A Nightmare on Elm Street (Beta)

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1990 action-platformer released on the NES. It was created by British-based developer Rare, known for the Donkey Kong and Banjo-Kazooie series, and published by LJN who are infamous for releasing licensed games reviled for their glitches and nonsensical gameplay. Gameplay focused around the player character, a teenager, traveling to different locations on Elm Street on a mission to find and destroy Freddy's bones, the only method of permanently killing him, all while attempting to keep their sleep meter from depleting; when emptied, the character is transported to the Dream World where they can be openly attacked by Freddy and a multitude of super-powered enemies. To defend themselves, the character can take on one of several dream roles that can turn them into anything from a ninja to a wizard, an element directly lifted from the third movie (The Dream Warriors).

The game went through several changes over the course of its development with evidence to suggest that it was altered completely from the earlier build that was advertised in gaming magazines such as Nintendo Power. Originally, Freddy himself was intended to be the playable character with the goal being to murder the teens attempting to find his bones. Additionally, players would be able to freely traverse the Dream World by traveling through pipes, electrical outlets and mirrors, painting a fairly ambitious picture compared to the finished product. No official explanation has been given to the change, but given Nintendo's reputation for producing family-friendly games and the financial failure presented by earlier licensed horror game The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (uniquely known for casting the killer as the playable character), it's entirely possible that Rare scrapped the early build and remade the game out of fear of controversy.

Aside from screenshots and small media blurbs from the aforementioned magazines, little to no information of the prototype exists.