In the early 90's adult video game publisher Fairytale had a problem. Their CEO had been arrested for distributing lewd materials and the newly established computer software ratings board, EOCS, was chomping at the bit to crackdown on what they saw as a menace to society. To placate the censors, Fairytale needed something more than sex to sell its games. Their solution--add violence!

The resulting Nightmare Collection trilogy were plot-driven adventure games with scripts stitched together from '80s genre films into a Frankenstein's monster of cliches and convoluted twists. Gameplay is limited to clicking every object in a scene until the story decides to progress. There's also action sequences where the player must click a hotspot--eyeball to gouge, forehead to shoot--before the timer runs down or it's game over.

But then again, we're talking about the visual novel equivalent of a Troma flick. The hammy lines read like black humor translated into Japanese without the humor--"I'd let you fool around with my girl, but then I'd have to shoot you!" or my favorite, "When we get out of this you owe me a hotdog!" Nudity and gore are more important than gameplay and characterization. The first two games in the series, Dead of the Brain and Dead of the Brain 2, deliver exactly what they advertise.