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#372 – Little Nemo: The Dream Master

Share your ways with us, Dream Master.
What a cover. And free Mega Man sticker?! Sold!
Little Nemo must really look up to Mega Man.

PLAYERS: 1

PUBLISHER: Capcom

DEVELOPER: Capcom

GENRE: Platformer

RELEASE DATE: September 1990

Nemo might be the master of dreams, but can he master your heart? Only if you’re able to enjoy the nightmare-filled Slumberland, unironically. In The Dream Master, you control Nemo, capably attired in his nightie-nighties. By himself, he’s a weakling of a young boy, but within each stage, there are certain animals Nemo can feed candy. Once he feeds them three pieces of candy (Nemo has an everlasting supply, lucky punk), you can ride on them/become one with them and acquire their abilities. Each animal has different abilities, and unless you have the instruction manual, it is trial and error figuring them out. For example, the lizard thing in stage 1 is slow-moving, but can bounce on other enemies and kill them. The gorilla is strong and can punch enemies, but jumping on them hurts him, despite the fact that he is a gorilla and could definitely squish an insect. Logic isn’t what you come for in a game where you can tame animals with candy to do your bidding, however, so moving on. Each stage has a certain amount of keys that you have to collect in order to progress. None of the stages are too huge, but the challenge lies in using the candy-drugged animals to navigate around the stages, avoid enemies, and collect the keys. And it is a challenge. Little Nemo might appear like a cutesy Capcom game, in the vein of their work with Disney, but you’ll have to work hard to unlock those doors at the end of every stage. Keep flinging out candy, experimenting with your animal friends, and hope you don’t wind up at the feet of the Nightmare King, wondering what day it is. Sugar and dreams don’t always mix.

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8 replies on “#372 – Little Nemo: The Dream Master”

It’s a fine game, one I probably would have come to love had I had it as a kid. But the logic behind each monster’s abilities frustrated me to keep me from exploring it further as an adult.

This is a great, underrated game. It’s also surprisingly hard given how cutesy it looks. Nonetheless anyone who wants a challenging, well designed platformer should look no further.

Wonderful game. Played and beat this as a kid and just loved every second of it. I was lucky enough to know about the cartoon it was based on before playing it to, which made it even more fun.

Sleepyweasel

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