Nightmare Buster (SNES)

Do you hate Nightmare? Do you really hate it so much that you want to bust it for good? You do? Then let's do some nightmare bustin' with Arcade Zone's Nightmare Buster (1995). 

I'm not movie expert but i can recognize that 'Nightmare' word should belong to Nightmare on Elm Street. As for 'Busters' word, it has the same font with Back to The Future title. Nice dark scenery, though. Arcade Zone also made another game on SNES: Legend which is beat/slash 'em up with magic, inspired by Sega's Golden Axe. I happen to play and finish it 2 years ago along with its sequel on PSX. I wouldn't be surprised if this game also relative crude like Legend.

 

As i hit start button, the main menu appears. Well, that leprechaun looks nightmare-ish and unfortunately you do control him in this game. There's no plot exposition or whatsoever here but i got some from www.mobygames.com: "When an evil fiend called the Tyrant hijacks and spoils the dreams of small children, two bold leprechauns named Flynn and Floyd jump into action to stop him. Armed with razor-sharp playing cards, the courageous brothers can also summon magical attacks to destroy the various beasts they encounter. Traversing the inner depths of the dream world, they must overcome all the Tyrant's minions before facing the bloated monster himself." That's interesting plot setting, really.

 

Before the 1st level begins. There's this scene. No voice or text involved so it's up to you to interpret this still image. My best guess is: Flynn points out that there's monsters attacking this village.

 

Then he's burnt by one of the monster. That's great visual effect of someone getting burned. I say, it has the same level as the one in Street Fighter II. Besides the burning effect, i would say that this is obviously bad starter.

 

Now, this is lot better. The control is as follows: 1) d-pad to move, aim or crouch 2) 'B' button to jump 3) 'Y' button to shoot projectile. The plot said that Flynn uses playing cards as his weapon but i happen to pick up this stronger weapon. I want to say that this is burning card but judging from how heavy sound it makes. I'm quite sure that it's burning small ingot instead. This big pot will unlimitedly spawns goblins. No rupee inside pot in this game, i'm afraid.

 

Next we have this jolly monster who has such hygienic teeth for nightmare creature like him. He will jump very high and land with barrel on his hands and later throw at me on either high or low degree. He's quite easy to dispatch but the true horror comes from barrel barricade behind him. You have to destroy it but later barrels fly anywhere upon its destruction.      

 

And i have to go through burning building because why not? The burning ceiling is harmless but there's falling debris and fire ghosts that causes harm. Besides that, the burning bit of the ground also can damage me. Luckily there's potion there that replenish 1 block of my health (indicated in top HUD) but the thing is i only have 2 health block before i vanish in explosion that damage enemies. Relentless 2D platform game with only 2 hit before perish? This is the homage of Ghost 'n Goblin, huh?    

 

This building is less burning then the previous building but the hazard still come relentlessly. In this section i'm being tested on this ledge hanging obstacle. I can cling to some bar or ledge by pressing up while in air and near climbable platform. It's sluggish system but quite accurate to pull it off.

 

As in 101 rules of platformer game, there's a boss at the end of the stage. Before i face the boss directly, there's this intermission a la fighting game. I like this feature.

 

I assume this troll is the leader of the attacking group as he's the biggest and... i want to say the smartest but his attack is ridiculously easy to predict: he jumps to other side, blow his torches that you can duck under, and repeat. Engineer_dominationpyro03.wav   

 

Next intermission shows that the brother are about to get ambushed in woods. So, next stage is the obligatory forest stage?

 

Why, of course yes! The icon on top of me is bomb pickup and here's the thing: you got 3 type of bomb each with their strength and range. They're: 1) Atomic explosion which deal damage the most but has the most narrow range 2) Bouncing Typhoon that cover 98% of the screen but has the weakest power. 3) Tornado that move left and right from your facing and position that has middling strength. You can switch between them by pressing 'L' or 'R' button.   

 

Then there's giant totem hinder my way but i can "convince" it to lower itself by shooting it lots of time. The totem itself does nothing but there's goblins spawn here but they do nothing much than walking to off-screen. On the other hand, i got this blue fireball weapon that fired in 2 direction: straight and diagonal. It's useful for big target like this giant wooden pillar.     

