Video Game / Nightmare Creatures

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Nightmare Creatures is an Action-Adventure Hack and Slash game developed by Kalisto Entertainment, published by Activision, and released in 1997 for PlayStation, Windows, and Nintendo 64. Set in the 19th century, London is threatened by a horde of creatures released by Adam Crowley. Now it's up to Ignatius Blackward and Nadia Franciscus to combat these threats and stop Crowley and his monster invasion.

A second game was released in 2000, with Konami as the publisher. A mobile phone game, developed by Gameloft and also titled Nightmare Creatures, was released in 2003. A third main game, Nightmare Creatures III: Angel of Darkness, was planned, but it went to Development Hell after Kalisto went out of business. In late 2004, the game's development and release were officially scrapped.

A Continuity Reboot was announced in 2017, with Albino Moose Games, the studio behind the HD version of Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion, having picked up the rights to the franchise, but they confirmed three years later that it was shelved.

Not to be confused with Deadly Creatures, another horror-themed video game with a similar title but a totally different cast, setting, and story.

Nightmare Creatures contains examples of:

• Action Girl: Nadia is a ballerina that, according to the prologue, came back from a recital. She then picks up a sword and goes to attack zombies and other monsters in London's nighttime.
• All There in the Manual: Everything concerning the game's history, the creatures created by Crowley, and what happened after.
• An Arm and a Leg: These games were most famous for the amount of limbs you'd sever.
• Anachronistic Soundtrack: The boss music, for the Boss Level and the minibosses in some select stages, uses a modern Thrash Metal/Nü Metal guitars - for a game that is set before the Victorian age.
• Attack of the Monster Appendage: The Thames Monsters are giant octopod heads sticking out of the water, who lash out at you with their Combat Tentacles. They're incapable of moving and rely entirely on their ranged attacks via tentacles, although it is possible to access Dummied Out versions of the game via a cheat code to see the rest of the monster... which is just a single, long, tentacle-like body rooted to the bottom of the Thames.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The titular Creatures, all of which were designed, in-universe, to instil fear, and cause chaos, but Crowley ended up either missing or forgetting a detail or two, that would ensure the creatures could last long or be useful if people actually fought back against them, from the Red Demons setting themselves on fire, to the Pepys' Monster being terrifying to look at, but very clumsy, so anyone who didn't freeze at their sight, could easily fight one.
• Bandaged Face: The Faceless Men enemies, deformed, former members of Crowley's brotherhood whose horribly scarred faces are constantly clad in bandages.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted, surprisingly enough, with the Banshees, who have very visible buttocks and nipples despite the stricter console standards at the time. They're not pretty.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: The final boss, Crowley, is fought on the rooftops of the Westminster Abbey as the whole building is set alight.
• Been There, Shaped History: Ignatius and Nadia's two-person war against Crowley ends up sparking the Great Fire of 1834.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Samuel Pepys was a member of the first Brotherhood of Hecate and recorded the process of creating the monsters in his diary. He also became a Defector from Decadence and destroyed them.
• Big Bad: Adam Crowley, who created the titular Nightmare Creatures and unleashes them upon London.
• Body of Bodies: Pepys Creatures are created by fusing together multiple bodies.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: All the bosses save the final one decide to pick a fight with you in some very convenient locations. The Sewer Snake is surrounded by trees that injure it when they're chopped down, the Snowman is standing under an ancient roof that could collapse at any minute, and Jose Manuel is standing in a chamber where the walls have retractable spikes.
• Chase Scene: The entire game is a giant chase scene, as Nadia and Ignatius (who are not playable at the same time, but appear together in interstitial cutscenes) traverse the stages, and Adam Crowley is always escaping in the final cutscene of the stage, save for the final level.
• Deadly Lunge:
  • While not exactly slow to begin with, a lot of enemies do this.
  • Also the Mutated Mice and the Giant Bugs, which are weak but can knock you down with fast, powerful attacks.
• Didn't Think This Through: Adam Crowley makes a ton of strange and terrifying monsters to kill the populace of London, which fails almost straight away due to numerous realistic reasons, including the hilarious background material showing that the gargoyles literally froze to death, that the Thames Monsters were rooted to the ground making them easy pickings just by virtue of stay far enough away, anything that didn't have a massive design flaw was very easily beaten by the civilian population, the only thing that was even partially successful were the mutated rats...
• Down the Drain: Thames Tunnel has you wandering through the sewers of London, It's filled with Dockers and introduces you to both the giant insects and the Thames Monsters.
• Facial Horror: The Faceless Men are so named because a good slice of their face was flayed off. They're still carrying the flesh in their free hand.
• Game-Over Man: Big Bad Adam Crowley appears in front of a fiery background on the Game Over screen, shooting a Death Glare straight at you.
