You thought it was all in your head, just a horribly grotesque dream, but the horde of fiendish, floating octopi from your recent slumber are closing in and are still out for your life! As the Nightmare Runner, you sprint and jump through this hellish, two color landscape in a run and jump action game from Clockwork Monster. If you want don't want your blood staining the ground, you will kill any enemies in your path with your trusty machine gun to escape the bowels of hell. Like a bat out of said hell with a heavy trigger finger, aim your gun with the mouse and jump (double jump when available) with either a left mouse click, [spacebar], [W], or the up [arrow] key. Running into power-ups along the way will help to increase your score and make surviving the unholy masses less taxing and even more enjoyable.
Nightmare Runner is far from the typical run and jump Flash titles out there and shows through its level-based upgrade system, in-game power ups, shooting mechanics, and entrancing background music. While some player mights prefer an upgrade store after a trip down a bottomless hole, the system implemented works well and adds more emphasis on building a high score through constant collection of power orbs to level. The acquisition of these orbs and aiming your ridiculous super repeater at the demented demons makes paying attention to the jumping aspect much more challenging for those who cannot multi task. Whether you want a casual game dodging hell spawns or ramp up the danger with Hardcore mode, Nightmare Runner might be what you were dreaming of.
I dug it. A bit of an additional challenge to the basic formula, having to aim the gun while also jumping over the gaps.
I died immediately after getting the higher jump power-up. I did find that rather infuriating. In a game that's entirely about timing your jumps, changing the jump in the middle on you can be pretty disorienting.
Pretty good. I was pleased that levels remained after death; got more than halfway through on my first run.
Wish I could control the exact height/distance of my jumps, once they're upgraded enough to make it possible to overshoot, but that wasn't necessary to beat the game.
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