Novelty aside, it’s an otherwise lacking title with some lousy hitboxes leading to constantly being stuck on scenery, finicky collision detection resulting in your victims seeming to “teleport” around you as you near them, and a general lack of hooks or mechanics outside of minding a draining “FUEL” meter. The approach VSS decided to take was actually quite novel for the time, pitting the player in the role of Leatherface as he cuts down hapless innocents in the woods. Licensing Chainsaw Massacre was likely easy enough for them, as they were already the distributors for the film in home video format. Contracting the developer “VSS Inc.,” they set about producing a pair of 2600 titles based on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween. Wizard Video – distributors of some cult films of the era on VHS – decided to enter the games publishing business in 1982. But this sort of precedent would not be followed for too long. When these programmers were presented with the task of adapting a dark and dour horror film, they eschewed those tonal elements entirely in favor of standard video game design. I say it that way because it doesn’t even bother trying to capture the tone or adapt the plot of the movie, opting instead to be a Pac-Man clone of sorts pitting your player character against a squad of ghosts xenomorphs with malicious intent, as you scramble to eat pellets destroy their eggs and collect “prizes.” It also features a bonus stage between mazes that plays like a sort of take on Frogger, where you need to reach the top of the screen while avoiding alien traffic. Developed and published by 20th Century Fox’s own video game division, it is legitimately a licensed game loosely based on the 1979 film of the same name.
#Friday the 13th flash game movie#
The early beginnings of the “horror movie tie-in game” subgenre were as primitive as one might expect, with 1982’s Alien for the Atari 2600. “The Maven of Mayhem, the Sultan of Slash.” And finally, we’ll investigate the devastation it left in its wake, and briefly check in on the current state of slasher flick game adaptations. With those frights fresh in mind, we’ll reveal the evil within the accursed NES cartridge. But first, we’re going to have to put things in perspective a bit by taking a quick look at some prior attempts at translating horror films to video games, including an even earlier attempt at cashing in on our favorite hockey mask-clad killer. Yes, folks: Today, I am going to try and sell you on the game that dressed Jason Voorhees up in a purple hoodie and gave you a handful of rocks with which to stop him. It’s definitely not a game without its flaws, but I’m going to make the argument that it gets more flak than it deserves. But you know what? I’d argue that despite all that, Friday the 13th on NES absolutely nailed the spirit and ever-present tension of the film franchise in a way that very few horror movie game adaptations have, before or since. There’s also the matter of it not necessarily being a wholly faithful translation of the movies’ premise, taking all manner of creative liberties - such as inexplicably tossing in zombies, for some reason. (Yes, that Atlus)įriday the 13th has taken on something of a reputation as a hated game, likely thanks in no small part to the Angry Video Game Nerd’s take on it. My final pick is another possibly controversial one, and it’s another one published by LJN: 1989’s Friday the 13th, as developed by Atlus. At the very least, you have to admit that compared to sitting down and watching Jaws: The Revenge, it’s a far better way to spend a couple hours of your life. The second is probably a somewhat “controversial” pick on my part, as I actually genuinely enjoy 1987’s NES take on Jaws as published by LJN. The first is 1989’s A Nightmare on Elm Street for DOS / Commodore 64, which actually does a surprisingly decent job of capturing the spirit of the Dream Warriors installment in the film franchise as a top-down action game.
Whether it’s failure to fully realize a film’s unique concept in video game form, inability to instill fear in a player, or straight-up bad game design, so many horror movie games have come out feeling so lacking.įor my money, there were three games that managed the feat in the 8-bit era. But when it comes to actually adapting licenses, something always seems to get lost in the translation.
Good-timey camp time art by games industry doesn’t have all that great a reputation for licensed releases based on horror films, does it? Sure, there have been some great horror games that have taken cues from cinema - your original Resident Evils and Fatal Frames and whatnot. “You see, Jason was my son, and today is his birthday…”
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