The masked axe-slinger: Friday the 13th | NES Works 113 

I say this as someone who used to hate it- Friday the 13th may be a flawed game but I still respect it for trying to make an unnerving, spooky experience with its atmosphere and gameplay mechanics. A very ambitious endeavor for an NES game.

I can only imagine how much effort was required to get this to come out as episode 113. Even so, it was worth it.

Even finding the dagger is more obtuse than you describe: each counsellor has a set number of ennemies to kill before a lighter appears on the spot. Pick up the lighter, and all the regular items, like the dagger, the keys and the potions, start to appear. How do you find em? Milon's Secret Castle Style; they're all in pre-determined spots, and you need to jump around to find them. If you don't jump, they'll never appear. And since there's a limited number of them, don't pick up every knife and key with the same character if you wanted to use the other ones. And yet, I love this game with all my heart, warts and all. They really tried to make something cool and if you get over the TERRIBLE first impression, I think there's a neat little game that was ahead of its time. If anything, it's TOO easy once you figure out its mechanics, and at least, I feel like the devs tried harder than most of the film makers working on the actual franchise. EDIT: spelling

Loved this game as a kid, even though obtuse it was fascinating. I was not able to beat it before Game Genie, with a code for infinite health and infinite children it was so empowering to hunt Jason down.

I beat this game last October. It's a lot of fun and I recommend it. In 2023 it's easy to figure out the game mechanics and once you do the game really opens up. One of the most creative games on the nes. If you approach it like a puzzle instead of a contra game I think you will have a good time.

I still maintain that ET is not as bad as everyone says. If you had the instruction manual, the game is quite clearly explain. I'd rather a developer aim for the stars and fail than barely try. As such, I think your comparison of Friday the 13th to ET is rather appropriate.

An ex-boyfriend of mine was hugely into these movies, so I wasn't surprised when he informed me he was quite good at this game. I got to watch somebody who really understood it play through it almost effortlessly, and was really amazed at just how involved the game was. I have a lot of respect for the game now, but at the same time don't think I'm ever going to try it myself.

I can always count on Jeremy Parish to go "Ok now hold on a moment there is something.... respectable here" when it comes to overly complicated bad NES games and I did want some of that for Friday the 13th!

There was nothing creepier than entering a cabin at night and encountering a faceless councilor in the gloom thanking you for saving him from Jason.

I was utterly baffled by this game as a child but I couldn't stop myself from coming back to it from time to time. It was just so weird and interesting. Everyone else seemed to hate it but it was just too strange and intricate for me to hate.

This game still managed to freak me out as a kid. I think it was the odd score at times. The difficulty/lack of direction lead to me never beating it. Great video buddy

Amazing breakdown, Jeremy. Loved that you took the second half of the video giving it the few props it does deserve. I’d also give it praise for being legitimately scary to a kid. It was panic inducing and had a super dark tone. It stuck with you, even though I knew even then it kinda sucked.

I've long thought that if this weren't from LJN, it would be seen as an incredibly ambitious - if very flawed - early survival horror game that predicts the 5th Gen horror game boom in a lot of ways. I tend to think Atlus did it themselves specifically because the design was so absurdly ambitious. I can't imagine an outsourced ghost dev trying *so* hard with a licensed tie-in.

Dying at the movie clips being from a Laserdisc rip. You beautiful bastard.

Honestly I would rather a game aim for the stars and fail by taking too many risks, than fail by playing it too safe. I can't fault Atlus for their ambition, at least.

This one is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. It's got that dumb ambition that I find amusing.

The cabin theme is legitimately haunting and remains one of my favorite NES tracks to this day. It's really perfect for the atmosphere of those sections. I loved this game as a kid. I wasn't able to beat it until I was much older, but something about it kept drawing me back over the years.

If you look at Friday The 13th as a prototype for the Survival Horror genre, you develop an immense appreciation for this game.

"in the tradition of Pyscho and Beowulf" my mind is blown

I found this game to be genuinely unnerving back in the day, this still being the era of our imaginations filling in the blanks. That and it ran counter to what the films conveyed with the characters typically trying to flee from Jason. The notion of being told I had to go find him intentionally only spiked my anxiety while trying to play it as a kid. Probably didn't help the first time I rented it I was left home alone with it while my parents went out to dinner.

This & Nightmare on Elm Street I would have to say are the best LJN had to offer

Excellent job working "chiaroscuro" into your narration

vivid memories of this game, cause my aunt got it for me for one of my bdays. Game legit scared me as a kid, w/ that soundtrack and that sound effect if Jason appeared / killed a kid. Never beat it as a kid, even w/ Game Genie. Since i really didn't know what to do. Only beat it as a teen w/ emulation.

