic musical notes.
  • Musical Gameplay: Remixes of the original film's songs start playing for certain enemies, like "Kidnap The Sandy Claws" for Lock, Shock, and Barrel, "Oogie Boogie's Song" for Oogie, etc.
  • Nice Guy: Jack's friendliness is very apparent now that he's over his Christmas obsession. When he first meets the game's main enemies, his immediate reaction is try to shake their hand and welcome them into town. Later, despite the scope of their crimes, Jack always leaves Lock, Shock and Barrel off with an angry scolding and little else once they're beaten. During his boss fight with Finkelstein, he repeatedly implores the doctor to stop fighting, despite him literally having a different brain driving his body. Just about the only person he isn't in some way friendly with is Oogie, and even then the two sing and dance together in the boss battles.
  • Negative Continuity:
    • Sally is living with Finkelstein again despite running away from home in the movie.
    • As shown during his boss fight, Dr. Finkelstein still has both halves of his brain even though he donated one half to his Opposite-Sex Clone in the movie. Said female duplicate also makes no appearance whatsoever.
  • Noodle Incident: It is never expressly stated how Lock, Shock, and Barrel revived Oogie Boogie, nor do we ever find out how he gained his impressive gauntlet of powers that he didn't have in the original movie.
  • Non-Standard Game Over: Failing to save Santa from the train results in him and Jack letting out a Big "NO!" and Jack collapses in despair while Santa is Killed Offscreen.
  • Oh, No... Not Again!: Oogie when he's defeated and his bugs start leaking out again.
  • One-Winged Angel:
    • Oogie, when faced with defeat, ends up merging with a hill of holiday junk.
    • Another minor example would be when the normal enemies get surprised/ticked off and go into Oogie mode.
  • Pickup Hierarchy:
    • Primary: Holiday Doors, Area Keys
    • Secondary: Soul Robber upgrades, Pumpkin King upgrades, Christmas present upgrades, Nightmare Ranks
    • Tertiary: Souls, Blue Souls, Red Souls
    • Extra: Figurines, Crystal Skulls, Crystal Bottles, Outfits
  • Planet Heck: The Grisly Gauntlet, what with lava, countless skeletons protruding from the floor and walls, and one of the dark and intense music pieces that features Oogie whispering Jack's name and emitting his Evil Laugh numerous times. If it weren't for it being rather early, one could mistake this for the last level.
  • Pop Quiz: Posed by the Corpse Kid in the town square. The first time it's mandatory to game progress, so most of the questions are ridiculously easy ("What is Jack's last name?"). Re-taking it, though, mixes in a lot of harder ones; get a perfect score and you get a free Golden Pumpkin.
  • Practical Taunt: The taunt button makes Jack say "Come on!" while cracking the Soul Robber like a whip. Interestingly, it buffs both him (instantly charging the Soul Robber to max power) and nearby enemies (making them turn "Oogiefied").
  • Press X to Not Die: Played with in the boss fights, where damaging bosses causes them to let out musical notes. When enough notes are collected, the battle will shift to a Rhythm Game mode where the player must press every button command as it slides across the screen in order to deal major damage to the boss's health. With the exception of the final battle against Oogie in "A Filthy Finale", screwing up the button prompts yields no consequence aside from the resulting attack not being as powerful.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: Lock, Shock, and Barrel serve as this, appearing multiple times throughout the game to fight Jack (either themselves, with enemies, or in Shock's case, giant rolling balls of doom) before challenging him to a proper boss battle on the Mayor's roof.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: A rare case where both the hero and villains have this quality. Jack is still the Pumpkin King, and he is going to take his town back. Oogie, as well as Lock, Shock, and Barrel, are the rulers of Halloween Town, and they really put up a fight so that it can stay that way.
  • Recurring Boss: The Crypt Creeper Spider, the game's second boss, is encountered twice after its first battle, one of the encounters being optional. Shadow Oogie is technically also this, as he's fought in disguise as the real Oogie Boogie in Casino Clash.
  • Revenge of the Sequel: As the title indicates, the game is about Oogie Boogie's revenge.
  • Rhythm Game: Collecting enough musical notes during the major boss fights will result in the battle shifting to a mini-game where the player must press button prompts as they slide across the screen. Completing the prompts will cause tremendous damage to the boss's health, with the extent depending on how well the player succeeds in accurately pressing every button on time.
  • Saving Christmas: Actually, the objective of the game is for Jack to save all the holidays from being taken over by Oogie Boogie, but Christmas is the most notable as Jack has to save Santa at one point and the game takes place on Christmas Eve.