• Giant Mook: The blue-skinned Dockers are the largest, strongest mook-variety enemies introduced, a small mountain of muscles on bulky legs with Ignatius and Nadia barely reaching their waists. These enemies are among the few mooks who made it into the second game.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: All the bosses except the last one. Seriously, would you expect to face a fire-breathing multi-headed serpent near a sewer, or a Yeti in a church, or Jack the Ripper in a storehouse?
• Giant Spider: Despite looking more reptilian than insectoid...
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Pretty much the only way to keep a zombie from getting back up is to separate its legs from its torso.
• Healthy Green, Harmful Red: Inverted. The character's health meter is red, while any damage they get is depicted as green.
• Heart Container: A literal heart. No, not a pink, heart-shaped talisman, but a pulsing red organ with white stripes and blue veins protruding from it.
• Hellhound: The last, and strongest enemy variety introduced. It's large, red, breathes fire, and looks like a demon that emerged from Hell.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Nadia uses a thin sword, which can be upgraded to a spiked blade, then to a falchion, and then to a broadsword.
• Historical In-Joke: The Great Fire of London is blamed on attempts to destroy the cult. Later, The Great Fire of 1834 is caused by Adam Crowley.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Averted, as you can smash said Waist Height Fences, but the other walls are really tall.
• It's Personal: Crowley killed Nadia's father, giving her even more incentive to hunt him down.
• Jack the Ripoff: The penultimate boss, Jose Manuel, evokes the imagery, being a knife-wielding lunatic wearing a top hat who's also referred to as "the Ripper." He appears to have been a human who was mutated by Crowley's virus.
• Kill Enemies to Open: In the first level, the player has to kill the zombie near the entrance to the tomb for the gate to open.
• Kill It with Fire: The Torch item. It won't work on Hell Hounds.
• Kill It with Ice: The Frost item, which turns into popsicles and later shatters all enemies. Except the Hell Hounds.
• King Mook: Larger versions of the Spiders and Gargoyles are fought at the end of Hampstead Heath and St. Marylbone respectively, with the music even shifting to the boss theme. They're tougher than the normal versions and worse, come at you in numbers. Fortunately, they're not immune to the effects of your items.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Well, justified, since at least you're stopping a blasted monster invasion.
• Ludicrous Gibs: High-levelled weapons or the Chainsaw item will allow you to cut enemies to ribbons one limb by one.
• Mad Scientist: Crowley, of course.
• Monster Mash: Werewolves, Zombies, Gargoyles, Harpies, Giant Spiders, Snow Monster, and Jack the Ripper (sort of).
• Mysterious Mist: Most of the game uses a fine mist to set up the mood for a Victorian gothic nocturnal journey.
• New Game Plus: And you can play with infinite items, or as a monster (or both!)
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: In the first game, certain enemies such as gargoyles and winged demons like to disguise themselves as statues, before revealing themselves to attack the players. But subverted in the first level: you can come across a gargoyle in a park, but that one was actually a statue. Real gargoyles don't show up until several levels later.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Nadia goes around fighting monsters in a low-cut, sexy red corset.
• Off with His Head!:
  • The zombies can still attack the player if they lose their heads.
  • Crowley's eventual fate. But he comes back in the sequel in a more powerful form.
• One-Winged Angel: A cornered Crowley uses his last potion to turn himself into a large, powerful demon who can be damaged only with full combo attacks. Have fun.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Don't be surprised if you see a monster still trying to maul you after losing his arms and jumping on one leg.
• Our Imps Are Different: Three fire-breathing Grey Imps show up in the first level, which attack by spitting fire but can be easily defeated. Seven levels later, the player encounters the imps' larger and stronger cousins, Red Imps, which show up in the ruins of Westminster Abbey and Tower of London.
• Puzzle Boss: All the bosses are impossible to damage with items or weapons, so you have to find another way each to damage them.
• Real Event, Fictional Cause: Ignatius and Nadia's two-person war against Crowley ends up sparking the Great Fire of 1834.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: And they have won where the Ogres and Thames Monsters have failed in depopulating the docks. Think about it.
• Serrated Blade of Pain: One of Nadia's sword upgrades is a silly-looking spiked sword.
• Sociopathic Hero: The hero of the sequel was a former victim of Crowley, and now looks for him in order to kill him again.
• Spectacular Spinning: Nadia's 360 gun attack.
• Spider People: The giant spider enemies in the first game look less like arachnids and more like humanoid beings, capable of walking upright on their two hind legs while attacking the players with their forelimbs.
• Spin Attack: Nadia's "Bloody Ballerina" move, which allows her to execute a tornado-like spin move.
• Super Drowning Skills: Your characters can't swim. Neither can the monsters. Since the waters are infested by large tentacled monsters with huge jaws, it seems justified...
• Title Drop: In the animated intro.
  Narrator: And should no one stop him, this city will be consumed by a horde of... Nightmare Creatures!
• Unique Enemy: The first level of the first game has small, grey imps - three of them - that pop up in level 1, and nowhere else. Larger red imps do appear regularly in later levels, but you won't see the grey types after the initial encounter.
• Version-Exclusive Content: The Sewer Snake boss level is the third level in the Playstation version, but the fourth stage in the Nintendo 64 version.