 

There's this gnome who for some reason attack with his hammer or mistletoe leaves that fall due to his hammer slam. Leprechaun and gnome are supposed to be friends, right? Why he takes sides on goblin? I have no idea.

 

Another mid-boss! This time it's goblin that rides on owl. The mid-boss either swoop from random direction or throw volatile concoction at me. Summary, he's not so hard.

 

Another totem! But instead of goblins, there are butterflies that assist it. They're better at the task of defending the totem as they block my projectile, compared to those idiotic goblin.

 

The totem is lowered but another gnome awaits me at the top.  I will get "SMACK!" if i try to climb it. Thus i resort to the Little Boy by pressing 'A' button! Demoman_specialcompleted11.wav

This time the boss stage is a werewolf that somehow shouts "Meeeeow!" when charging. The key to beating him safely is to constantly switch height between this platform and ground while gives him damage in between time. The platform climbing feels sluggish but with some practice you will get used to it.

Every time boss defeated you will get this domino pieces in either half-of-Leprechaun size or jumbo size. These domino pieces serves as collectibles that can increase your live if you manage to make that domino counter to 100. "Small" domino piece yields 1 point while jumbo ones yields 5 points.

 

Next stage takes place in cavern. After short section of walking, i fall into this auto-scrolling section where there's falling big rock on top of me while i have to navigate hazards and bonus items below. The way Flynn throw his card downward while in air, looks like ninja in Sega's Shadow Dance. A magician that "borrows" trick from a ninja, interesting. 

 

After that and more rockslide, i arrives at volcano place. Indicated by how dangerous the place is, i will be surprised if this cavern doesn't lead me to villain's headquarter.

 

I encounter the barrel-throwing monster but this time he throws fire at me. Unfortunately for him, i can dodge his attack more easily than the previous moment. But good on him for trying something new to kill me.

 

And now i get to be in elevator section where falling stalactites and spike crystals try to bring harms on me. But at least there's coins up here. Money always makes everyone happy, right?

 

It seems i'm on right track as i encounter this dark mage as boss stage. He will open his wizardry robe to unleash butterflies and he can only be hit while his robe is open. So just keep chucking those projectiles!

 

He can also summon ring of fire that bouncing on entire screen. As long as it exists, he can be harmed so i slip under him and shoot his inside from bottom. Does that statement sounds suggestive? I'm sorry.   

 

There's no bold intermission after defeating the dark mage. The 4th stage just start seamlessly in the same sliding elevator that occasionally jump because it leaps through gap on the rail. After some falling rocks, the owl rider appears again. Without the center platform like in previous encounter there's no way for me to take cover from the bombing unless i resort to this dash. To perform it you have to press and hold 'X' button until the bar (which is located below Dash counter) is fully filled and then released it. You will be completely invincible while dashing and you can also sweep down enemies with this move. The weakness of said move is: limited in number and the charging process feels pretty slow.

 

After the sliding elevator hit a castle's door, this intermission screen appears. "Here's Flynn and Floyd!"

 

See that burning blue orb? That's pickup to increase the dash's number by one. There's also pickup in form of 'Blast' word that i have no idea what's that for.

 

This castle is filled with instant kill spikes. Is this place not the villain's headquarter, i don't know is this place. This section demands your platforming skill very bad. You can't stand on these block so you have to skillfully grab them instead. Remainder: pressing up on d-pad while near the block to hang to it. On later section the blocks will periodically pull in and out which require precision timing. I'll be honest, this is the least likable part of this game especially there's no domino pieces around here thus preventing me from getting 1up... in section where i need it the most! Sniper_jeers04.wav  

Should you lose a life, you can jump down anywhere on the screen with the help of these fairies. This is pretty handy for this platforming section.

 

This section requires you to master the art of hanging/getting on platform. This long platform will move up and down so you have to switch between stand on platform and hanging on platform precisely and quickly. Pressing  jump button and down on d-pad, will make you jump down the platform but you have to immediately press up on d-pad to cling on the platform otherwise you will jump to the spikes below. Pressing jump while hanging on ledge, will make you hop on to the platform directly. If you hold up on d-pad while doing so (like in other platforming game), you will high jump to the spikes above. This may sounds tedious but this section's design is brilliant in my opinion. Or at least better than the previous precision platforming section.

