The Nightmare

"Face your Fears, for here comes your demise." Beware! This article contains information that may be considered Spoilers to newcomers to the series. Please keep this in mind while reading.

The Nightmare
Gender	Male
Hair Color	Red
Eye Color	White with black pupils (in the first game) Crimson (in the second game)
Status	Alive

“	I am pain. I am torture. I am death.	”
	— The Nightmare describing himself.

The Nightmare is the overarching main antagonist of the 123 Slaughter Me Street series. In 123 Slaughter Me Street, he only appears after the credits sequence, only showing his head. The Nightmare also appears in 123 Slaughter Me Street 2 as a secret character.

He appears as a boss in the 123 Slaughter Me Street Retro series on certain levels, and is a threat in Slaughter Me Street 1999.

Physical Appearance

In the first game, his visible red, furry head sports long, pointy gray horns which point downwards. He has glowing white eyes with black sideways slit pupils and a round pink nose. He also has a big, wide mouth and sharp white teeth where the gums are visible. He lacked the ears he now has.

In the second game, his physical appearance takes on a more monstrous form or demon form, with large, sharp white teeth as well as spikes on his chest and leathery wings. He has bloody crimson cat-like eyes, long black horns, and fur only on his head. He still has his round pink nose. His body is more grotesque and has a more scaly-like texture as well. He also has no limbs and large goat-like ears. He has black spikes on his front and red fur going down his small hump-like back and possesses a stinger-like tail on his rear end.

In the Retro version of the first game, His look appears to be largely different compared to the other puppets from the first game in his physical appearance. His fur color is notably Orange and the pointed horns are pointed upwards compared to his original counterpart. He also appears to have a light orange belly and wings, likely to make him look more like a puppet or for simplicity sake of sprite work. He also has glowing white eyes similar to the other puppets in the game as well.

In Super Retro, He is red where he lacks the stomach the original retro sprite had and has blueish purple wings compared to light orange. He retains his pink nose and black eyes, although his eyes are now yellow compared to white or red. Light grey spikes appears to be added with two on each wing, the horns also share this coloration.

History/Behavior

123 Slaughter Me Street

He only makes a brief appearance at the end of the game, and their full body is ever seen as he appears in front of a fire background. After "chomping" the black screen as the credits end, he seems to stare directly at the player as his eyes glows brightly. A deep laughter is then heard as The Nightmare slowly floats away into the inferno.

It was unknown what significance he had to the story at this point, and it was speculated that he was responsible for the events of the game taking place.

123 Slaughter Me Street 2

The Nightmare has a larger role in the prequel, he's also been given a major redesign and has a full model compared to the first game.

From three cutscenes after beating some levels, he speaks lines of dialogue in the form of a poem with a demonic voice. These lines are in order:

“	These hands of mine you did not make, much less my breath you stole its shape!	”

“	Brought up you did, in Mulciber-mind, from the Stygian pit, a darker kind.	”

“	Diminished on stage! To bumble, to kid. Now we played you... the deed YOU did!	”

From outside of the yard, "the Nightmare" will sometimes open the shed's door revealing himself while the shed seems to burn with flames. Once he opens the shed door, he will say "I am pain, I am torture, I am death." and start flying towards the player. The player needs to run, otherwise, the Nightmare will catch and kill them. Note that it is better for the player to quickly head back inside the house when this situation occurs.

He also appears on the TV on Level 10: What Have You Done?, but can't hurt the player through the TV; only from outside. While speaking from the TV, his words are in reverse.

123 Slaughter Me Street Retro

The Nightmare appears as a boss in four out of thirteen levels. Nightmare will fly around, and swoop down on the player. The player must react quickly and shine their flashlight on them or he will kill them, If successful the Nightmare will fly upwards before he attempts another attack. In their last two fights they begin to spawn in smaller puppets that resemble it.

It should be noted that the Nightmare's actions are randomized as he may behave differently each time the player faces him (even if the player happens to die and have to fight him again). For example, The Nightmare may charge at the player multiple times in a row sometimes alternating sides each time they are flashed, but other times he may fly around in the air for a random amount of time. Beating the Nightmare will give the player a Battery at the end of the level.

Unlike the other Enemies, he has to have the flashlight shone on him multiple times before he retreats completely. He gets more health each time you face off against him.

The first battle has 2 hearts, the second has 3, the third has 5, and the fourth has 6.

Nightmare also has an additional function of giving the player a battery should they completely run out and then die. However, Each time he does he gives a strike, If the player gets three strikes they get a game over and have to restart the game.

