Nancy is a playable character in the A Nightmare on Elm Street (1989) video game. Released by Monarch Software and Westwood Associates, Nancy and the Dream Warriors face Freddy Krueger once again. As each character has a dream power, Nancy can freeze enemies. Nancy has accumulated a large following in the gay community since her 1984 cinematic debut. Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund recollects the popularity of the Nancy character within the community upon attending a costume party in 1985 and seeing numerous drag queens dressed as Nancy in full drag, wearing her pajamas with the embroidery, and the white streak. Englund interprets this large following as a result of Heather Langenkamp having a "Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz element to her", as well as the community identifying with the "strong" and "survivor" aspects of her. In the Bollywood adaption called Mahakaal (1994) by the Ramsay Brothers, Nancy's analogue is called Anita and is played by actress Archana Puran Singh. Much like the original Nancy, Anita is the daughter of a policeman who killed Shakaal (the placeholder for Freddy's character) for murdering his young daughter, Anita's sister, as deleted scenes from Wes Craven's film hinted. She and her friends are college students instead of attending high school like Nancy. Anita has been criticized for being overly passive and doing little more than running away and screaming. Nancy is featured in two figures by toy company Mezco Toyz. Jada Toys included Nancy alongside Freddy in the release of the die-cast model car of the 1958 Cadillac from the original film. Nancy is mentioned in Quentin Smith's biography in the video game Dead by Daylight. Additionally, a variety of Freddy's in-game power-ups are named after Nancy. Artist Matthew Therrien included Nancy alongside Freddy in his "Final Girls & Cinema Survivors" digital series. In 2019, as a part of a series of horror movie poster variant covers, visual artist Yasmine Putri created a piece for the DCeased #2 that featured Poison Ivy as Nancy and Batman as Freddy in a homage to the original poster for A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Characterization Nancy's characterization, along with Langenkamp's performance, has received praise. American literary critic John Kenneth Muir highlighted her intelligence and insightfulness for her original appearance. Muir describes her dysfunctional home life as attributing to her preparedness and courage to face the dark truth (Freddy Krueger). He attests her turning