Thursday, October 31, 2013

Nerdicus NES Halloween Review Pt 2. : Friday the 13th (review #20)


Title : FRIDAY THE 13th

Publisher : LJN

Release Date : 1989

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $2-$5

Ki Ki Ki Ki......ma ma ma ma....you do know that's what the whispers are in the movies right? It's not chi chi chi chi cha cha cha, or kill kill kill die die die. But it really doesn't matter because those noises are as creepy as hell regardless of what it's supposed to be saying. And with that, HAPPY HALLOWEEN, everyone! In part one of our Halloween NES review series we had a blast collecting Freddy Kreuger's bones and battling his body parts as bosses in Nightmare on Elm Street. Okay, I lied. It wasn't that much fun.




Well, today we're going to play a little hockey and take a slap shot to Jason's face in FRIDAY THE 13th. But wait - what's this? LJN? Ah, crap - here we go again.


Now the back story of Friday the 13th is pure horror gold. You play the role of camp counselors trapped in Camp Crystal Lake overrun by zombies, bats, wolves, and JASON, the goalie mask wearing, machete wielding psychopath that has come back from the dead to kill you. So what do you have to do? Kill him first of course.

But the camp is HUGE and you have to worry about the little kiddies. Don't let Jason kill them, because that's just wrong. Too bad it takes forever to get from one side of the camp to the other. It doesn't help that all of the counselors move incredibly slow, and you're always being assaulted by other creatures. Seriously 60 seconds to get from one side of the camp to the other is impossible. Half the the time I just let Jason have his victim. ITS FOR THE GREATER GOOD, DAMMIT!


The basic premise is to defeat Jason in battle three times to finish him off for good. But it's all about surviving. You're on a constant timer, and Jason is always rearing his ugly head to kill off your fellow counselors. The goal is to jump from counselor to counselor, rescuing kids, lightning fireplaces, and upgrading your weapons.

If Jason manages to kill off all the kids, or all the counselors - well, it's game over. You're dead!



In actuality, you just have to survive for a couple of days and nights, and try to fend off Jason. Jason really isn't that hard to deal with, as all his moves are easily predicable. If you're rescuing one of the counselors or kids, you battle him inside one of the houses. It sort of plays out like PUNCH-OUT. Just dodge left and right and stab him with your knife. Meet him on the platforming areas, and you just have to dodge his axes. Would have been cooler with a chainsaw, but still. 

If you manage to defeat Jason 3 times, congratulations! You've WON! FOR NOW.....BUHAHAHAHAHAHAH.


Now apparently you can fight Jason's mother in this game too - and just for you guys, I worked my arse off to get to her and take a little pic for those who haven't seen her before in the game. So, apparently she's Medusa. Go figure.

Cool thing about killing Medusa Mommy is she gives you a REALLY good weapon to kill Jason with. Sure you can find this weapon randomly around the map, but this is faster. The trick to getting to her is first lighting all the fireplaces in the cabin, get the flashlight which lets you see the secret entrance to her "domain" in the cave.

It might not seem worth it, but it's a fun little side mission. Which I have to give props to this game for, there's a few different ways to go about beating this game so it's not as straight forward as you may think.

 

Playing this again after so many years, I realize it's not that bad of a game. It definitely gives you a sense of impending doom and it's pretty frantic. I mean you have to run around like a mad person just trying to save everyone, and kill Jason. It's pretty terrifying running into him when you aren't prepared, but it's even more rewarding to kick his sorry arse.

But, I think the only time I'll ever pull out this game is on another random Halloween. Still worth the play through if you haven't done so yet, and always worth adding to your collection for the sheer fact that it's Friday the 13th. Too bad LJN had to make it.

Final Score (out of 5) :



Until next time. Keep on gaming!

And have a Happy Halloween!

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