Nekomew's Nightmares is a 2022 horror rhythm game developed by Pikewin and a sequel to Nekomew's Potty Trouble, released on Steam and the App Store.
The game focuses on the titular four-year-old kitten Nekomew, who is suffering from horrifying nightmares relating to his troublesome past. With the help of his doll, Nekomew must face against his inner demons and find out more about his trauma through his own memories.
The Tropes are coming...
- 1-Up: When Nekomew's doll tells him he believes him, the fear indicator is restored back to 3, allowing up to 5 scares in the final nightmare, which counts as this.
- Abusive Parents: Nekomew's former mom is this after his former dad died in a car accident. She's even the final nightmare in both this and Nekomew's Potty Trouble to drive the point.
- Alcoholic Parent: Heavily implied with Nekomew's mom. Lots of liquor bottles are present in one of Nekomew's memories after the passing of her husband, which may also imply that she did not take his death well and started abusing her own children in a drunken state.
- All Just a Dream: The nightmares, obviously.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: In the final nightmare in story mode, you face each nightmare after Nekomew's mom at the end. Also, Nightmare Blocks' Mum level has ALL the nightmares, as well as "Happy birthday...?" beforehand.
- Ambiguous Ending: Nekomew wakes up and heads presuming to the bathroom after the final nightmare. Cut to outside the house and Nekomew's former mom comes into view, leaving it ambiguous if it's really her or just Nekomew's imagination.
- Ambiguous Situation: Just who is the hooded kitten? It's unknown if they're Nekomew's sister or simply a figment of his imagination. And why does their shadow appear in the hallway when Nekomew gets scared awake?
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Several outfits for Nekomew and the doll can be bought in the in-game shop once the player completes the specific stage relating to the costumes, as well as special requirements for certain outfits such as owning Nekomew's Potty Trouble and inputting a code to unlock costumes based off the evil mom.
- Animation Bump: Fitting for a sequel, of course.
- Birthday Episode:
- "Happy Birthday...?" is this, all the nightmares you faced before even have skins and visual changes for their level just for this level, The Clown just gets a party hat, but remains mostly unchanged.
- The Cake Game levels have Nekomew and the doll surrounded by a bunch of cake slices, each relating to the nightmare that aims to scare him awake. There are even floating present boxes in the background.
- Camera Fiend: The Photographer, Nekomew has to hide on a side based on how many times he takes photos on the left and right.
- Catapult Nightmare: Nekomew wakes up like this if he's scared three times in a single nightmare, and that's a Game Over. He wakes up mid-nightmare like this in the final nightmare, but that turned out to be a Dream Within a Dream.
- Cats Are Mean: Justified with Nekomew's former mom, who only acted very abusive towards her own children because her husband died in a car crash while he was trying to get Nekomew.
- Detective Animal: The Policeman is an anglerfish...well, policeman.
- Disney Death: The ragdoll suffers this from Nekomew's former mom. He gets better in the final nightmare to give Nekomew a 1-Up.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: Implied or at least downplayed with Ms. Paloma, as Nekomew has to step to the rhythm of her rocking chair to avoid being scared by her.
- Dream Episode: Given the premise, as the entirety of the game is set within Nekomew's dreams.
- Dreams of Flying: Almost every level has a "flying" sequence where Nekomew collects pink cat head notes. Some even end with him giving his doll a high five.
- Dream Within a Dream: This happens during the Mum nightmare. With Nekomew's room falling apart, then him falling out of the bed into the void below.
- Easter Egg: A relatively minor, but impactful one occurs in the "Awakening" cutscene. If one owns Potty Trouble and obtained the Dark costumes for both Nekomew and his doll, having the cutscene play while wearing said costumes triggers a special monologue from Nekomew's evil mom. Doing this earns a secret achievement.
- Evolving Title Screen: The initial menu has Nekomew himself at the left of the screen. Once more levels are completed, more respective nightmare monsters are added to the right of the screen.
- Fission Mailed: In the middle of the Mum Nightmare, Nekomew seemingly wakes up, but what makes it clear that it's not a game over is that he sits up and... Turns out, he's still dreaming.
- Halloween Episode: Introduced in update 1.2 celebrating the game's first anniversary, a special level is included which shows the various nightmare monsters dressing up as each other (minus the evil mom), and autumn leaves and jack-o-lanterns are strewn about.
- He Knows About Timed Hits: There's a tutorial level for every nightmare where the doll teaches Nekomew how to fend them off and how to play Nightmare Blocks and the Cake Game. The only one who doesn't have a tutorial nightmare is Nekomew's former mum.
- Level Editor: A stand-alone level editor app was released on itch.io so players can create their own custom levels with all of the nightmares in-game.
- Look Both Ways: The reason why The Car is haunting Nekomew in his nightmares, his dad got run over by it when trying to get Nekomew who crossed the street by himself, who was following the green lizard.
- Mini-Game Credits: The Staff Credits count as a separate level; having you play along like you would do in a regular level as the credits roll.
- Monster Clown: The Clown. Just like with The Carer, it's subverted; he was just trying to get Nekomew to tell him what happened to him after his mom abused him to the point it landed him in the hospital one night.
- Nightmare Sequence: Every single level.
- Pajama-Clad Hero: Nekomew, its justified because these are all just nightmares he's having.
- Play Every Day: Playing the game every day earns you 250 musical notes per day and a daily challenge for you to beat; falling on either Fast mode or 90% Accuracy mode.
- Post-End Game Content: After beating the game, the player unlocks the Extra Nightmares; which contain "Hard Mode" versions of the main levels (dubbed "The Return of (nightmare)"), as well as puzzle versions of the Nightmare Blocks.
- Psycho Poodle: Pierro the Clown is an anthropomorphic poodle depicted with blood-shot eyes and sharp teeth. Subverted when its revealed that he only wanted to cheer up Nekomew after he fell down the stairs and was sent to the hospital.
- Recurring Riff: There are many cases of Leitmotifs in the game. The primary example is in the level A New Beginning as it's a remixed version of the main level theme from Potty Trouble. The Nurse's theme also contains a leitmotif of the main level theme but when the pee meter is half full. A deeper leitmotif is in the Mum's themes and Whispers level themes. Both are remixes of the mom's lyrics in the final challenge in Potty Trouble.
- Security Blanket: The doll counts as this, it even actively fends off some of the nightmares such as The Policeman and Nurse.
- Sinister Car: The Car, it even tries to run Nekomew over itself. There's also an ambulance version only seen during the Nurse nightmare.
- Wicked Wasps: One of the nightmares is a wasp caretaker who zips around in a blink of an eye. Subverted, as an unlockable memory reveals that she was simply tidying up the playroom and carefully inspecting the children. It's likely the sole reason Nekomew's having nightmares about her is her frightening appearance.
- Wham Episode: The "Awakening". It reveals that Nekomew's former mom is the one thing that scares him more than any of the other nightmares, and for good reason.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Car, but even more so with Nekomew's former mom.
