Little Nemo The Dream Master review - Nintendo Entertainment System

While most of us are snugly tucked up in our beds, spare a thought for Little Nemo, a lad whose amazing dreams are quite unlike any others! One night Little Nemo is informed by a messenger that he has been chosen as the playmate of a princess who lives in Slumberland. As soon as Nemo enters this magical land disaster strikes when the King of Slumberland is kidnapped by the wicked King of Nightmares. After Little Nemo decides that there's always one git who spoils the fun, he realises that it's his duty to save the good King and restore peace to the Land of Dreams.

Even though Little Nemo is only a kid, he does have a few things in his favour on this NES adventure. To begin with, he has been given an endless supply of candy (sweets to anyone who speaks proper English) which he regularly uses to win friends and stun enemies. Should Nemo be able to tempt animals into alliance he either rides on their back or actually transforms into them and acquires their abilities. But with plenty of nasty creatures standing in his way, Little Nemo's dreams could easily become nightmares!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

My first impression of this game after watching the title screen was that it was a game for younger kids and would therefore be pretty easy. I couldn't have been more wrong. There is in fact a lot of tough gameplay in Little Nemo. I don't mind tough games, but Little Nemo's game logic has a number of problems. I found myself getting very frustrated at times because there are points in the game where maintaining power is more or less impossible. Another criticism of mine is that this game suffers from quite a bit of sprite flicker, especially when the screen is highly active. Looking on the bright side though, there are some excellent graphics and good animation, and the idea of riding or changing into an animal gives the game a further dimension which keeps things going at an entertaining pace. If you can stand the sometimes frustrating gameplay, Little Nemo is worth saving up for.

Little Nemo isn't short on ideas, finding which creatures to use where and how is quite entertaining and makes the game somewhat more cerebral than your average platformer. The graphics aren't all that bad really, although the sprites are a little poorly defined at times, and the sound is passable. Unfortunately, Little Nemo is very frustrating for a couple of reasons. For starters the collision detection is pretty dodgy in the favour of the enemy creatures, allowing them to hit you from miles away whilst your attacks fail to connect despite their accuracy. The worst thing about Little Nemo is the number of instant-death locations where it is impossible to avoid injury. There's nothing worse than being down to your last reserves of energy and knowing you are approaching a trap or enemy which is going to kill you, without possible hope of escape. Little Nemo could have been a great game, as it is it's just a good effort spoiled by some tedium-inducing flaws.