Friday the 13th (1989 video game)



"Destroy Jason... If you can!"

- Tagline

"You and your friends are dead."

- The infamous Game Over screen.

Released in 1989, Friday the 13th is yet another Licensed Game NES game published by LJN Toys, this time based on the Friday the 13 th films.

This game puts into a role of one the six camp counselors, who must protect themselves and the kids from the wrath of the Ax Crazy Jason Voorhees. The gameplay is consisted of wandering from cabin to next; awaiting for Jason to enter one so you can fight him. The game takes its place within three days and Jason grows stronger by each passing day. Your ultimate goal is to survive and defeat Jason.

Your main weapon is a bunch of rocks which have tough time hitting anything. The map screen makes getting lost and confused very easy. And Jason's mask is light blue for some reason. In general, this game is not very well liked.


 * Action Bar: Appears when you search the cabins.
 * An Axe to Grind: Jason's second weapon in this game.
 * Bat Out of Hell: Regular bats act as enemies.
 * The Blank: The characters in-game are depicted without faces.
 * Bonus Boss: Pamela Voorhees' floating head is an optional boss.
 * Bottomless Pits: Found everywhere in the caverns. It's instant death if a counselor falls in one.
 * Competitive Balance: The counselors have specific strengths and weaknesses each.
 * Critical Annoyance: When Jason enters one of the cabins an alarm starts ringing.
 * Disc One Nuke: The torch, the strongest weapon in the game, is terribly easy to find right from the start.
 * Everything's Deader with Zombies: Zombies are common enemies. According to the manual, they are Jason's past victims given new life in undeath.
 * Everything's Worse with Wolves: Wolves dwell in the forest areas. There are also blue ones inhabiting the cave.
 * Eyes Always Shut: Chrissy in her portrait.
 * Final Death: If one character dies, they're not coming back.
 * Flying Face: Pamela Voorhees.
 * Infant Immortality: Averted. If you don't quickly make your way to the appropriate cabin once the alarm starts going off, Jason might kill a few children. If all the children die it's game over.
 * Jump Scare: Jason, accompanied with a Scare Chord, will sometimes attack you randomly in the paths and disappear quickly.
 * Life Meter
 * Lost Forever: Pamela's sweater can be obtained only once and if the player character wearing it dies, it's gone for good.
 * The Lost Woods: The forest.
 * Machete Mayhem: Jason's first weapon. It is also one of the more powerful acquirable weapons.
 * The Maze: The forest and the cave.
 * Nintendo Hard: After you're managed to take Jason out a couple of times, he's really hard to hit and even harder to dodge.
 * Not Quite Dead: You'll be told this if you manage to kill Jason before the third day.
 * Ravens and Crows: There are red-eyed crows as enemies.
 * Secret Path: There are some in the cave. You need the flashlight to see them, but you can enter them without it.
 * Start Screen: The Final Chapter's poster cover is dropped before it.
 * Summer Campy
 * Token Minority: Paul is the sole black guy in the game.
 * Turns Red: Jason gets gradually tougher as you fight him. So does his mother.
 * Video Game Lives: You have one life per character.
 * Would Hurt a Child: You have to protect the kids from Jason. If you don't show up quickly enough to his location, he starts killing them.