123 Slaughter Me Street Super Retro

The Nightmare retains his role as a boss in some of the levels as well as his general mechanics and attacks. The only change to the Nightmare mechanically is that the smaller puppet that looked like it do not spawn during nor after the third fight with the Nightmare. Otherwise he serves the same purposes that he does in Retro, including the strike system whenever the player runs out of batteries and dies.

Like in Retro his health will increase each time you fight him. The player will also still get a battery when they defeat Nightmare at the end of the level outside of the very first time they fight Nightmare, in which they'll get the key that unlocks Infinity mode. He also talks to the player each time before they start their boss battle in story mode.

In his first boss fight he'll have 3 health. The second has 4 health, third has 5 health and the fourth has 6 health.

“	Oh, how delightful, here you stand, In my domain, at my command. I'm the Nightmare, ruler of dread, Prepare yourself, for you'll soon be dead. Tangled in darkness, you'll never flee, Your fate is sealed, you'll belong to me.''	”
	— The Nightmare, 1st boss fight

“	Aha! You've traveled deeper, my foe, But your courage, I must overthrow. Beware, for I bring sinister surprise, With each beat of my wings, your hope dies. I hope you're ready, for I've devised a test, To see if you're worthy, or just like the rest.''	”
	— The Nightmare, 2nd boss fight

He also has a chance of appearing as a boss every few floors in Infinity mode.

Slaughter Me Street 1999

The Nightmare appears in Slaughter Me Street 1999 after the player has collected all 7 relics. Once this happens Nightmare will spawn at the furthest exit from the 7th relic (Which also happens to be the Exit the player needs to get too) and will begin chasing after the player. The Nightmare always knows where the player is, making safe zones completely useless and while slow, he can fly over certain obstacles as well. While he can be stunned with the flashlight like the other demons in the game it is not as effective as he has the quickest recovery out of all the demons. He is the only character other than the Stalker that can follow the Player into the vents.

Speculations

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This article or section contain speculation, so please keep that in mind while reading.

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From the second game, "the Nightmare" may represent Tim Denson's daughter's drawing of an owl as seen from the refrigerator in the kitchen. While observing this drawing, the owl looks eerily similar to "the Nightmare" as his appearance may be based on either the real-life great horned owl or long-eared owl, and especially colored in red. The owl could be the girl's favorite animal as the Nightmare is based. Furthermore, the drawing of an owl landing on the person's head looks similar to the scene from the opening cutscene where Tim Denson becoming insane with the Nightmare being seen, as "Nightmare" is responsible for tempting Tim to make him murder his own daughter.

His appearance and the way he speaks to Tim Denson from the opening cutscene to kill may be similar to Satan (the Devil) from the Bible - both Satan and "the Nightmare" have a similar appearance (as Satan is pictured in other media as a red horned creature) and tempt their victims to do something wrong.

It is also implied that since Tim Denson might've made a deal with the Nightmare to make the Foggle Friends show successful, some of the puppet designs were inspired by the demons. Gomez heavily resembles the Nightmare in this respect, both being winged, red-furred creatures with pink noses.

Trivia

• The Nightmare may be based off the popular Jim Henson's Muppet character Elmo from Sesame Street.

• His early model from the second game look slightly different from his final build with a rather wide smile and lack of fur on his head instead having scales.
  • Strangely, from the second game's opening intro, the Nightmare's appearance looks similar to him from the first game and the teaser art with his horns pointing down and lack of ears, despite him being given a new look for the game.
• It is unknown why, but it is theorized that it may be one of the "Mini Nightmares" that previously appeared in 123 Slaughter Me Street Retro as smaller versions of the demon is what corrupted Tim Denson in the cutscene and appears in the first game, which could explain why it looks different compared to the Nightmare in SMS 2, or it may be just another different puppet.
• From one of the screenshots during the second game's development, the Nightmare is seen flying inside the house from the second floor. He was never seen doing that in the final game, however being restricted to the shed.
• The Nightmare is the only antagonist in the second game to make an appearance in the first game.
  • The Nightmare is also the only antagonist who is set to appear in every game so far and is also the first antagonist in the series to be a demon instead of a puppet.
• The Nightmare and Gomez are the only two threats that can speak in the games (Although only Gomez "speaks" in Super Retro).
  • The Nightmare is the only threat to have voice acting.
    • In the non canon Odd Stories series, Nightmare strangely lacks a voice entirely.
• It was revealed in a Twitch stream rigging the animations for a character seemingly related to the Nightmare for SMS: Evolutions called Gomez, a bat puppet character that might be related to Nightmare.
  • It was here that it was also revealed that Gomez is a hand puppet rather than a full suit, Likely explaining his small size.
  • Despite this, Gomez is a separate character from the Nightmare.