Love this game one of the best games on the system \9for those that actually give it a chance of course). I always wished they at least made a sequel on say the SNES (then you could have called it Super Friday the 13th ;)

_My 'Episode 113' disclaimer has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my disclaimer._

There are so many things about this game that are flawed. That being said, it's also not as bad as the legends say. As a kid who was only vaguely familiar with the movies, this game still managed to legitimately put some fear in my heart. The music is genuinely scary and foreboding for all its monotony. Jason's mother is scary in a way 8 bits shouldn't be able to be. Once you get used to the movement peculiarities of the game and understand the multi-counselor strategy it pushes on you, it's really not as bad as it looks. The biggest sin of this game is failing to teach the player these things in any way other than the school of hard knocks.

My sister-in-law was doing some contract work for LJN in the late 80's. Not sure exactly what her projects were, all I know is that they gave her some free stuff that she passed on to me, one of which was a copy of this game. I think your review of it here is quite fair. It was definitely a bit too complicated for my 11 year old self at the time, but I've never thought it was as bad as its reputation. It certainly wasn't dull, and at that age it was definitely spooky enough to give me a few chills. I got a lot more enjoyment from Friday the 13th than I did from the Roll & Rocker that she also passed on to me, that's for sure! :D

Ioved t and c surf designs and karate kid 😂beat them both. Could not beat Friday though

I remember renting Friday the 13th back in those days and really wanting to figure the game out. Ultimately it was just too opaque for pre-teen me to figure out and slog through any longer than a single rental. It's a shame though, with a bit more development time and better in-game descriptions on what's going on or what to do it could have been a decent, maybe even a really good game. Of course these days with gobs of storage space available for in-game explanations I can see why this game is nearly universally hated. Anyone who got into gaming in the 32bit or later generations wasn't used to how little ROM space some developers had to work with and how often that limited basic text on what the heck is going on!

Love the Mexican Runner shout out 😂

A Friday the 13th video on Friday the 13th, and episode 113. Well played. Definitely a more interesting game that the likes of Dragon Power. LJN may be the Rainbow of Death but I think if this was given more time, it could have been a good game. And next time, more games from Rare.

Thanks for the video, I enjoy your presentation.

That warning siren sounds like a jank-ass 8-bit choo-choo whistle

Friday the 13th is a good game, not the best thing ever but it has a lot of memorable things to offer

Even tho thi game is bad. The main song is a bop ngl.

I hope you're aware that Jason's mother was actually the original killer in the first Friday the 13th film, Jeremy lol

Excellent coverage of the NES Friday the 13th game. I only played it a few times, but I knew some of the secrets of what to do. And while it was certainly flawed, there were tons of great ideas that just weren't very polished. So, I just appreciated the exploration of Camp Crystal Lake rather than really trying to beat it. Since it felt like the game really wanted repetitive plays to hone the player's action efficiency plan.

I'm glad to see so much positive feedback and thorough reflection with this game finally. As much as I adore AVGN, his satirical review of games like this and Castlevania 2 unfortunately influenced an entire internet's generation and mainstream conscientious into dismissing this game out of hand when all the while it simply needed careful consideration and thoughtful analysis to appreciate and enjoy what was underneath the surface the entire time. As a kid in the 90s I devoted the better part of half a summer's school vacation trying to decipher and understand the quirks of the game. Yet even with that much investment as well as occasional subsequent playthroughs I didn't learn until very recently that it was possible to find Jason's mom or in that defeating her would yield the sweater making the game easier...similar to finding the hard to find Red Ring in Zelda 1. But it goes to show you how much replay value was packed into this classic game. Games like this is what drives me to seek out and try as many retro games as I possibly can while at the same time reminding people of just how important game preservation is. It's up to all of us to keep these games alive and to pass on to future generations the lessons contained in them without bias or contemptuous folly.

This game RULZ ...highly original and unique it's pretty amazing it came out for the NES. People who hate on it are more or less ignorant and probably not very good at video games.

I feel like I have seen a lot of videos recently that not only defend Friday the 13th, but put it in a light that makes me respect its ambition. It doesn’t seem poorly constructed like mini LJ endgames, but rather just obtuse, and too complex for their abilities.

honestly, the music and pixel art of friday the 13th does really seem like the same exact people who did megami tensei (albeit with much less passion) and honestly, the weirdness/obliqueness of this as an action adventure honestly does line up pretty well with atlus too, and the programming is actually rather solid and stable, so i don't know, could have been atlus there, could have been westone, probably wasn't tose, who knows, gotta love the mysteriousness of of the fly by night subcontracting nature early japanese software development i guess

"You and your friends are dead."

