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. He notably speaks almost solely in rhyme.

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.

In the original version of Evolutions, his design was not dissimilar to that of the 2nd game's design. The most visible changes being that he now had glowing yellow pupils (something that carried over to his modern design), and tan horns instead of black, along with more spikes on his chest and shoulders (something that is also present on his modern design.)

His model for Evolutions has not yet been revealed, though it can be assumed that he shares his design with The Nightmare in Slaughter Me Street: 1999.

In Slaughter Me Street: 1999, his design is similar to that of the original Evolutions design, just refined. The only notable differences are that he now sports a long, pointed tongue, and a striped "stinger".

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

In the prequel, The Nightmare is given a larger role in the gameplay and story, being given a major redesign and full model compared to the first game.

He primarily appears in cutscenes after beating certain levels, The dialogue he speaks is often in the form of a poem.

At Level 8: Darkness, The Nightmare will begin to appear as an enemy almost exclusively in the outside portion of the house. If the player decides to stay outside in the backyard for a period of time, The Nighmare will open the shed's door while the shed seems to burn in flames. Once this happens, he will say "I am pain, I am torture, I am death." and start flying towards the player. To avoid them, the player has to run back inside the house, otherwise, the Nightmare will catch them. Note that it is better for the player to quickly head back inside the house when this situation occurs. There are two achievements that will depend on whether or not the player escapes (Running from Nightmares) or get caught by the Nightmare (Nightmare Fodder).

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 repeating "Now we played you... the deed YOU did!".

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 the player faces 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 the player fights 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, Infinity mode and if the Player gets three strikes while 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. Up until Demo V1.0.8, he was the only character other than the Stalker that could follow the Player into crawlspaces, such as vents. He is once again the only threat able to talk as he can be heard speaking when active.

Speculations

---

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

---

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 was speculated that one of the "Nightmare Spawns" that previously appeared in 123 Slaughter Me Street Retro as smaller versions of the demon was what corrupted Tim Denson in the intro cutscene and appears in the first game, which may explain why it looks different compared to the Nightmare in-between the two games.
• 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 Gomez only "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.
  • Despite this, Gomez is a separate character from the Nightmare.
• He along with the Follower and Greeter are the only threats to have multiple jumpscares in a game with Greeter and Follower having multiple in 123 Slaughter Me Street, and Nightmare having multiple in Slaughter Me Street: 1999
  • Nightmare is the only threat to have multiple jumpscare animations outside of the first game.