The Nightmare Before Christmas Game You Probably Never Knew Existed

Box art courtesy of Capcom/Buena Vista

The Return of a Classic

Did you know that there was an official Nightmare Before Christmas sequel in the form of a hack-and-slash music game made by Capcom? No? Well, I doubt you'd be the only one.

Released for the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox back in 2004, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge is an action-adventure game set one year after the original film. (Slight Spoilers ahead!): After the events of the movie, Oogie Boogie is resurrected, and it's up to Jack and his new slime-based weapon called the Soul Robber to stop him from taking over Halloween Town.

Screenshot via MobyGames.com

Original Cast

While some of the voice actors for the game are new, Jack and Oogie Boogie are actually voiced by their film counterparts. It really makes the game feel as close to the original film as possible, especially given how well the visuals match the style for the time period, as you can see in the screenshot above.

One cool fact about Jack's voice actor is that in the original film, the musical parts were actually performed by Danny Elfman, but with this game, all of the songs were performed by the actual voice actor, Chris Sarandon. Surprisingly, he still sounds very similar to Jack in the film, and it works extremely well.

Screenshot via MobyGames.com

Attack of the Slime

The gameplay of Oogie's Revenge is something that genuinely surprised me back in the day. Not only is it a decent hack-and-slash, but it also has tons of cool abilities to unlock as you progress. Not going to spoil those for you, but just going to say that they are awesome!

Most of the enemy variety is pretty much the same throughout, with the occasional odd one here or there. So don't go into Oogie's Revenge thinking you'll get a super original and varied game; it's not that, but it still can be a ton of fun.

One thing that stood out was the musical-based boss fights. It's mostly timed button presses, but if you enjoy rhythm games, then you'll most likely enjoy this too.

Lost to Time

Sadly, Oogie's Revenge is a game lost to time for the most part. Unless you can find an original copy or emulate the game, you won't be able to play it now. With no modern ports or digital release, it's one of those hidden gems that deserves a second chance. That being said, if you can find any way to check this game out, you really should. From the age of movie tie-in games, this is one that always shone in my memory as being truly unique. So, now that Halloween is here, I think it's time for this unknown game to be put in the spotlight a little bit.