Wednesday already? ;) Jack Bros. is the most valuable game in my collection. I'm watching this as I play persona 5 for the first time also.

This video was so bad it was like you trying to play difficult NES games, even though I tried I just couldn't make through to the end! Karate kid, TNC surf, Friday the 13th and Roger rabbit all original great games. The only people that complained about these just couldn't cut it.

As much as I am a C64 fan this NES F13 game actually tried to be a good interesting game. The C64 F13 is.. well basically worthless and stupid, not even really feeling like its even based on the movies. I keep meaning to redo the concepts of the NES game in some form of RPG game creator (Adventure Construction Set at the time showing my age) but I never get around to it.

It's really tiring and boring hearing the same old hate this game keeps getting especially because of people like avgn. I don't care. Friday the 13th nes is a fun game. A survival horror game before resident evil and with an AI. Going after players like nemesis. As someone who grew up during the 80s this and nightmare on elm Street were fun popular games and while LJN did have quite a few turds (X-Men nes) they did have some fun games alot gamers back then enjoyed like maximum carnage SNES for one and even wolverine nes was massive improvement over nes X-Men

I didn't enjoy this game as a kid (despite it scaring me, which was cool, few games did that), but around 2001/2002 I looked up a walkthrough and then the whole thing just clicked. I've enjoyed and appreciated it ever since. It's definitely the type where knowing its nuanced systems and mechanics really changes/opens up the game.

Such a memory. Picked this up while in Florida! We were staying in an Oceanside condo and had made friends with another family who was there. Turns out they had brought their NES with them! 3 boys, and me and my brother cracked open that cellophane wrapper, and jump in to some awesome NES action horror.. probably fuelled by our love of the horror film that had inspired it.

I didn't knew about the outsourcing story. It changes everything!

I guess I am in the minority again in that I picked this up not long after it came out and rather enjoyed it. It has its flaws but once you understand the mechanics mentioned in getting the more powerful items, it's not an insurmountable challenge.

So I was 6 or 7 and my dad sent me an NES console for Christmas and one additional game. Friday the 13th.

The opening screen scared me to death the first time I saw it. The game was frustrating but gave you a sense of progress every time you played it. I could get the sweater as a kid but could never figure out how to beat it. Flash forward to 2019 and me and a buddy cued up the strategy guides and vids and set forth. Long story short Jason on day three is nearly impossible but we managed to take him out on the tenth try with one sliver of life left. Amazing game experience.

Friday The 13th makes a lot more sense when you think of it as a literary descendent of Beowulf

Awesome game thats always been misunderstood and severely underrated imo. 😊

It always made me laugh fighting Jason in the cabins, he looks like he's dancing around doing The Funky Chicken while he's trying to kill you.

Once you learn how to beat it, it's actually a great game with decent replay value

Did u ever mention the wrong way map coverage

I actually grew to like this over the years, and now is one of my favorites. I would like to see this remade as a home brew with some changes made. I would add some side quests for stronger weapons, make lighting the fire places increase your defense instead of the stupid flash light that you don't even need, and make Jasons moms head a boss fight near the end that you must defeat before you can finish off Jason for good. His moms head would have to be totally changed, shooting lighting or magic spells at you. Something better. Same with the final fight with Jason. Make it in a cabin with more freedom of movement. Idk, something like that.

Every year in October for the past few years i watch a horror franchise I've never seen and this year was Friday the 13th (I'm an 80s kid but i skipped horror as a child because i was too sensitive for it, just seeing five mins of poltergeist scarred me for the rest of my childhood) and so this sent me to check the game again on youtube because i'd played it a fair amount then as one of my friend owned it. I remembered it being more than just a dumb adaptation without thought put into it, but it was also very difficult (my friend only finally beat it with a game genie) and anyway, I thought I can't wait for Jeremy to get to the nes works episode, but that's probably far off in the future... well turns out it wasn't and I agree a lot of your assessment, in fact here's what i said elsewhere on youtube about the game two weeks ago or so: It was too difficult and confusing for children especially but this making worst of all time lists is unfair. I've played far worse. Like this actually had some thoughts put into it as opposed to so many real turds that were just bad straightforward platformers.. And the game DID manage to be scary because Jason was a real threat and you never knew when he'd show it. But then again. people also say NES Rambo is one of the all time worst for pretty much the same reasons when it's actually a decent game once you figure it out (though Rambo IS the better game between these two of course and yes i did finish it back then but i was also like 11, If i'd been 6 or 7 i'd have probably been unable to finish it). No, you want an all time worst on nes, I owned it, and yes it was LJN too... and that's predator. To this day the worst video game purchase i ever made. Now THAT was a real cash-in game with no thought put into it. Friday the 13th is not GREAT, but it tries something. The basic concept works and in the hands of real good devs like konami that could have given it a more polished gameplay,, a good soundtrack and better enemy diversity, it could have been real good. edit: Oh and I think it's closest to adapting part VI because it actually has kids at the camp and Jason is clearly already zombie Jason. Part III doesn't even have counselors.