 

In this descending elevator, there's 4 turrets that strongly tracks me. I need to jump straight up at very perfect time to dodge all of their projectile. They're durable but with each destroyed turret will gives me a breather.

 

The idiotic goblins are back by descending through the chains and some wall blown by bats. They're entertaining feature after that tedious platforming section. Heavy_positivevocalization02.wav

 

At the end of this stage, there's this bit that moves diagonally away from me. Is there going to be epic boss entrance or what?  

 

Nope! We jump to this cutscene instead. Turns out, it was part of that airship and we're just in time to catch a rope attached to it. So is this really the final stage?

 

With the indication of boss rush, i say yes. This guy isn't tougher than before. Heavy_domination15.wav

 

Besides the fur's color is different, this boss fight changes by the position of platform that's now in middle. Only slightly though.

 

The dark wizard also return but with additional trick where he can summon fire torrent near him therefore you only need to far away from him. Maybe he has the same tricks including this before but he can't show them all because i already killed him. I think that's all for the boss battle redux, next boss must be the final boss!

 

Finally, here's the Tyrant himself and my god he's hideous! With clown's collar and those horrid yellow teeth, he must be very evil! Because he's the final boss, he has the most hitpoints (with 2 rows of them) from all bosses. Sensible, no?

 

The tyrant has 3 attack patterns: 1) He flies above and drop on you from above 2) He will conjure fireballs with strong tracking 3) He bangs his armchair to summon blue balls that you can destroy especially if you have this weapon.

 

The Tyrant get another attack pattern when his health is down to 50%: he come from either corner and sweep entire screen with lightning bolt so i have to be under him very fast. Flynn running speed is slow like sedately slow but he can slide by pressing jump button while crouching. His slide is quite fast and goes almost half of the screen. But unlike the invincible dash, Flynn isn't invincible while sliding.

His fireball attack becomes more intense and faster. When in slower pace, you can dodge it by sliding around. But in this version you only need to jump. Kind of strange but i take it.

 

When he's down to zero health, the Tyrant explodes and becomes this chubby small git. Heavy_taunts02.wav   

 

With the Tyrant defeated this girl can have sweet dream again which is credit rolls apparently. Judging with smile on her face, she has great time so be it. There's familiar name to me: Lyes Belaidouni and Carlo Perconti. They're the men behind Legend that i mentioned before. I expected their name to be in credit rolls and i feel glad that it comes true. Heavy_positivevocalization02.wav  

 

Then i'm stuck in this screen forever without further epilogue until i reset, that is. Someone said that the game still not completed so this shouldn't be surprising.

Arcade Zone's Nightmare Buster (1995) is relentless 2D platformer game and tedious to play. Even the weakest mook takes many hit to dispatch. On contrary with Flynn and/or Floyd that can be killed with only 2 hits from anything including enemy's skin contact although they will produce 2 explosions: upon demise and while respawn. On top of that, they move really sluggish except for sliding. But the sliding takes too much distance and you can't alter it with d-pad. But on the bright side, the boss battle is quite well designed except the werewolf. It's the main stages are the main problem including the harsh platforming section. But i admit i like the visual design of the enemies, each and every one of them. The arsenal feel lack of distinction except for the 2-way blue fireball and it's simply the best because it covers competent range. All i can say is the other weapon are definitely step up than the standard card. Another good thing is the fine selection of bombs that you have. They're all distinguishable and quite unique on both visual and gameplay effect. There's no password or save slot. You only have 3 continues to finish the 5 stages or you have to restart from the beginning. Although it's considered pretty short for a game that only consist of 5 stage, it still feels unfair. With 3 continues, i can only cover 3 stages at most. If i play the game without savestate that is. The music is grainy but unlike Legend, NB feels less likable. The sound effect is okay for SNES game.  

I believe there's many 2D platformer game that are better than Nightmare Buster (1995). So i suggest you shouldn't play this game at all. Even though the premise is remarkable: Leprechaun magician that destroy evil creatures. I wish that there's some amazing game with that setting or remake of this game but more polished, but that sounds impossible like sweet dream that's taken away by some fiend. But if you like magician protagonist with top hat that fight evil creature, i recommend you to check The Twisted Tale of Spike McFang!