A Nightmare on Elm Street

You roam areas gathering items and staying alive while the dream world tries to overwhelm you. The tension comes from managing danger and timing your progress so you don’t get trapped under constant pressure. It is most fun when you treat it like survival planning instead of straight brawling.

Enter the nightmare… and don’t fall asleep.

A Nightmare on Elm Street drops players into a twisted version of Springwood, where Freddy Krueger rules the dream world and reality offers only temporary safety. As one of several teen heroes, you must battle monsters, survive surreal dreamscapes, and ultimately face Freddy himself before he claims another victim.

Creepy, experimental, and relentlessly strange, A Nightmare on Elm Street blends horror, action, and exploration into one of the NES’s most unsettling licensed games.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a side-scrolling action-adventure with light RPG elements and a heavy emphasis on survival.

Awake vs Dream World
The game is built around a central mechanic: staying awake.

While awake, players explore houses and streets

Falling asleep shifts the game into the dream world

Dream versions of locations are far more dangerous

Freddy can only be damaged in the dream world

This creates constant tension. Staying awake keeps you safer—but delays progress. Falling asleep allows progress—but dramatically increases danger.

Character Switching
Players can choose from multiple characters, each with:

Unique weapons

Different stats

Strengths and weaknesses

If a character dies, they’re gone for the rest of the game. Lose them all, and the nightmare ends.

Dream Logic Gameplay
Dream levels are intentionally disorienting:

Gravity changes

Environments warp

Enemies behave unpredictably

Visuals become surreal and hostile

The game encourages cautious movement, preparation, and learning enemy behavior rather than rushing forward.

Freddy Krueger has returned, haunting the dreams of the teenagers of Springwood. To stop him, the teens must confront Freddy on his own turf—the dream world—while surviving long enough in reality to prepare.

The story mirrors the tone of the films more than their exact plots. Rather than retelling a specific movie, the game captures the concept of Freddy: fear, helplessness, and the terror of losing control.

The constant pull between sleep and wakefulness reinforces the horror theme in a way few NES games ever attempted.

Released in 1990, A Nightmare on Elm Street was developed by Rare during their early NES era—before they became known for titles like Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country.

Rather than creating a simple action game, Rare attempted something more ambitious: a mechanical representation of horror.

Rare – Developer
Early in their NES era, Rare explored ambitious mechanics and licensed properties.

LJN – Publisher
Known for numerous licensed NES titles, with varying levels of quality and experimentation.