  • Secret Level: There are missions within chapters that nab you soul bonuses, and sometimes advantages. Oddly when you save during these missions, it saves the chapter instead.
  • Stingy Jack: Jack Skellington in his Pumpkin King outfit.
  • Suddenly Voiced: The two elves Jack encounters in Christmas Town have dialogue, when every elf in the film remained silent with the exception of some carolers during "What's This?"
  • Summon Backup Dancers: When in the music mini-game portions of boss battles Jack somehow gets a group of skeleton showgirls to dance in the background for him.
  • Thrown Down a Well: It's revealed that the Holiday Kings of Valentines Day, Independence Day, Saint-Patrick's Day, and Easter are down in the Dry Well that is in the town square.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Both Jack and Oogie. While Jack was very acrobatic in the film and had a bit of a clash with Oogie at the end, he didn't actually apply it to combat. Oogie is no longer a Plot-Irrelevant Villain, but rather a bit of a Manipulative Bastard with some pretty decent Evil Overlord vibes.
    • Lock, Shock, and Barrel also count. In the original, they're just a bunch of trickster children Jack could easily scare off and threaten, and don't do anything particularly mischievous other than giving Santa to Oogie. Here they're basically Co-Dragons to Oogie who enforce his will with hordes of Mooks. They even get boss battles.
    • A very, very Downplayed example with the Mayor. While still a whiny, wishy-washy Non-Action Guy, he actually accepts the responsibility of rescuing the other Holiday Leaders (after Jack cleared out the Giant Spider guarding them, natch) and escorting them back to their homes.
  • Took a Shortcut:
    • Mr. Hyde gets everywhere before Jack, no matter how hard it was for him to get there.
    • The Big Witch Lampshades this in the Runaway Clown chapter if you talk to her in the residential area, then go back to the Witches' Shop:
    Big Witch: I have a very fast broom!
  • Trick Boss: Lock, Shock, and Barrel's fight plays out like this. The start out riding inside of their bathtub, charging around the arena and throwing traps at Jack. Once its health is knocked down, they get out of the tub and start attacking Jack individually. This makes them the only boss with multiple health bars.
  • Triumphant Reprise: During boss fights, Jack can perform heroic variants of Villain Songs when applicable.
  • Trophy Room: when you get all A rankings or higher on a mission, you get figurines you can look at on a shelf in Jack's house.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Oogie himself. His death is made apparent in the previous film by having the brain bug crushed, but apparently Oogie can come back whenever his minions go through the effort of stitching and collecting bugs for his body.
  • The Unfought: Downplayed with Shock. While she is eventually fought alongside Lock and Barrel in a boss fight atop the Mayor's roof, she's the only one of the trio who isn't faced in battle separately.
  • Unlockable Content: In addition to the aforementioned costumes, Jack can also unlock full-length versions of the game's songs and music as well as the ability to rewatch any of the game's cutscenes as the game progresses. In addition, getting a perfect score at the end of every level will unlock a figurine of one of the game's characters, enemies, or bosses.
  • Usurping Santa: Oogie Boogie launches an Evil Plan to usurp the leaders of seven of the biggest holidays and become the "Seven Holidays King."
  • Vague Hit Points: Enemies and bosses have health bars with an indeterminate amount of HP. Averted for Jack himself, whose health is represented by pumpkins, which are worth 1 or 2 HP each depending on the difficulty.
  • Video Game Caring Potential: An optional side quest in the game is to retrieve Igor's box of bone biscuits from a giant spider. Should the player follow Igor's request and get the box back, Igor will commend Jack for his efforts.
  • Villain Song: On top of the three variations of the Oogie song, Dr. Finkelstein gets his own impressive original song for when he's under Oogie's control. Lock, Shock, and Barrel also get a remix of their song as well.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Lock, Shock, and Barrel vanish from the game after they drop Jack on Oogie's lair. It can be reasonably assumed they just turned away after Oogie was defeated, like the movie. Considering their lack of common sense, however, hopefully Jack got enough of their actions and banished them from Halloweentown.
  • You Have Failed Me: During Jack's trip to the Pumpkin Patch, Oogie makes another public service announcement in which he asks Barrel to finish off what his cohorts could not and kill Jack. But if he doesn't, he warns that he's going to get "very, very, very ANGRY".

 
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Fire and Ice King Skeletons

After Jack procures all of the Holiday Doors, he encounters Fire King and Ice King Skeletons.

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