A dragon has kidnapped Freddy Farmer’s daughter, and he seeks the help of a wizard to help get her back.  The wizard tasks him to get ingredients for a potion, but they have to be collected in a certain order.  Help Freddy get those ingredients in this Donkey Kong inspired retro arcade style game where you must climb ladders and jump over enemies.  Actually this game is a lot like another lesser known arcade game called Arabian, which was actually one of SunSoft’s first games alongside Kangaroo!  Anyway, Freddy Farmer is available on Nintendo Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

Freddy can run and jump and climb ladders, and that’s it.  You start out on a map screen and can choose from a selection of areas including a forest, mine, graveyard, etc.  Each world has a handful of levels you must complete.  Each level is a single screen with ladders, enemies, and items to collect.  You must collect the items in a certain order depicted on the left side of the screen.  If you don’t get the order right, the potion will not be made but you’ll still move to the next level.  When you get all the ingredients, head to the cauldron in the level to finish.  If you hit an enemy or obstacle you’ll lose a life.  Lose them all and it’s Game Over, but you can continue.  However, it’ll only save the levels that you’ve completed the potions for.  You still have to start at the first stage each time you enter that world.  And if you turn off the game, it doesn’t save a thing except scores.  So it’s a bit frustrating and extra challenging.

Other things I didn’t like about the game is that when you climb a ladder, you can’t stop in the middle of it so you must watch out for that.  And I wish the game would give you a safe spot to stand in when you start the levels so you can view where the items are and plan your path to get them in order.  The time limit doesn’t help either.  I wish it was more like Arabian where you could collect the letters in order for bonuses, but you aren’t required to do that.  It’s especially hard here because the ingredients are so small on screen and some look very similar, especially if you are playing in handheld mode.  Supposedly there are mini-games to unlock as well, but the game was just too hard for me to do that.  I think with a few tweaks the game would’ve been more fun, but maybe less challenging.

Kid Factor:

Freddy Farmer is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood.  I didn’t notice any blood, but when you get hit by an enemy, you turn into a skeleton and fall down.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, but not necessary just to play, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews