This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’ll be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006.
Day 30
Friday the 13th
Widely regarded as one of the worst games based on a horror property, Friday the 13th on the Nintendo Entertainment System does stand solidly in video game history. It’s a really weird game, and it’s extremely cryptic, making it hard to beat without a guide.
Your goal is to kill Jason. Of course, “let’s simply kill Jason Vorhees” doesn’t sound feasible on the surface, but that’s exactly what this game wants you to do. But this Jason doesn’t quite look like himself. Instead of his usual white hockey mask (or even a burlap sack) he’s wearing a blue mask and a bright purple jumpsuit. This infamously strange appearance has shown up in modern iterations, like the Friday the 13th video game that paid homage to the NES classic and the NECA toy that also bore the same color scheme.
Don’t get me wrong: Friday the 13th isn’t a game you should be trying desperately to play. These days, it's still considered confusing and difficult–two things that aren’t a great combination. In fact, if you think reading the manual would give you an idea of how things worked, the manual itself is somewhat cryptic and worse: it contains outright wrong information.
It’s a shame that Friday the 13th is such a hard game to play, because if you know how to play it it’s actually not a bad game. It’s not one of the best efforts on the NES, but it does a great job of genuinely instilling a sense of dread, even with its cartoony graphics. It’s just a bummer that some of that dread comes from scrambling in confusion.
At the time of Friday the 13th’s release, I can’t think of another game I played that had you fighting the end boss from the very beginning. In fact, you fight Jason over the course of the game’s three days and three nights–yes, there’s a timer, too.
I really appreciate Friday the 13th for what it is. It’s not a game you can play easily these days, both because of its mysterious mechanics but also because it’s just not available on modern systems. And that probably won’t change anytime soon due to licensing issues – the same thing that killed 2017’s Friday the 13th - The Game.
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