Little Nemo: The Dream Master (NES) review "Dreamy"

In 1904, cartoonist Winsor McCay launched a comic strip that would become popular: “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.” This strip was something of an anthology, in which various people had nightmares after eating a Welsh rarebit. Over a year after its inception, he would include a character that would become something of an icon, then sadly forgotten for a bit. A messy-haired child in clownish pajamas, Little Nemo made his debut in a December 1905 edition of “Rarebit Fiend.”

McCay used his son Robert as the inspiration for Nemo, hoping he would be a hit with children. He eventually brought the sleepy kid back for his own spin-off comic entitled “Little Nemo in Slumberland” (aka “In the Land of Wonderful Dreams”). Each edition saw Nemo in a different fantastical dream, including a romp through Mars and a walk through a tiny city, with Nemo and his buddy Little Imp the relative size of kaiju.

Though Nemo's run would eventually end in the 1920s, he would over time return in various mediums. In 1984, the film “Dream One” (aka “Nemo”) was released, featuring Jason Connery as a teenage Nemo. Years later, a Japanese-American joint animated film called “Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland” hit Japanese theaters to a sadly lackluster box office and response. Still, the production managed to land a video game tie-in, which some folks might still remember...

Little Nemo: The Dream Master first hit the US in 1990, introducing a whole generation of kids to McCay's character. Few of us knew the game was based on a comic from 1904, but then again, none of us bothered to question the game's logic or existence. Yes, we knew all of its content inhabited a dream, but even still, we were used to narratives that defied logic because that was how things rolled in the '80s and '90s. Think about these premises: a New York plumbers saves a kingdom of fungus people from an army of turtle creatures and their dragon-like king; A monstrous king imprisons a princess in a tower full of irritating, yet solvable puzzles, and only a blue ball of fluff armed with the ability to temporarily turn wildlife into eggs can save her; A kid uses a yo-yo to fight off mythical creatures, undead foes, and eventually a pink alien who looks like a Parasaurolophus had a child with Ridley from Metroid... There's little sense of realism to these games, and we didn't bother to question it. After all, what were video games from then if not interactive dreams?

That's why Nemo fits in so well. His own NES platformer developed by Capcom sees him and some of his friends from the cartoon and comic voyaging across a collection of surreal landscapes. Throughout his travels, you fight your way through locales like a massive toy room, a city in the clouds, a mushroom forest, and an upside-down house. However, your mission isn't a simple romp through curious environments. Each stage ends with a door and numerous locks to turn before you can go through it. Each lock requires a key, all of which remain scattered across the landscape. Advancing to the right, as you do in platformers, is not all you'll need to win in this one. You'll also find ways to climb great heights, tunnel underground, or swim in watery depths to snatch the coveted keys.

Of course, the creatures that dwell in these domains aren't keen on letting you leave. Spiky snails, killer fish, dandelion seeds with skulls on them, and plate-throwing apes hope to awaken you before you can complete your quest. Don't worry, because you came armed with a pocketful of candy. No, not explosive candy or poisoned sweets. Rather, this stuff stuns regular enemies, but has a special and useful effect. Certain toads, bees, fish, crabs, etc. happen to dig Nemo's snacks. Each of them falls asleep after chomping down three pieces, allowing Nemo to either wear their bodies like Leatherface or ride them like someone from Golden Axe.

Each beast provides different abilities. For instance, the bee flies and shoots lethal stingers out of his butt, while the hermit crab pinches adversaries to death and burrows under sand. The toad leaps tremendous heights and annihilates targets by landing on them, and the fish allows you to swim effortlessly. Each of these powers are necessary throughout the campaign. As previously stated, nabbing the keys won't be effortless, and a combination of exploration, problem solving, and platforming will be required to get you through this one.

Believe me, this adventure presents a fair challenge. This one pushes not only your timing and platform prowess, but your patience and abilities to think and explore. The thing is you never know what you're going to run into from one set piece to the next, greatly reinforcing the game's dream-like qualities. You might enter an attic and find yourself dodging projectiles from an enraged ape or approaching a collection of platforms in the sky that suddenly scroll upward. In the latter of those two cases, you scramble up that collection of ledges leading to ruins in the clouds, all while determining which lofty edge to leap to while avoiding foes falling from high above.

The most frustrating of these outings, though, involves riding a train in a tremendous playroom. There, you avoid toy kamikaze planes while nabbing keys as they pass. If you miss even one, you will be unable to complete the stage, so your dodge and jump skills need to be on-point.

Yes, “game over” results from losing all of your lives. Capcom saw it fit to give you unlimited continues, but at the cost of offering no file saving or password system. In other words, you'll need to complete this one in a single sitting, assuming your rump doesn't fall asleep. As a kid, I never made it all the way through this one because of the lack of a password feature. The last realm splits into three different levels, each ending with a boss encounter. By this point, you also receive a wand you can charge up and fire at the opposition. I was able to approach the second of the three bosses, but no further, and only on a couple occasions.

And yet, that one stinging oversight doesn't hamper the rest of the experience. I'm glad this game exists not only because it's a well-made platformer, but it also introduced me to the Nemo franchise as a whole. It's funny how sometimes an adaptation of an adaptation manages to rope in newer, younger fans, but sometimes things work out that way. I've seen it more recently with Legendary Pictures creating younger Godzilla fans or Disney in the previous decade showing youngsters that the Muppets exist. Maybe we'll get another Nemo title in the future, and maybe then it'll capture some new fans...

Community review by JoeTheDestroyer (January 13, 2025) Rumor has it that Joe is not actually a man, but a machine that likes video games, horror movies, and long walks on the beach. His/Its first contribution to HonestGamers was a review of Breath of Fire III.