Moving on quickly from the last episode, this time the Nerd takes on a game I consider classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street, for the NES. This is another horror movie based game published by the legendarily bad software publisher LJN. The game, oddly enough, was developed by Rare, the same company behind Battletoards, Goldeneye 007, Diddy Kong Racing, and other classic games over the past 30 years.
As I mentioned, I have a fondness for this game, as I had it as a kid and I do recall enjoying it, even though it is frustrating. I won’t review it here but suffice to say it isn’t great but it isn’t bad.
Anyway, back to the episode, this version is from the DVD release and features a recap of the previous episode. Some say this takes away from the feel of the episode, but I’m still going with this version since it is the higher quality and is the “current” version of the episode.
Freddy taunts James with the idea of playing Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde again.
In this one, the Nerd has fallen asleep and, just like the Nightmare on Elm Street films, he’s now being tormented by Freddy Krueger. Just like Jason in the last episode, he is forcing him to play his “shitty game” but instead of killing the Nerd when he criticizes the game, Freddy just enjoys the Nerd having to play it.
James actually goes into decent explanation of the game here, including it’s 4 player mode, which allowed him to do a fun little editing trick to make it seem like he had cloned himself to be able to play. The clone-nerd discussion is pretty damn funny, ending with some gross-out humor before switching back to horror mode with Freddy coming to kill the clones.
James certainly isn’t one to let his love and knowledge of horror films slip away, and for those familiar with the genre there are plenty of little inside jokes during the finale. The episode ends with James hinting at the next episode by defeating Freddy with the Power Glove.
Incidentally, both James and Mike play Freddy in this episode.
I actually really like this game. It’s nowhere near as bad as many others featured in the series.
Final Rating: 4.0/5
This is a damn fine episode. Blame my familiarity with both the game and the movie series for helping me enjoy this one more than the last, but the comedy alone holds up well, and the episode sets several more nerd tropes for future episodes. Especially hilarious is the line “Play that shitty game” and the “Boo! Haunted House” joke, which would show up a few more times in the series.
For classic episodes, this is one of my favorites. It’s just plain enjoyable.