Awesome video! Friday the 13th is so much fun once you learn how it works, the problem is just getting there. They made an overly complicated game and explained nothing about what made it tick. What might have been!

The game is almost a masterpiece... almost... some mechanics are not working that well... With some tweaks, minor changes, it could be amazing. Flawed but has potential.

Great review. Perfect balance of frustration and admiration whenever I play this game.

I think this game is pretty good considering everything going against it. It still is ridiculous how your regular attack goes over the enemy unless you’re ducking, that was definitely a hairbrained idea. Definitely a good one by LJN standards while if it was released by someone like Konami or Sunsoft would have been mediocre.

Wasn't Jaws for NES based on Jaws The Revenge? The 4th entry in the franchise, not the third. (Sorry if someone already mentioned that)

You had to read the manual

I actually think its kind of fun in a strange, difficult, way. It's sort of required playing if you consider yourself an NES expert. It's worth learning how it works and playing---i've actually gotten pretty far, all the way to Jason's mother.

Thanks Jeremy!

Underrated game, I'd put it in the top 150 or maybe top 125 out of the 700+ games on the NES library. I might have bad taste though as Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde I'd probably say ranks around 250th, & Jaws maybe 200th. Jekyll = Average~Slightly above average, Jaws = Above Average, Friday the 13th = Good. To me a bad game would be something like Conan, I'd probably put that somewhere in 600th~650th place.

Xexyz is one of my all time favorite NES games, it also has the same composer for the music as F13th. It'll be a great day when an NES Works video gets done for Xexyz!

If you think this is bad, you should try the ZX Spectrum version 😂😂😂

I like the Friday the 13th movies also the Friday the 13th 2017 game is better than this ljn game. 😀👍🎮

Thank you for letting us know that this specific episode does not advocate child murder, JP.

Someone on The Cutting Room Floor Reddit posted what was a pre-release poster for Friday The 13th which showed a slight different map with what seems to be a deleted cemetery area and the kiddies' cabins in the middle of the lake being non-existent. While not touched upon by Parish (though honestly it doesn't matter) a whistle item icon is in the games graphics code but goes unused. Also, the poster showed a very different looking Jason sprite that seemingly used sprite overly and looked slightly more accurate to the source material. My only guess is that maybe the beta for the game was on a UN-ROM board but got switched to a CN-ROM because LJN was probably super cheap, but who knows?

I always found Friday the 13th on the C64 far superior to the NES game.

The only thing I would disagree with is that the game has no atmosphere. Playing this as a little kid in 1989/90, coming fresh off of Super Mario Bros., this game scared the hell out of me. The first time I had encountered 'jump scares' in a game. The fact that you start and its bright and sunny, and then you start seeing the sun go down, and then the houses become this gloomy blue color, and that eerie music looping in the background. Entering a cabin and seeing the JASON healthbar and having to move around in some of the rooms to find him. There's a LOT of tension and atmosphere in this game if you were the right age at the right time. I think this game is a very misunderstood punching bag, and while a lot of the criticism is entirely fair, I would go so far as to say its effectively creepy. Which only a tiny handful of other NES games achieved.

Still. If ET on the 2600 was a side scroller with Elliot and Et on a bike dodging obstacles with the occasional flying scene and it would have been gangbusters

I thought I was gonna be alone in liking this game, but seems that's far from the case. And that's good to see, I understand why it got what we can best describe as "the side eye" And honestly, Jason is my favorite odd palette choice. I'd love to own the MECA figure that replicates it. This isn't nostalgia talking either, I've only played it on an emulator. No guide or anything, classic me being weird

I never could figure this one out... but I'd be willing to give JAWS a second look at least.

I can't find the original source to credit them, but someone found a promotional image of Jason in his NES purple colors which suggests that Atlus and/or their subcontractor was pulling from what material they had available. Or it was just to make sure Jason was visible in every environment. We'll probably never know the truth of the matter unless a dev speaks out.

I've always liked Friday the 13th. Then again, I also like ET on the 2600, so...

