AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: A timeline of video games featuring the movie maniacs
Today I’m going to do another “mixed” article featuring all of the movie maniacs. So, let’s take a look at some vintage video games that feature the movie maniacs.
(Via AtariAge.com)
In 1983 Wizard Video Games released a Halloween game for the Atari 2600. It was based on the first Halloween movie by John Carpenter. In the game you play a babysitter trying to protect the children from Michael Myers.
(Via AtariAge.com)
Also in 1983, and also for the Atari 2600, Wizard Video Games released a video game based on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In this game you take the role of Leatherface and try to murder as many people as you can while avoiding obstacles like fences and cow skulls. Yes, I agree, that sounds pretty awesome. Due to the violent nature, however, the game incited many protests and forced many store owners to put it behind the counter away from children. Despite this, I think it’s interesting that this is the only game I can think of where you take the role of the killer. I’m surprised that’s not done more today.
The first Friday the 13th video game was released in 1985 for the Commodore 64 and other computer systems. You play as a group of camp counselors protecting your campers from zombies and the occasional appearance of Jason. Screenshot courtesy of Giant Bomb.
There was a Friday the 13th video game released by LJN in 1989 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is famously considered one of the worst NES titles ever released. You have to love that box art, though. It’s gameplay is very similar to the 1985 computer game in that you control counselors who are protecting campers from zombies, crows, wolves and, of course, Jason.
The same year LJN made the above Friday game, they also created a Nightmare on Elm Street game. You search the game boards for pieces of Freddy so you can eventually throw them in the furnace and destroy them. The gameplay had some neat ideas like a sleep meter that runs downward as you progress through the game. You can charge it up by picking up cups of coffee hidden throughout. When the meter runs down, your character falls asleep and the environment turns into a dream environment with harder to kill monsters and the chance for you to get special weapons and abilities. However the execution was bland and confusing and the game received mostly negative reviews. Many felt it was too similar to Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest.
(Via Nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com)
Around the same time as the LJN NES game, there was a Nightmare game created by Monarch and released for the Commodore 64. It was based primarily on the third film, Dream Warriors.
In Summer 2011, Freddy Krueger was added as a DLC to Mortal Kombat. This Freddy Krueger character was based on the reboot Jackie Earl Haley version and featured knife gloves on BOTH hands. Check out the trailer for the character on Strange Kids Club.
I have to mention this one. It’s a free fan-made game for the PC called Terrordrome. It features a bunch of horror icons from throughout the years in a Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat-type fighting game. The game includes characters like Jason, Freddy, Ghostface, Chucky, Candyman, Leatherface, Herbert West (Reanimator) and many more. This is the type of game that needs to be made. Officially. See a trailer for Demo v2.6 featuring Ash from Evil Dead here. Check out some more video of the gameplay featuring Freddy, Ghostface and Maniac Cop here.
Now that I look at it, there’s been a lot more Freddy action in video games than any other movie maniac. I hope Jason gets added to Mortal Kombat, that would be awesome. Or we see an official wide release for Terrordrome on a console system. That would rock.
Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
October 27, 2012 at 10:22 am
I know I’m in the minority here, but after I actually figured out how to play the Friday the 13th NES game I enjoyed it. It’s still a bad game and super hard, but it has it’s own place in the NES’ history. I even tracked down a boxed copy of the game for the awesome artwork.
Nightmare on Elm Street was a better game by far, but still fell a little short. If memory serves me correctly it was one of the first games to use the 4 player adapter. I only got to play with 3 players at once, but it was so much more fun (and hard) than tackling the game solo. I too have a boxed copy of the game in my NES collection thanks to the sheer beauty of the packaging.