Today, Jared is representing Little Nemo: The Dream Master for the Capcom Retro Idol title ! Released for the NES back in 1990, Little Nemo: The Dream Master arrived stateside 2 years before the North American release of the movie it was based off of: Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. Unfortunately, it has not been remade or collected since then. 

You can now head over to the official Capcom Retro Idol Experience forum thread to start posting about tomorrow’s game, Breath of Fire II!

Hit the jump to see Jared’s defense of Little Nemo and why he thinks it should win the Capcom Retro Idol Contest!

Here we go! The stage is set for my posts great arrival! But oh no, it’s in its underwear! What happened here ladies and gentlemen, was a run of the mill nightmare. Don’t worry though! I can gladly say, Little Nemo is a dream of a game. And I’m going to point out a few of the many reasons why that is for you all today!

*Sadly stranger danger awareness will not be one of those reasons*

Little Nemo is a game based on a movie based on a comic that ran in the early 1900’s. Ignoring the great history of the comic, I would like to point out “Game based on a movie” Quickly, tell me how many games based on movies have been great? Exactly! Little Nemo is like the Holy Grail of games. It’s done the impossible. It’s like spotting Bigfoot. It just doesn’t happen. In fact, I may even be breaking a law by making such an amazing claim! So I’ll have to hurry this along before my door gets kicked down by the gaming police. Little Nemo is a game about a young child named Nemo who is having a bit of trouble sleeping. Though on this special night Nemo is visited by a strange girl claiming that the Princess of Slumberland wishes to play with him! Much to the dismay of parents everywhere, Nemo accepts the invitation from a stranger after being promised candy. But hey, it was a more innocent time! Back then when a kid went missing they didn’t even put their face on the milk cartons. The parents just assumed they got a job and moved out.

*Speak of the goofy faced Devil! It’s Bigfoot!*

At the heart of Little Nemo is a game about a child. You’re not a super powered hunk of bullets tearing through walls painted with alien brains, And you’re not some ace pilot sent to save the country from terrorists. You’re just a kid playing around in his own imagination. It’s something we could all relate with at the time, and even now we can still sit down and play the game and remember back to when we were kids. (A time when we could go outside and become ninja bear wrestlers without being considered a menace to society) But not all was well in Slumberland! You had to have a way to protect yourself from the strange nightmare creatures, and Nemo took a very strange approach for it’s time. Candy and friendship! Instead of eating your enemies and gaining their power like some sort of pink highlander you offered candy to strange dream creatures to gain their trust. Then you hopped on their backs and you were on your way! I feel this was a great thing for it’s time. With so many games pushing violence and danger, Nemo stood tall and made you treat others with respect and dignity. Until you reach Nightmare Land of course. You then use a magical scepter to slay the Nightmare King.

*It’s easy to see why though. Screw him and his fire*

The design in Nemo is just amazing for its time. It took the idea of all dreams can be wildly different and just ran with it. Throughout the game you’re seeing so many different locations with new high quality melodies for each one it’s baffling. It has such a strange and abrupt transition to each level that you could easily believe that when you reach a different area it really was a new dream world to play in. When playing Little Nemo there’s a pretty good chance you’ll start thinking like a kid again. This is due to the fact that in the game you really were just a kid! You could share the same hopes and fears with Nemo, a simple little child who just wanted to play.

*Say hello to Nightmare Land, one of the many strange places you will visit*

Because of how well Little Nemo can pull us into the mind set of a child, I believe it deserves a shot at Capcom Retro Idol. If you haven’t had a chance to play Little Nemo, I suggest you go out and find it. You better be ready for a challenge though. Nemo is one of those gems that sadly got skipped over in my eyes. Will this blog earn Nemo a spot in the top ten and give him the recognition he deserves? I don’t know. A man can dream though, right? Nemo certainly could.  

*A thank you to those posting in the Retro Idol thread.*

*Spoiler Alert! He gets the girl of his dreams! Get it? Dreams!*

Always end it with a joke! Even if it isn’t a very good one.