After grinding away for weeks, i finally beat Jason as a kid. I was really proud and anytime the game was mentioned, i talked about how i beat it at age 7 or 8. Many years later when i got into retro collecting, i learned, to my horror, that I'd only beaten night 1 of 3 😂😂. I was a FRAUD! As an adult, the amount of tries i needed to beat night 3 Jason and his absolute bullshit speed is beyond count 😂😂

I actually enjoy this game. It's definitely flawed but once you figure it out, it's pretty fun. Ambitious early survival horror.

Just posting a comment here so I can say I hang in circles which thinks deeply and profoundly on under-appreciated old games... even if I never even played this game back when I had an NES, or on emulation. I just want to be part of the cool uncles / aunties.

I love this game! It's fun to avoid Jason until your characters are built up and then chase Jason. It is definitely flawed. You can't shoot when you jump. Some of the characters are pretty much useless.

I loved this game as a kid. It was way more complicated than a SMB game but not quite as cryptic as Zelda 1. IIRC, I got it for free from a friend that was sick of it and just didn't want it anymore. Learning how to swap your active character to travel fast on the map is a must if you want to be successful. One of the most annoying things I remember was getting an upgraded weapon and accidently picking up a weak one that would replace it.

For the worst game ever it sure got its graphics right, and I'm not talking about the fact the left and right are wrong.....I give it props for it's art, they even show you that they know they couldn't work miracles because of they could the characters would have faced

This game is... yeah. To give my experience about this game, NOONE in my circle of friends ever figured out how to play this game, not even survive the first day. In my case, I sat down and took it upon me to learn it fully, because that was the era that I didn't have my own disposable income to get new games, so when you had one, you played the hell out of it. There is a logic to this game. It's not the best, but it's playable. I beat the game several times, my memory is far too long gone to redo it in one sitting, but I would likely go through the pace in second seeing. It's all about the pattern learning, and being patient. It's actually easier to kill Jason inside of the cabins because of those patterns. It's not random, there's set motions. While on the road, he's more random and harder to dodge without getting hurt.

What's weird about this rush job for a licensed game is that they didn't seem to tie the game into any particular movie. Much like a bunch of the Star Wars games for various home consoles in the late 80s and 90s, they were just there to milk an IP that was pretty well established in popular culture, so I'm not sure why there would need to be such a short development cycle. Now, if they gave the subcontractor X amount of money to make the game, if that contractor wanted to pay its people, it would need to use its human resources efficiently and not spend them trying to perfect a masterpiece, but that's what you get for being a subcontractor.

Good review. You're right, it's a very difficult esoteric game that has a lot of interesting early designs that would get big later, but a very flawed internal experience. I've always wanted to like this one, but the obtuse challenge level and that stress inducing beep constantly going off were a no go for me. And I always felt the interior sequences were more awkward than not, with The Goonies doing it better.

Interesting choice to use the laserdisc rips even though there are terrific quality Blurays out now-- I assume that was to mimic the experience of seeing the footage contemporaneously? Also loved pretending to end the video with "it sucks!" only to come back and admire its ambition, because a slasher movie monster's almost never as dead as you think the first time.

You heard it here: LJN's Friday the 13th is Beowulf for the 80s.

Maybe it's just cause I'm a huge fan of the films but I don't find this game that terrible I mean it's certainly better than Karate Kid, Roger Rabbit, & Nightmare on Elm Street

Played this once as a kid at my buddy’s house. He warned me! Went in cold. No instructions. No nothing. It was a disaster. I had always heard there was a “enjoyable game” hidden somewhere inside it. I can only imagine how many frustrated and angry 80s kids there were when they got this for a gift or spent their hard earned money. Those were the days!

LJN does get a lot of hate and certainly put out some real stinkers in hindsight. But as a kid at the time I didn't really recognize that, My sister and I played Jaws for hours at a time and we loved trying to figure out what we were supposed to be doing in Friday the 13th or bashing our heads against those skateboarding sections in Back to the Future.

Honestly it’s a bit surprising that Atlus didn’t go the rpg route for this game while Capcom would for its own horror movie tie-in game about 10 months later

"Friday the 13th sucks, but it sucks with style" is a great summation of the entire franchise.

The new Metroidvania Works Halloween Special is sick.

It really isn't a great game, but it did succeed in scaring the crap out of me whenever Jason appeared in a house. Glad I rented it instead of buying it, though.

This game has always made me curious, that it's more to it than most reviewers say. It's both fascinating and terrible at the same time.

Much like the NES TMNT game, It’s all we had and darn happy to have it.